UGC-ASC-Mysore Refresher Course on ‘Indian Literature: Mapping the Contours’

1. UGC-ASC-MysoreRefresher Course on ‘Indian Literature: Mapping the Contours’ Lecture – II Indian Poetics and Aesthetics (from Bharatha’s Natayashasthra to the Present) Providing a Holistic Base to Critical Endeavour By A.S.Dasan – UOM - Mysore 28th April, 2011

2. Migrancy as a Metaphor

3. David Fisher’s Idea of Dynamic Tower

4. Panchamaveda • Legend has it that when the gods asked Brahmā to create a Veda that could be understood by commoners, he created the Panchamaveda (fifth Veda) called Nātyaveda. Drawing pathya (words) from the Rigveda (also known as rgveda, c. 1500-1000 b.c.e.; English translation, 1896-1897), abhinaya (gesture) from the Yajurveda, geet (music and chant) from Sāmaveda, and rasa (sentiment and emotional element) from Atharvaveda, he synthesized Nātyaveda. After creating Nātyaveda, Brahmā asked sage Bharata Muni (BAH-rah-tah MEW-nee) to popularize this Veda on earth.

5. Bharata’s Nātya-śāstra • Sage Bharata wrote Nātya-śāstra (between 200 and 300 c.e.; The Nātyashāstra, 1950), a great comprehensive work on the science and technique of Indian drama, dance, and music. Enchanted by Bharata Muni’s first play, Śiva himself, the lord of cosmic dance, sent his disciple Tandu to teach Bharata the authentic principles of dance, which Bharata included in the chapter “Tandava Lakshana.” Bharata Muni evolved ten basic postures of the body, nine of the neck, thirty-six of the hand, and thirteen poses of the head—postures that required the disciplined use of the entire body and all of its expressions. Various schools of dance have elaborated on these principal postures, each of which blossoms into an exactingly coordinated repertoire of associated hand, facial, eye, foot, and total body movements synchronized to the rhythm of intricate instrumental and vocal music to communicate a complex story.

6. Compassionate Aesthetics Soka becoming sloka

7. Indic Tradition • Indic tradition and history embody a cycle of gyration which involves interpretation of the past in the context of the present. Contemporaneous presence/relevance is the hallmark of tradition and history wherein loss and recovery, ascending and descending, and modification and creativity occur perennially and connote, via critical pedagogy, a holistic utopia with a relevance to the present.

8. ‘vyasa parambara’ • From this point of view, Indian thought represents ‘vyasa parambara’ which has a quest for unity of minds wherein time and history usher in a sense of transcendence in terms of eternal verities. In Indian poetics and aesthetics, these eternal verities converge towards foregrounding and celebrating karuna rasa -- a compassionate sentiment and worldview.

9. Dharma as Rta • When modern literatures depict fragmentation, violence and alienation as current human experiences, one can assume that it is the absence of dharmic way of living, caused by human frailties, which is at the root of the disquiet all around. Indian aesthetics implies that literature is an instrument of resolution ushering in equanimity and peace and signifying and sustaining moral imperatives which could safeguard civilizational decorum and decency.

10. Rasa-sutra • Indic tradition of rasa has an orientation towards discerning the resolution of polarities. It perceives fluxes but still is attuned to seek and affirm a space for steady footing. It has the strength to withstand the nihilistic trends of postmodernism which, if left unchecked, could be a recipe for disaster.

11. Source of Inspiration • Critical pedagogy, instead of serving as a tool for celebrating relativism or nihilism as a value, can be a source of inspiration towards a compassionate worldview against the backdrop of violence, exploitation, marginalization, pain and suffering. Indian poetics and aesthetics are attuned towards this stance and predilection.

12. karuna rasa • Debates and moorings on ‘diasporic nomadism’ and Stephanian or Metropolitan elitism that tend to question ‘cultural insiderism’ need to be expanded and encouraged so that resolution is reached in terms of karuna rasa that includes a sense of eclectic humanism.

13. Dhavni/Vakrokti tradition • Exponents of western modes and codes of structuralism and poststructuralism have been influenced by Sanskrit poetics in varied ways. But, unfortunately, their grasp of Indian poetics was a sort of marriage of convenience. They were more particular to make use of the scientific precision of the syntax, structure, phonetics and grammar of Sanskrit language than to assimilate the quintessence of Indian culture in terms of morals and ethics which the ingredients of Sanskrit language, in fact, decorate.

14. Dhvani a metaphor for indirection • It is tenable that a hegemonic strategy of ‘never leave room for alternatives’, does not work. ‘Change is the essence of time’. Stagnation could be suffocating. All of us love and appreciate creativity and it is natural that we want something fresh and beautiful. Indian poetics is open to newness and creativity. It’s dhvani is eclectic.

15. Counter-narratives • Let there be ‘counter-narratives of the nation’ and countereducation on other issues lest ‘totalizing boundaries’ should constrict our critical thinking. Let there be preoccupations with issues like patriarchy, gender discrimination and feminist concerns. Even if reconstructions or deconstructions mean parody and parody alone, let us read such texts with double caution (the Swan sense) lest we should end up with nihilism or despair.

16. Caution against Nihilism • But let us not forget that art cannot stand aloof. Puritanical approach to art has a tendency to indulge in, what Mulk Raj Anand calls, ‘soulless formalism’, which in turn allies itself with nihilism. Soulless formalism causes decay of sensibility and leads to despair. The Indian heritage of rootedness vis-à-vis arts implies that ‘life asserts itself’ and seeks inspiration for vitality through poetic celebration and idealization of our cultural sensibilities hovering around of love of life.

17. God/Intuition /Imagination is limitless Wisdom of the Swan