What is the definition of Rasa?
"Literally rasa means taste or flavour, and is that exalted sentiment or mood which the spectator experiences after witnessing a performance." (Gargi 11)
"Rasa (literally 'juice', 'flavour'): In traditional Indian asethetic theory, the creative process emerges from the rasa experience of the poet/artist and is concretized in the anukirtana (re-telling) of bhava (emotive states) in the dramatic text or the work of art - poetry, painting, sculpture, and so on." (Lal 389-390)
"The term rasa has, indeed, a bewildering variety of meanings. The dictionary records, among others, the following meanings: Sap, juice, water, liquor, milk, nectar, poison, mercury, taste, savor, prime or finest part of anything, flavor, relish, love, desire, beauty." (Thampi 75)
"Rasa (literally 'juice', 'flavour'): In traditional Indian asethetic theory, the creative process emerges from the rasa experience of the poet/artist and is concretized in the anukirtana (re-telling) of bhava (emotive states) in the dramatic text or the work of art - poetry, painting, sculpture, and so on." (Lal 389-390)
"The term rasa has, indeed, a bewildering variety of meanings. The dictionary records, among others, the following meanings: Sap, juice, water, liquor, milk, nectar, poison, mercury, taste, savor, prime or finest part of anything, flavor, relish, love, desire, beauty." (Thampi 75)
Where did Rasa come from?
"The Nāṭyaśāstra divides human experience into eight basic sentiments: erotic, comic, pathetic, furious, heroic, terrible, odious, and marvelous. It is these which the spectators savor in various permutations and combinations as they observe the work in performance. And yet to give focus to the experience, just as a meal has a dominant flavor, one sentiment should dominate all others in the total context of the performance." (Richmond 81)
How do you know when it is working?
"Rasa is realized when an emotion is awakened in the mind in such a manner that it has none of its usual conative (sic) tendencies and is experienced in an impersonal, contemplative mood. An emotion in this peculiar manner is caused by representations in art of those objects which excite it in nature, such as natural situations, persons of known characters, their actions and physical expressions of emotions (e.g. trembling, smiling, scowling, etc.). These representations, through words in case of poetry and through both words and concrete presentatinos in case of drama, are generalized and so idealized aspects of objects masquerading as particulars." (Chaudhury 145)
"Rasa is realized when... the self loses its egoistic, pragmatic aspect and assumes an impersonal contemplative attitude, which is said to be one of its higher modes of being. Rasa, thus, is a realization of the impersonal contemplative aspect of the self which is usually veiled in life by the appetitive part of it. As the contemplative self is free from all craving, striving and external necessity, it is blissful." (Chaudhury 146)
"Rasa is realized when... the self loses its egoistic, pragmatic aspect and assumes an impersonal contemplative attitude, which is said to be one of its higher modes of being. Rasa, thus, is a realization of the impersonal contemplative aspect of the self which is usually veiled in life by the appetitive part of it. As the contemplative self is free from all craving, striving and external necessity, it is blissful." (Chaudhury 146)