ABSTRACT
Because the object of this study is to approach literary theory centrally from the standpoint of the concept of rasa, it would be appropriate to begin by elucidating the meaning and scope of that term. As a general theory of literature, the rasa doctrine (rasa-vāda) is based on two premises: (i) that literary works, as verbal compositions, express emotive meanings and (ii) that all literature is typically emotive discourse or discourse that has to do with the portrayal of feelings and attitudes rather than with ideas, concepts, statements of universal truths, and so forth. The second premise relates to the problem of defining literature and will be taken up in chapter 3. But the first premise raises a host of philosophical questions. What kind of entities are the emotions, and what is their objective or ontological status? How are they recognized? How do they get expressed in words? If emotions can be expressed in language, what precisely is the sense in which they are said to be “expressed”? Where are the poetic emotions located, and what is the mode of their existence? Do they exist in the poet, in the reader or spectator, or, in some mysterious way, in the poem itself? These and other related questions, which have to be answered before our theory can be established on a sound footing, will be the concern of this chapter.
