WublhhS : The Chowkhamba Sanskrit Series Office, Varanasi-1 •Prirtkr : Vidya Vilas Press, Varanasi-1 Edition : Second, 1968. Price : Rs. 45-00 This is a Second Edition of the work, revised, enlarged, and re-elaborated by the Author, the First Edition having appeared in the SOR, No. XI, published by 1SMEO ( Jstituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente ), Rome 1956. (C) The Chowkhamba Sanskrit Series Office PUBLISHERS AND ORIENTAL & FOREIGN BOOK-SELLERS K. 37/99, Gopal Mandir Lane P. O. CHOWKHAMBA, P. BOX 8, VARANASI-1 ( India ) 1968 PUBLISHERS' NOTE ATBËJNAVAGUPTA seems to have given the final shape to the philo- *.*.* -><- £Uty -m india. His name is familiar to all students of Sanskrit ^tî^lanîd.Indian Aesthetics. His fame is still alive and his poetical PmpMlbsöphical theories hold ground even today. It is no wonder |Aë;%esthetic thought of Abhinavagupta, one of the most profound äffest minds that India has ever known, captured the imagination j&aniero Gnoli who, besides being an erudite scholar, well- pÄö'käitor and able translator of various Sanskrit Texts, is a Saludaya l(tiu&, sense of the term. His thorough understanding and scholarly of the Rasa-theory of Abhinavagupta in particular theories of other thinkers in general, are simply wonderful, work, AESTHETIC EXPERIENCE ACCORDING , he has edited and translated the Com- y Abhinavagupta on the famous smra of Bharata, Vibhavânu- ( Nalya sastra ) which constitutes text in the whole of Indian aesthetic thought, and the light of the views of prominent rhetors and philo- ancient and modern. The theory of Abhinavagupta has eô:presented here in a garb which can very easily appeal to of this work was issued some ten years back by the in the SERIE ORIENTALE ROMA ( No. XI ) under of Giuseppe Tucci, and was much welcomed by the lovers IX XIII XIV 3 23 88 102 107 115 [VU] LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS ä.ßb. = Abhinavagupta's Abhinavabharati cf. Preface, p. xni. = Abhinavagupta, = Haas, George C. O., The Dasarûpa> A Treatise of Hindu Haas Dramatwgy by Dhanamjaya, Columbia University Press, New York 1912. P&sgupta, = Dasgupta, Surendranath, A History of Indian Philosophy, 5 vols., Cambridge 1932-1955. = De, Sushi! Kumar, Studies in the History of Sanskrit Poetics, Luzac, 2 vols., London 1923, 1925. MA. = Änandavardhana's Dhvanyaloka with the Locana and Balapnyä commentaries by Abhinavagupta and Rämaeäraka, ed. by Pandit Pattäbhiräma ââstrï, Chowkhamba, Benares 1940. DhJ.L. = Abhinavagupta's commentary (locana) on the Dhva- nyaloka by Anandavardhana. G = Kavi's edition of the Abhinavabharati, cf. Preface, p. xui. Be, = Hemacandra's Kävyänusäsana, cf. Preface, p XIII. = Chandra Bhan Gupta, The Indian Theatre, Motilal Banarsidass, Banaras 1954. = Abhinavagupta's Isvarapratyabhijnavimarsim, K.S T S , 2 vols, Srinagar 1918-1921. = Abhinavagupta's Isvarapratyabhijnavivftivimarsmi, K. S. T. S., 3 vols , Srïnagar 1938-1943. t sjayaratha, the commentator of the Abhinavagupta's Tantrcdoka IBORS s Journal of the Bihar and Orissa Research Society. -Journal of Bombay University. - Journal of Oriental Research, Madras. $.Ad. = Dandm's Kavyädarsa, edited and translated by O Bohthngk, Leipzig 1890. JCape, S.D.V. = Kane, P. V., The Sahityadarpai a of Visvanatha ( Paric- chedas I, II, Arthälankäras ), with exhaustive Notes and the History of Sanskrit Poetics, Bombay 1951. =Räjaeekhara's Kavyam mämsä, Gaekwad Oriental Series, Baroda 1916. = Mammata's Kavyaprakasa, cf. Preface, p. X V. [IX] ABBREVIATIONS K.S.T.S. = Kashmir Series of Texts and Studies. Mahimabhatta, = The Vyaktiviveka of Mahimabhatta, ed. with a comm. of Vyaktiviveka Ruyyaka and the Madhusûdanïcomm. by Madhusüdana Miéra, Chowkhamba, Benares 1936. M.C. = Manikyacandra, cf. Preface, p. xni. N.M. -The NyTiyamanjarl of Jayanta Bhatta, ed. by Surya Näräyana éukla, Benares 1936. N.S. = Nätya Süstra, cf. Preface, p. xni. P = Pandey, cf. Preface, p. xv. Pandey = Pandey, Kanti Chandra, Indian Aesthetics, Chowkhamba, Banaras 1950. Pandey, A.G. = Pandey, Kanti Chandra: Abhinavagupta, an Historical and Philosophical Study, Chowkhamba, Banaras 1935. P.TV. = Abhinavagupta's ParMrimsikamvarana, K. S. T. S., grïnagar 1918. p)v. = Dharmakïrti's Pramânavartika with a commentary of Manorathanandin ed. by Rähula Sänkrtyäyana. Appendix to JBORS, vol. XX1V-XXVI, 1938-1940. Py., svavrtti = MS. of the commentary by Dharmakïrti on the ch. I ( svarthemumanapanccheda ) of his Pramânavartika. This MS. belongs to Prof. Giuseppe Tucci. R.T. = Kalhana's Râjataranginï, ed. by M. A. Stein, Bombay 1892. ' S. Kü. = The Stmkhya Kcirika of ïévarakrsna with the Sänkhya Taitvakaumudï of Vächaspati Miéra, Bombay 1940. Somänanda, =^Somänanda's êivadrsti with the vrtti of Utpaladeva, Êivadrsti ârïnagar 1934. Spandanirnaya = Ksemaräja's Spandanirnaya, K.S.T.S., érïnagar 1925. Stavacintamayi = The Stava-Chiniamani of Bhatta Näräyana with com- mentary by Ksemarâja, K.S.T.S., $rinagar 1918. T.A. = Abhinavagupta's Tanträloka, with the commentary of Jayaratha, K.S.T.S., 12 vols., ärlnagar 1918-1938. VijhTmabhairava= The Vijnanabhairava with comm. partly by Ksemarâja .and partly by aivopädhyäya, K.S.T.S., érïnagar 1918. V.P. = Bhartrhari's Väkyapadlya ed. by Cärudeva éâstrl Lahore 1939. ZDMG = Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft. l X] THE AESTHETIC EXPERIENCE ACCORDING TO ABHINAVAGUPTA PREFACE This book was first printed in 1956. Since then I have jfjeyer relinquished my researches in the fields of Indian ^Rhetoric and Aesthetics. Some misinterpretations and mis- states occurring in the first edition have already been corrected by myself in 1957, in the paper Further Observations on the AbhinavabhäratJ, East and West, year VIII, N. 1.—April, 1957 >pf>, 100-103. This new edition represents, I trust, a great im- provement in regard to the first one. The Introduction, the ^critical apparatus, the translation and the notes have been completely revised. The basic text of Abhinavagupta, i.e. the "commentary to the famous sütra by Bharata, VI, after st 31, 'Mbhävänubhävavyabhicärisamyogäd rasanispattih, has been supple- mented by three new texts, viz. the Commentaries on Näfyasästra, I3 st. 107, on Dhvunyäloka, I, st. 18, and II, st. 4. As to the text I have directly compared the MS of Abhina- éâbhàratï preserved in the library of Madras (M). References to the Kavi's edition of the Abhinavabharatï are to the second edi- ftïon of it. The letters He and M. C refer to the viveka of iïjemacandra and to the samketa of Mânikyacandra respectively, Although the additions and explanations of He do not alter ittaiiy way the thought of AG., I have not reproduced them iiiihe text, which I have tried to set forth such as it was before $|ie exegetical activity of the great jaina scholar. In so many changes, one thing has remained unchanged in these ten years : I mean the profound debt of gratitude I owe to Prof. Giuseppe Tucci, to whom, now as then, this book is Abdicated. [ xiii ] INTRODUCTION The 1. In India, the study of aesthetics—which was at fiist restricted to the drama—draws its origin from no abstract or disinterested desire for knowledge but from motives of a purely empirical order. The most ancient text that has come down to us is the Nätyasästra (4th or 5th Century A. D. ?), ascribed to the mythical Bharata. This is a voluminous collec- tion of observations and rules concerned in the main with the production of drama and the training of actors and poets. The author, or the authors, with a certain sententiousness and ped- antry typical of Indian thought, classify the various mental states or emotions of the human soul and treat of their transi- tion from the practical to the aesthetic plane. The Nätyasästra is a work of deep psychological insight. Drama appeals to sight and hearing at the same time (the only senses that are capable, according to some Indian thinkers, of rising above the boundaries of the limited " I ") and is then considered the highest form of art. In it both sight and hearing collaborate in arousing in the spectator, more easily and forcibly than by any other form of art, a state of consciousness sut generis^ conceived intuitively and concretely as a juice or flavour, called Rasa. This typically Indian conception of aesthetic experience as a juice or a taste savoured by the reader or spectator should not surprise us. In India, and elsewhere, sensations proper to the senses of taste and touch, almost devoid of any noetic representation, arc easily taken to designate states of conscious- ness more intimate and removed from abstract representations [ xiv ] INTRODUCTION than the ordinary one—that is the aesthetic experience and va- rious forms of religious ones. This Rasa, when tasted by the spectator, pervades and en- chants him. Aesthetic experience is, therefore, the act of tasting this Rasa, of immersing oneself in it to the exclusion of . all else. Bharata, in a famous aphorism which, interpreted and elaborated in various ways, forms the point of departure of all later Indian aesthetic thoughts, says, in essence, that Rasa is bom from the union of the play with the performance of the factors. " Out of the union of the Determinants—he says Jitetally—, the Consequents and the Transitory Mental States, the birth of Rasa takes place". What is then the nature of "»Rasa ? What are its relations with the other emotions and states of consciousness ? And how are we to understand this word " birth " ? The whole of Indian aesthetics hinges on such questions, which have been an inexhaustible source of polemic material to generations of rhetors and thinkers, down to our own days. But, before undertaking an examination of their various interpretations, let us briefly expound here the essentials of the empirical psychology of Bharata. According to the Nätyasästra, eight fundamental feelings, instincts, emotions or mental states called bhäva or sthäyibhäva1, «can be distinguished in the human soul : Delight (rati\ Xaughter (basa), Sorrow (soka), Angtï(krodha), Heroism (utsäha), Fear (bbaya), Disgust {jugupsa), and Wonder (vismaya).