http://www.indianexpress.com/story/255484.html
http://www.indianexpress.com/story/255906-3.html
Wonderfully articualted!
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Friday, December 28, 2007
Hindutva and radical Islam: Where the twain do meet by Arun ShouriePosted online: Friday, December 28, 2007 at 0000 hrs
Though it mind sound like a complete exaggeration but the write up by Arun Shourie in today's Indian Express completely made my day which had indeed started on a depressed note..The fact that I m writing this post rather than sleeping on my cosy bed is the proof enough...
Not being a regular newspaper buff it is rather difficult for me to follow an article completely without losing interest and yawning infinite number of times....but reading this was different...Each line revealed thorough insight understanding and passion.
I read the whole piece while holding a soaked tissue with which i was constantly wiping my painfully watering eyes...but honestly each line was worth the pain
Don't believe me? Read it for yourself
http://www.indianexpress.com/story/254969._.html
Was I thankful that my newspaperwala inspite of my repeated instructions hasn't stopped delivering Indian Express yet!!
Not being a regular newspaper buff it is rather difficult for me to follow an article completely without losing interest and yawning infinite number of times....but reading this was different...Each line revealed thorough insight understanding and passion.
I read the whole piece while holding a soaked tissue with which i was constantly wiping my painfully watering eyes...but honestly each line was worth the pain
Don't believe me? Read it for yourself
http://www.indianexpress.com/story/254969._.html
Was I thankful that my newspaperwala inspite of my repeated instructions hasn't stopped delivering Indian Express yet!!
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Relevance of Ancient Indian thought on present Critical Practice in India
Often in Indian academic circles where a lot of importance and attention is given to critical theories and multidisciplinary studies the non relevance of Sanskrit texts and ancient thought is subtly stressed upon.
At the most these ancient thoughts are considered as some valuable museum pieces which have no bearing on the present art or critical writing scenario.The propounders of such ideas happily take refuge in Western theories and critical practices and quote extensively and many a time quite meaninglessly from these schools of thought.
As a student of Art History I have many a times wanted to and in my own way tried to question this hegemony of Western thought on the mind of our so called intellengensia.With all due regards to Ferdinand de Saussure, Jacques Lacan and much misquoted Derrida, I really don’t see how their theories are extremely relevant for present Indian art and literature scenario when works by giants like Abhinavagupta, Anandvardhana Batta Nayaka..etc are outdated and unscientific. Now if we argue that the relevance of great theories surpasses time and place then shouldn’t we give if not more than at least equal credit to theories of Indian Aesthetics and philosophy?
Ferdinand de Saussure hailed as father of Structuralism and in a way father of modern linguistic theories was a student of Sanskrit language and his doctoral study was on the use of Absolute Genitive in Sanskrit too.He was profoundly influenced by Sphota doctrine introduced as a philosophy of meaning by Bhartrihari in 500AD. In fact many of the foundational ideas proposed by de Saussure are directly or indirectly influenced by the Indian grammatical tradition particularly by Panini and Bhartrihari. Ironically we Indians today get taught the interrelation between Sign, Signifier and Signified as explained by Saussure but no one tells us about the beauty of Sphota theory….no one tells us about Saussure’s sources. And unfortunately we want to be spoon-fed while Western scholars do the groundwork for us.
To quote another example lets look at Jacques Lacan who for the first time related Freudian psychoanalysis to art. His theories are referred to, quoted from and provoked by most of the present art critics and feminists. In his widely known essay, "Function and Field of Speech and Language," Lacan makes an explicit reference to the Dhvani theory in order to point out that the unconscious does not express itself in language; it reveals itself through suggestion. More narrowly, Lacan traces the sources of the "full word" in what he calls "the power of the symbol," a power that the analyst can evoke "in a carefully calculated fashion in the semantic resonances of his remarks" (Ecrits 1966, 82). He adds, "this is surely the way for a return to the use of symbolic effects in a renewed technique of interpretation in analysis"
Lacan’s precccupation with Dhvanyaloka and his understanding of the text is made clear by his refering to the follwing passage from Dhvanyaloka of Anandvardana:
“A girl, it begins, is waiting for her lover on the bank of a stream when she sees a Brahmin coming along towards her. She runs to him and exclaims in the warmest and most amiable tones: 'What lucky day this is for you] The dog that used to frighten you by its barking will not be along this river bank again, for it has just been devoured by a lion that is often seen around here'....
The absence of the lion may thus have as much affect as his spring would have were he present, for the lion only springs once, says the proverb appreciated by Freud (Ecrits 82).
The example of the girl, the Brahmin, the devouring lion and the dog is one of nearly five hundred examples discussed at length in Dhvanyaloka. Anandvardhana and his commentators and others use these examples from Prakrit and Sanskrit literatures to isolate various properties of speech that facilitate poetic communication by concealing, negating, erasing of primary sense the mukhyartha. Besides being preoccupied with the suggestive functions of utterance in general, in the passages that follow the elaborate reference to dhvani, Lacan affirms the interdependence of analytic and aesthetic uses of language. This connection is particularly relevant to his concept of the "full word," its reliance on the internalization of the poetic resources of language.
Now to conclude my rather frustated outpourings I ask myself do I feel handicapped when it comes to understanding Indian thought and ancient tradition? The answer definitely is yes…My six years of arthistorical training and participation in various seminars and dicussions have not given me any clear insight in our ancient wisdom and thought….If tommorow I want to apply in any university abroad I have to devote two full years to learning Sanskrit properly.Regretfully I confess while I can quote Foucault, Lacan and Derrida like back of my hand I get cold feet when encoutered with Sanskrit texts.My meagre knowledge of Sanskrit is pitiable and whom do I have to blame?
At the most these ancient thoughts are considered as some valuable museum pieces which have no bearing on the present art or critical writing scenario.The propounders of such ideas happily take refuge in Western theories and critical practices and quote extensively and many a time quite meaninglessly from these schools of thought.
As a student of Art History I have many a times wanted to and in my own way tried to question this hegemony of Western thought on the mind of our so called intellengensia.With all due regards to Ferdinand de Saussure, Jacques Lacan and much misquoted Derrida, I really don’t see how their theories are extremely relevant for present Indian art and literature scenario when works by giants like Abhinavagupta, Anandvardhana Batta Nayaka..etc are outdated and unscientific. Now if we argue that the relevance of great theories surpasses time and place then shouldn’t we give if not more than at least equal credit to theories of Indian Aesthetics and philosophy?
Ferdinand de Saussure hailed as father of Structuralism and in a way father of modern linguistic theories was a student of Sanskrit language and his doctoral study was on the use of Absolute Genitive in Sanskrit too.He was profoundly influenced by Sphota doctrine introduced as a philosophy of meaning by Bhartrihari in 500AD. In fact many of the foundational ideas proposed by de Saussure are directly or indirectly influenced by the Indian grammatical tradition particularly by Panini and Bhartrihari. Ironically we Indians today get taught the interrelation between Sign, Signifier and Signified as explained by Saussure but no one tells us about the beauty of Sphota theory….no one tells us about Saussure’s sources. And unfortunately we want to be spoon-fed while Western scholars do the groundwork for us.
To quote another example lets look at Jacques Lacan who for the first time related Freudian psychoanalysis to art. His theories are referred to, quoted from and provoked by most of the present art critics and feminists. In his widely known essay, "Function and Field of Speech and Language," Lacan makes an explicit reference to the Dhvani theory in order to point out that the unconscious does not express itself in language; it reveals itself through suggestion. More narrowly, Lacan traces the sources of the "full word" in what he calls "the power of the symbol," a power that the analyst can evoke "in a carefully calculated fashion in the semantic resonances of his remarks" (Ecrits 1966, 82). He adds, "this is surely the way for a return to the use of symbolic effects in a renewed technique of interpretation in analysis"
Lacan’s precccupation with Dhvanyaloka and his understanding of the text is made clear by his refering to the follwing passage from Dhvanyaloka of Anandvardana:
“A girl, it begins, is waiting for her lover on the bank of a stream when she sees a Brahmin coming along towards her. She runs to him and exclaims in the warmest and most amiable tones: 'What lucky day this is for you] The dog that used to frighten you by its barking will not be along this river bank again, for it has just been devoured by a lion that is often seen around here'....
The absence of the lion may thus have as much affect as his spring would have were he present, for the lion only springs once, says the proverb appreciated by Freud (Ecrits 82).
The example of the girl, the Brahmin, the devouring lion and the dog is one of nearly five hundred examples discussed at length in Dhvanyaloka. Anandvardhana and his commentators and others use these examples from Prakrit and Sanskrit literatures to isolate various properties of speech that facilitate poetic communication by concealing, negating, erasing of primary sense the mukhyartha. Besides being preoccupied with the suggestive functions of utterance in general, in the passages that follow the elaborate reference to dhvani, Lacan affirms the interdependence of analytic and aesthetic uses of language. This connection is particularly relevant to his concept of the "full word," its reliance on the internalization of the poetic resources of language.
Now to conclude my rather frustated outpourings I ask myself do I feel handicapped when it comes to understanding Indian thought and ancient tradition? The answer definitely is yes…My six years of arthistorical training and participation in various seminars and dicussions have not given me any clear insight in our ancient wisdom and thought….If tommorow I want to apply in any university abroad I have to devote two full years to learning Sanskrit properly.Regretfully I confess while I can quote Foucault, Lacan and Derrida like back of my hand I get cold feet when encoutered with Sanskrit texts.My meagre knowledge of Sanskrit is pitiable and whom do I have to blame?
Monday, September 10, 2007
Iqbal: Of meaning and interpretation
Dil se jo baat nikaltee hai asar rakhti hai par nahi taqt e parwaz magar rakhti hai
These two lines from Jawab e Shikwa by Iqbal, a great revolutionary Urdu poet started an interesting and thought provoking debate with a friend some time back More than the discussion it was the questions raised about deciphering the meaning of any art or literally work which caught my attention and which makes me write this piece.
Before I start I need to admit that my knowledge about the said poet’s writings is negligible and hence I have no idea of his complete oeuvre or style. Therefore when my friend interpreted and translated these lines as follows I couldn’t see any point to disagree upon.
‘The voice emerging right from one’s heart has a sure impact
But it alone is not enough as it does not have power to fly’
Here he was referring to the revolutionary aspect prominent in Iqbal’s writings. He kept stressing on the fact that what the poet here wants to convey is that all weeping and wailing by itself is not enough but there is a need to wake up and put in real effort to make things actually work.
To tell the truth till last fortnight I hadn’t bothered about the couplet and also his explanation which we had discussed once before sounded quite plausible. But the turning point came when another friend, a poet in her own right, gave a totally different and to me a more apt sounding interpretation of the same couplet which goes on as:
The voice emerging right from one’s heart has a sure impact
Even though it does not have wings still it has the power to fly
As one can see here she has interpreted ‘par’ as wings rather than ‘but’ and by doing so the meaning of the couplet not only changes drastically but also it gives a whole positive and optimistic meaning to the entire piece. Though on one hand in a flash of moment I saw such a wonderful possibility in these lines my another friend remained adamant on the socio-revolutionist meaning and started quoting other couplets by Iqbal to stress his point.
While both of them were discussing and debating their manner of interpretation I was deeply hit by the Vyanjana aspect in the lines…ie. The meaning beyond the literal and the metaphorical one. The capacity of a real work of art or literature to create various and sometimes totally opposite meanings. I intercepted their rather loud argument by this sublime thought even on cost of sounding entirely ridiculous and uselessly complicating the issue. My dear friend laughed at me and declared that because I don’t know Iqbal I am taking refuge in intricate theoretical fabrications…an allegation which I often have to face from various quarters as people nowadays cannot see or don’t bother to see the relevance of our ancient thought on the present day scenario.And isn’t it why we turn to western scholars who have for most part simplified our own ancient wisdom for us?
Anyways that is a huge debate in itself..coming back to the discussion, since we were reaching no where we decided to ask few experts for their opinion. After grammatically analyzing the lines and drawing comparisons and contrasts between Ghalib and Iqbal we were informed that the second interpretation is the valid one ie.the one where ‘par’ is translated as ‘wings’
Finally our argument seem to have reached somewhere. While my friend was reluctantly somewhat convinced the question of interpretation kept troubling me and raised various questions in my mind…Would like to share some part of this introspection here…..
Why should one fix a work of art with one final meaning?…Doesn’t it limit the scope of the piece? To me a real engaging work of art or a poetry would be that which has the power of generating various meanings. To substantiate my point I would like to draw your attention to ‘Rasa Sutra’ of Bharata which has been commented upon by not less than six scholars including the great Abhinavagupta. Imagine if Rasa Sutra would have been fixed with one meaning would such a stimulating body of literature exist?
Let a work of art grow on you…explore its various facets …and if you feel like going back to it again and again then it surely will have the capacity to generate various meanings for you….isn’t that how an art writer culls out meanings not even dreamt of by the artist and hence in the process becomes an artist her/himself.
These two lines from Jawab e Shikwa by Iqbal, a great revolutionary Urdu poet started an interesting and thought provoking debate with a friend some time back More than the discussion it was the questions raised about deciphering the meaning of any art or literally work which caught my attention and which makes me write this piece.
Before I start I need to admit that my knowledge about the said poet’s writings is negligible and hence I have no idea of his complete oeuvre or style. Therefore when my friend interpreted and translated these lines as follows I couldn’t see any point to disagree upon.
‘The voice emerging right from one’s heart has a sure impact
But it alone is not enough as it does not have power to fly’
Here he was referring to the revolutionary aspect prominent in Iqbal’s writings. He kept stressing on the fact that what the poet here wants to convey is that all weeping and wailing by itself is not enough but there is a need to wake up and put in real effort to make things actually work.
To tell the truth till last fortnight I hadn’t bothered about the couplet and also his explanation which we had discussed once before sounded quite plausible. But the turning point came when another friend, a poet in her own right, gave a totally different and to me a more apt sounding interpretation of the same couplet which goes on as:
The voice emerging right from one’s heart has a sure impact
Even though it does not have wings still it has the power to fly
As one can see here she has interpreted ‘par’ as wings rather than ‘but’ and by doing so the meaning of the couplet not only changes drastically but also it gives a whole positive and optimistic meaning to the entire piece. Though on one hand in a flash of moment I saw such a wonderful possibility in these lines my another friend remained adamant on the socio-revolutionist meaning and started quoting other couplets by Iqbal to stress his point.
While both of them were discussing and debating their manner of interpretation I was deeply hit by the Vyanjana aspect in the lines…ie. The meaning beyond the literal and the metaphorical one. The capacity of a real work of art or literature to create various and sometimes totally opposite meanings. I intercepted their rather loud argument by this sublime thought even on cost of sounding entirely ridiculous and uselessly complicating the issue. My dear friend laughed at me and declared that because I don’t know Iqbal I am taking refuge in intricate theoretical fabrications…an allegation which I often have to face from various quarters as people nowadays cannot see or don’t bother to see the relevance of our ancient thought on the present day scenario.And isn’t it why we turn to western scholars who have for most part simplified our own ancient wisdom for us?
Anyways that is a huge debate in itself..coming back to the discussion, since we were reaching no where we decided to ask few experts for their opinion. After grammatically analyzing the lines and drawing comparisons and contrasts between Ghalib and Iqbal we were informed that the second interpretation is the valid one ie.the one where ‘par’ is translated as ‘wings’
Finally our argument seem to have reached somewhere. While my friend was reluctantly somewhat convinced the question of interpretation kept troubling me and raised various questions in my mind…Would like to share some part of this introspection here…..
Why should one fix a work of art with one final meaning?…Doesn’t it limit the scope of the piece? To me a real engaging work of art or a poetry would be that which has the power of generating various meanings. To substantiate my point I would like to draw your attention to ‘Rasa Sutra’ of Bharata which has been commented upon by not less than six scholars including the great Abhinavagupta. Imagine if Rasa Sutra would have been fixed with one meaning would such a stimulating body of literature exist?
Let a work of art grow on you…explore its various facets …and if you feel like going back to it again and again then it surely will have the capacity to generate various meanings for you….isn’t that how an art writer culls out meanings not even dreamt of by the artist and hence in the process becomes an artist her/himself.
Friday, July 13, 2007
Ponderings
Mute spectator
isn't that mute
It's brain constantly at war
Registering, rejecting and reinterpreting
The ongoing drama flashed on the screen!
Voilence of silence
Slow poison
is deadlier
than all the nukes!
What if I was asked
What do I want
want the most
most of all things
Would I be able to answer?
isn't that mute
It's brain constantly at war
Registering, rejecting and reinterpreting
The ongoing drama flashed on the screen!
Voilence of silence
Slow poison
is deadlier
than all the nukes!
What if I was asked
What do I want
want the most
most of all things
Would I be able to answer?
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Life
Joyride or a dull routine
Life has its way of which
we know not
We toil, we plan we see to it
That it remains in our control
Fickle life laughs at us
At out futile attempt to hold
And in a single moment itself
Changes our entire approach
Life has its way of which
we know not
We toil, we plan we see to it
That it remains in our control
Fickle life laughs at us
At out futile attempt to hold
And in a single moment itself
Changes our entire approach
Destiny
I kept standing
and life passed by me
Making me wonder
and ultimately surrender
to that something
which men call destiny
and life passed by me
Making me wonder
and ultimately surrender
to that something
which men call destiny
Objectivity
As imagination creeps into nostalgia
There is no way
one can say
What was and what was not
Torn between two stands
With a history of glorious past
written all over the mind
Objectivity suffers!
And quietly takes a backseat
There is no way
one can say
What was and what was not
Torn between two stands
With a history of glorious past
written all over the mind
Objectivity suffers!
And quietly takes a backseat
Monday, July 2, 2007
True Story with no Glory!
A story on the 20th June event organized by activists of Roots in Kashmir in Delhi on the occasion of The World Refugee Day...
.....to read more http://www.artconcerns.net/2007july/html/review_geethika.htm
.....to read more http://www.artconcerns.net/2007july/html/review_geethika.htm
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
.......And the world remained silent.......Wonder why???
Come lets figure out at:
Satya Sai International Centre, Main Auditorium, Pragati Vihar, Lodhi Road, (adjacent to NBCC building), on 20th June,6.30 PM
And The World Remained Silent is a straight in your face kind of a documentary that highlights how Kashmiri Pandits were forced out of the valley which they belonged to and the valley which belonged to them.
And The World Remained Silent is a straight in your face kind of a documentary that highlights how Kashmiri Pandits were forced out of the valley which they belonged to and the valley which belonged to them.
visit our blog: http://kashmiris-in-exile.blogspot.com/
Wednesday, May 9, 2007
Unbearable Lightness of Being: Book Review
My interest in Kundera’s works lies not only in his ability to trespass the conventional narrative mode but in his ingenuity to weave the story in an intelligible and extremely thought provoking manner। His move away from Realism, to formulate a more abstract and personal language recalls the visual artists of 20th C. who shunned all kinds of realism. His theoretical framework instantly reminds us of Kafka and other existential writers who have deeply problematized the role of human agency in their works...............
to read more......... ://www.artconcerns.net/2007May/html/bookReview_milanKundera.htm
to read more......... ://www.artconcerns.net/2007May/html/bookReview_milanKundera.htm
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Intoxication: Khyyam translated
I feel drunk to the very core
fill my glass, I want some more
Why denounce present for the future to come
O! Come friend…you also have some
Ultimately under the ground will you lie
Without a friend, lover or any ally
Listen to the secret I tell you know
Only in presence of Wine need thou bow
fill my glass, I want some more
Why denounce present for the future to come
O! Come friend…you also have some
Ultimately under the ground will you lie
Without a friend, lover or any ally
Listen to the secret I tell you know
Only in presence of Wine need thou bow
Some stray thoughts
Moments of revelation are so few
and so difficult to realize
Masked in ordinary they come
yet leave an imprint for life
Pondering on those sad lines
walking uphill in a trance
The moment froze……full of meaning
And unveiled the truth in a flash
Scissors, knives and blades
know only how to cut
Let me be a needle
to sew pieces torn and shred
and so difficult to realize
Masked in ordinary they come
yet leave an imprint for life
Pondering on those sad lines
walking uphill in a trance
The moment froze……full of meaning
And unveiled the truth in a flash
Scissors, knives and blades
know only how to cut
Let me be a needle
to sew pieces torn and shred
Sunday, April 1, 2007
Solitude vs Lonliness
I cherish moments of solitude
the peace and quiet it brings to me
Letting me hear my inner voice
making me see what no one can see
But it is lonliness I deplore
this continuous longing for another soul
with whom I can truly share
Inner voice and my despair
the peace and quiet it brings to me
Letting me hear my inner voice
making me see what no one can see
But it is lonliness I deplore
this continuous longing for another soul
with whom I can truly share
Inner voice and my despair
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
‘Siddhartha’ by Hermann Hesse
There are some books which leave an everlasting imprint on the mind as well as on the soul….some books which people live their lives by…and whose protagonist becomes the role model for them. Siddhartha is one such book which will if nothing make you think about the purpose of life bestowed on you.
Sometime back I met a friend who declared that she had found her Bible in the aforesaid book and for once understands herself better. Since I hadn’t read the book and hadn’t even heard about the author I didn’t know what to say..But the moment I caught the glimpse of the said book in a bookstore, there was no way I could resist picking it up and reading it right away.
Though I am terribly passionate about reading I hardly get influenced by the written word. To me the written word is always a suspect…a biased version….someone else’s way of looking at life which can be at the most appreciated. Nevertheless I was too curious and wanted to see for myself what had moved my dear friend to the extent that she could talk of nothing but the merits of the book.
Reading Siddhartha was easy…perhaps my knowledge of philosophy and religion made it simpler. To put in a nutshell the underlining argument in the book is focused on the need to get rid of ego and any other kind of dualistic ideas. It almost comes across as the antitheses of Ayn Rand’s Fountainhead.
Though completely fictional the Buddhist idea of constant time…time without present, past or future is used deftly by the author. The narration explores the extreme curiosity of a Brahmin boy, Siddhartha who wants to fathom the mysteries of existence and reach Nirvana but at the same time is convinced that it is impossible to reach his goal by following conventions. Disillusioned by conventional religious practices, extreme austerities and worldly pleasures he finally finds true peace only by nurturing love for all things big and small and completely shunning the narrow ‘I’, very similar to ‘I Consciousness’ discussed in Kashmir Saivism.
You might agree with the author or reject him on the pretext of being too melodramatic but you cannot ignore him. He has a definite point of view influenced greatly by all simplistic teachings in various schools of Indian philosophy. Overall it makes a quick, lucid and thoughtful reading and leaves you with a definite positive and optimistic aura.
Sometime back I met a friend who declared that she had found her Bible in the aforesaid book and for once understands herself better. Since I hadn’t read the book and hadn’t even heard about the author I didn’t know what to say..But the moment I caught the glimpse of the said book in a bookstore, there was no way I could resist picking it up and reading it right away.
Though I am terribly passionate about reading I hardly get influenced by the written word. To me the written word is always a suspect…a biased version….someone else’s way of looking at life which can be at the most appreciated. Nevertheless I was too curious and wanted to see for myself what had moved my dear friend to the extent that she could talk of nothing but the merits of the book.
Reading Siddhartha was easy…perhaps my knowledge of philosophy and religion made it simpler. To put in a nutshell the underlining argument in the book is focused on the need to get rid of ego and any other kind of dualistic ideas. It almost comes across as the antitheses of Ayn Rand’s Fountainhead.
Though completely fictional the Buddhist idea of constant time…time without present, past or future is used deftly by the author. The narration explores the extreme curiosity of a Brahmin boy, Siddhartha who wants to fathom the mysteries of existence and reach Nirvana but at the same time is convinced that it is impossible to reach his goal by following conventions. Disillusioned by conventional religious practices, extreme austerities and worldly pleasures he finally finds true peace only by nurturing love for all things big and small and completely shunning the narrow ‘I’, very similar to ‘I Consciousness’ discussed in Kashmir Saivism.
You might agree with the author or reject him on the pretext of being too melodramatic but you cannot ignore him. He has a definite point of view influenced greatly by all simplistic teachings in various schools of Indian philosophy. Overall it makes a quick, lucid and thoughtful reading and leaves you with a definite positive and optimistic aura.
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Shattered Illusion
It evades me, mocks me and
ultimately flies away
I wail, I weep but alas
am unable to hold it back
Like a bewitching enchanter
it lured me
got me addicted
And then when I was completely dependent
left me in a lurch to fend for myself
From far away………
it silently looks down upon me
I with upraised eyes, pray
pray for every second
It pitifully smiles at me
and grants me my wish
But not before
reducing me to dust.
ultimately flies away
I wail, I weep but alas
am unable to hold it back
Like a bewitching enchanter
it lured me
got me addicted
And then when I was completely dependent
left me in a lurch to fend for myself
From far away………
it silently looks down upon me
I with upraised eyes, pray
pray for every second
It pitifully smiles at me
and grants me my wish
But not before
reducing me to dust.
Thursday, February 1, 2007
What happened to sensitivity?
As a part of one of our assignments during a seven day art writing workshop we were shown a video of the installation exhibition ‘Facilitating the Beast’ by a well known Baroda artist and we were supposed to write an opinionated piece filled with our honest feelings about a short performance which was a part of the work itself. Time allotted was ten minutes and hence there was no scope for editing.
Before sharing my ideas about the so called art work let me describe it a little. The installation work comprised of various elements of video works, a sound piece, mixed media prints and last but not the least…rows of charred bread loaves (alluding to the best bakery case), all this to remind us once again of the much hyped Gujarat riots.
So here is the piece I wrote:
As I sat focusing on the screen and digesting the images, there was a strong sense of ‘déjà vu’.Public memory is short but not so short as to forget the much discussed, debated and used ‘Best Bakery ‘case which was the main theme of the installation work
Rather than delving into what I thought or felt about the piece itself I would like to share my utter dismay and disdain at using horrible human tragedies for any purpose and more so for political ones. As we all know the above mentioned case was a really twisted and much mediated right from the very beginning. Moreover it is so well known that I feel there was no need to shove it again on the public face and that too in such a dramatic manner.
I often wonder at the lack of sensitivity that media and political personals show towards the tragedies faced by a common man, but it is really sad when artists join this bandwagon. I am not saying that an artist should not address political or social issues but what I want to problematize and question here is the use of incident which occurred few years back and since then has been all over in the papers, on practically every news channel and extensively on net.
The only reason I think is the element of familiarity and sensation linked with the issue that would lead someone to go digging for it. Unfortunately there is no dearth of tragedies in India and almost daily we hear of something or the other…..but the “Best Bakery Thing” sells. It has a smell of familiarity; people don’t really have to exert their brains too much to understand the problem..People outside India shed tears and sympathize with the victims….where is this taking us…???.I wonder whether Nithari killings will be the next sensation for the artists?
Since I don’t appreciate the concept itself I don’t see how I can comment on the performance per se which to me seems like the extension of something hollow and pointless…
Before sharing my ideas about the so called art work let me describe it a little. The installation work comprised of various elements of video works, a sound piece, mixed media prints and last but not the least…rows of charred bread loaves (alluding to the best bakery case), all this to remind us once again of the much hyped Gujarat riots.
So here is the piece I wrote:
As I sat focusing on the screen and digesting the images, there was a strong sense of ‘déjà vu’.Public memory is short but not so short as to forget the much discussed, debated and used ‘Best Bakery ‘case which was the main theme of the installation work
Rather than delving into what I thought or felt about the piece itself I would like to share my utter dismay and disdain at using horrible human tragedies for any purpose and more so for political ones. As we all know the above mentioned case was a really twisted and much mediated right from the very beginning. Moreover it is so well known that I feel there was no need to shove it again on the public face and that too in such a dramatic manner.
I often wonder at the lack of sensitivity that media and political personals show towards the tragedies faced by a common man, but it is really sad when artists join this bandwagon. I am not saying that an artist should not address political or social issues but what I want to problematize and question here is the use of incident which occurred few years back and since then has been all over in the papers, on practically every news channel and extensively on net.
The only reason I think is the element of familiarity and sensation linked with the issue that would lead someone to go digging for it. Unfortunately there is no dearth of tragedies in India and almost daily we hear of something or the other…..but the “Best Bakery Thing” sells. It has a smell of familiarity; people don’t really have to exert their brains too much to understand the problem..People outside India shed tears and sympathize with the victims….where is this taking us…???.I wonder whether Nithari killings will be the next sensation for the artists?
Since I don’t appreciate the concept itself I don’t see how I can comment on the performance per se which to me seems like the extension of something hollow and pointless…
Futility
Omar Khayyam on the nature of existence 
Futility: My understanding of Khayyam
Smoky past, fiery present and future in flames
Desire to burn, the only motivating force
Body turns to ash, soul’s existence questionable
SO WHAT REMAINS?
Just the footprints on the wet ground
Not even that
They also fade with time
Passing time feeds on our identity
How cruel?
But it will go on and on and on and on..
Like a scavenger feeding on dead bodies
Desire to burn, the only motivating force
Body turns to ash, soul’s existence questionable
SO WHAT REMAINS?
Just the footprints on the wet ground
Not even that
They also fade with time
Passing time feeds on our identity
How cruel?
But it will go on and on and on and on..
Like a scavenger feeding on dead bodies
Leaving no trace of existence
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Hafez: Mundane to Divine love
After keeping a vigil for 40 consecutive nights at the tomb of Baba Kuhi (an 11th C. AD Persian poet) the young man smitten by love was rewarded with a visit by angel Gabriel (some suggest the angel was Khizer).
Angel: So you are bestowed with immortality and poetic excellence as promised by Baba Kuhi, now for your third boon, what is your heart’s desire?
Stunned by the beauty of the angel the young man forgot the charms of his sweetheart whom he desired to possess and for winning whose heart he had kept the vigil. So enchanted was he by the grace and radiance of the former that He thought if Almighty’s angel is so intoxicatingly beautiful how beautiful would be the Lord himself. And in a fit of ecstasy these words escaped his mouth
Young man: I want God……..
The realization he was asking for was terribly difficult and required tremendous patience and true faith…he knew it…..it would have been so much simpler to have asked for his lady love…but then he would not have become Hafez, one of the most renowned and loved poets of Iran.
The moment he realized that the beauty of ‘Shakh-e-Nabat” (a lady whom he had seen in the elite part of the city and to whom he had lost his heart to) was merely a reflection of the beauty of the Almighty, he became restless and anxious to reach the all pervading Lord and to delve in mysteries of nature.Nothing else could quench his thirst for eternal knowledge
How can your face show such beauty
While here on Earth
You are the image of inconsistency and faithlessness
(From: “The Diwan of Hafez Shirazi” Ed. By Michael R Brown, Translated by Parham Noori Esfandiani and Alan Dean)
These lines clearly point out his disillusionment with the material world. He began yearning for divine love . Many a times Hafez’s poems are classified as love poems and their meaning taken literary. Though at the earlier stage he has written love poems solely dedicated to Shakh-e-Nabat but all his later poetry is dedicated to divine love.
Directed by the angel to go to Mohammad Attar and consider him as his Spiritual guru, Hafez spend forty years of his life serving his master secretly. The story of his vigil made him known throughout Shiraz and the poetry he now wrote in praise of his Lord were sung in lanes and bylanes of the city. These poems were written essentially as love poems sung in the praise of the beloved with deep spiritual meaning in them. One can understand the contents very well in Indian context as we have had many saint poets like Meera bai, Andal etc. who considered themselves as lovers of Lord.But in Persia of that time his works came under lot of criticism. He was openly called a ‘Kafir’ and his works were constantly scrutinized by religious leaders.
All the opposition did not deter him at all. He also saw the wisdom and mercy of God manifesting through his Master Attar, and he composed many poems praising his Master and begging Attar to fulfill the promise of Union of God. When Hafez went to visit Attar, Attar would ask Hafez to read his latest poem, then he would spiritually analyze it for the sake of Hafez and the other disciples, (this practice continued for forty years). Then the disciples would put tunes to the ghazals and the songs would soon be sung throughout Shiraz, with the fame of Hafez continuing to grow.
But by the end of forty years of serving Attar he became impatient to unravel the mysteries of unknown.That is when he decided to put himself to test again.
This time he entered a circle that he had drawn on the ground. He had made up his mind to enter self-imposed ‘Chehel Nashini’, in which the lover of God sits within a circle for forty days and it was believed that if the devotee was successful in this difficult deed, the lord would grant him his heart’s desire. Hafez managed to perform this difficult task too but by the end of the penance he realized he had no desire left. Thus he reached a stage of God realization where nothing mattered anymore and he wanted nothing. Feeling blissfully light and enlightened he came back to Atttar and during the last eight years of his life he just wrote about the ultimate union. He no longer was the seeker of the beloved but he was the beloved himself. In the poems written during this period one can often see traces of Advaita philosophy.
Only
That Illumined
One
Who keeps seducing the formless into form
Had the charm to win my heart
Only
A perfect one
Who is always
Laughing at the word ‘two’
Can make you know of love
(From ‘The Gift’ Translated by David Landinsky)
The lines…laughing at the word ‘two’ clearly points out his faith in monism as well as critiques the system where God is looked upon as someone or something to be feared. Hafez says he is in me, I am in him and this feeling underlines all his later poems.
In his final years Hafez gathered his disciples around him and began to teach them, using his poems to illustrate the various Spiritual points that he wanted them to understand. Because his fame had become so widespread and people were traveling from all parts of Persia and other countries to be in his presence, that he had to seclude himself to a degree to be able to continue to teach his chosen disciples, and to write his poems that were eagerly awaited by his many devotees, and his enemies who continued to plot against him.
At the age of sixty-nine due to a longtime sickness he left his earthly form to the chagrin of most of Shiraz.People from far and near came to pay their homage to the great poet. Hafez's body was carried towards the Muslim burial ground in the rose-bower of Musalla, on the banks of the Ruknabad, which he loved and praised in his poems, and to where he often walked and sat down to write many of his ghazals.
"The Ulama of Shiraz, with his fellow clergy, refused to allow for Hafez's body to be buried as a Muslim and claimed that his poetry was impious. The long knives that they had been trying to drive into his back were now fully on show, for he was no longer there to defend himself against them with his sharp wit and sense of irony.
"The followers of Hafez and the many citizens of Shiraz began to argue with those who followed the orthodox point of view, and in the heat of the argument, someone suggested that they should ask the poet himself for the solution. The clergy, by now afraid of the size and fervor of Hafez's supporters, reluctantly agreed to the suggestion of tearing up many of his poems into couplets and placing them into a large urn, and to call on a small boy in the crowd to select one couplet from it. The couplet that was selected was couplet no. 7 from ghazal 60:
""Don't you walk away from this graveside of Hafez, because, although buried in mistakes, he is traveling to Paradise."
"Even after death, Hafez had, with tongue in cheek, outwitted his bitter rivals, and this practice of consulting his Divan as an oracle has continued from this incident
To this day people ask the great philosopher poet:
Hafez to ro be Shakh I Nabat
Jawab e swalam ra bede
(Hafez, You are sworn by Shakh I nabat
Give answers to my queries
Angel: So you are bestowed with immortality and poetic excellence as promised by Baba Kuhi, now for your third boon, what is your heart’s desire?
Stunned by the beauty of the angel the young man forgot the charms of his sweetheart whom he desired to possess and for winning whose heart he had kept the vigil. So enchanted was he by the grace and radiance of the former that He thought if Almighty’s angel is so intoxicatingly beautiful how beautiful would be the Lord himself. And in a fit of ecstasy these words escaped his mouth
Young man: I want God……..
The realization he was asking for was terribly difficult and required tremendous patience and true faith…he knew it…..it would have been so much simpler to have asked for his lady love…but then he would not have become Hafez, one of the most renowned and loved poets of Iran.
The moment he realized that the beauty of ‘Shakh-e-Nabat” (a lady whom he had seen in the elite part of the city and to whom he had lost his heart to) was merely a reflection of the beauty of the Almighty, he became restless and anxious to reach the all pervading Lord and to delve in mysteries of nature.Nothing else could quench his thirst for eternal knowledge
How can your face show such beauty
While here on Earth
You are the image of inconsistency and faithlessness
(From: “The Diwan of Hafez Shirazi” Ed. By Michael R Brown, Translated by Parham Noori Esfandiani and Alan Dean)
These lines clearly point out his disillusionment with the material world. He began yearning for divine love . Many a times Hafez’s poems are classified as love poems and their meaning taken literary. Though at the earlier stage he has written love poems solely dedicated to Shakh-e-Nabat but all his later poetry is dedicated to divine love.
Directed by the angel to go to Mohammad Attar and consider him as his Spiritual guru, Hafez spend forty years of his life serving his master secretly. The story of his vigil made him known throughout Shiraz and the poetry he now wrote in praise of his Lord were sung in lanes and bylanes of the city. These poems were written essentially as love poems sung in the praise of the beloved with deep spiritual meaning in them. One can understand the contents very well in Indian context as we have had many saint poets like Meera bai, Andal etc. who considered themselves as lovers of Lord.But in Persia of that time his works came under lot of criticism. He was openly called a ‘Kafir’ and his works were constantly scrutinized by religious leaders.
All the opposition did not deter him at all. He also saw the wisdom and mercy of God manifesting through his Master Attar, and he composed many poems praising his Master and begging Attar to fulfill the promise of Union of God. When Hafez went to visit Attar, Attar would ask Hafez to read his latest poem, then he would spiritually analyze it for the sake of Hafez and the other disciples, (this practice continued for forty years). Then the disciples would put tunes to the ghazals and the songs would soon be sung throughout Shiraz, with the fame of Hafez continuing to grow.
But by the end of forty years of serving Attar he became impatient to unravel the mysteries of unknown.That is when he decided to put himself to test again.
This time he entered a circle that he had drawn on the ground. He had made up his mind to enter self-imposed ‘Chehel Nashini’, in which the lover of God sits within a circle for forty days and it was believed that if the devotee was successful in this difficult deed, the lord would grant him his heart’s desire. Hafez managed to perform this difficult task too but by the end of the penance he realized he had no desire left. Thus he reached a stage of God realization where nothing mattered anymore and he wanted nothing. Feeling blissfully light and enlightened he came back to Atttar and during the last eight years of his life he just wrote about the ultimate union. He no longer was the seeker of the beloved but he was the beloved himself. In the poems written during this period one can often see traces of Advaita philosophy.
Only
That Illumined
One
Who keeps seducing the formless into form
Had the charm to win my heart
Only
A perfect one
Who is always
Laughing at the word ‘two’
Can make you know of love
(From ‘The Gift’ Translated by David Landinsky)
The lines…laughing at the word ‘two’ clearly points out his faith in monism as well as critiques the system where God is looked upon as someone or something to be feared. Hafez says he is in me, I am in him and this feeling underlines all his later poems.
In his final years Hafez gathered his disciples around him and began to teach them, using his poems to illustrate the various Spiritual points that he wanted them to understand. Because his fame had become so widespread and people were traveling from all parts of Persia and other countries to be in his presence, that he had to seclude himself to a degree to be able to continue to teach his chosen disciples, and to write his poems that were eagerly awaited by his many devotees, and his enemies who continued to plot against him.
At the age of sixty-nine due to a longtime sickness he left his earthly form to the chagrin of most of Shiraz.People from far and near came to pay their homage to the great poet. Hafez's body was carried towards the Muslim burial ground in the rose-bower of Musalla, on the banks of the Ruknabad, which he loved and praised in his poems, and to where he often walked and sat down to write many of his ghazals.
"The Ulama of Shiraz, with his fellow clergy, refused to allow for Hafez's body to be buried as a Muslim and claimed that his poetry was impious. The long knives that they had been trying to drive into his back were now fully on show, for he was no longer there to defend himself against them with his sharp wit and sense of irony.
"The followers of Hafez and the many citizens of Shiraz began to argue with those who followed the orthodox point of view, and in the heat of the argument, someone suggested that they should ask the poet himself for the solution. The clergy, by now afraid of the size and fervor of Hafez's supporters, reluctantly agreed to the suggestion of tearing up many of his poems into couplets and placing them into a large urn, and to call on a small boy in the crowd to select one couplet from it. The couplet that was selected was couplet no. 7 from ghazal 60:
""Don't you walk away from this graveside of Hafez, because, although buried in mistakes, he is traveling to Paradise."
"Even after death, Hafez had, with tongue in cheek, outwitted his bitter rivals, and this practice of consulting his Divan as an oracle has continued from this incident
To this day people ask the great philosopher poet:
Hafez to ro be Shakh I Nabat
Jawab e swalam ra bede
(Hafez, You are sworn by Shakh I nabat
Give answers to my queries
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
The deeper meaning in Idol worship
In the last century, the century when reason reigned supreme ,all oriental religiosity and modes of worship were relegated to the realm of superstition and were criticized by Western scholars as being barbaric ,evil and grotesque.The apparent polytheism which is one of the first things which strikes any outsider coming to India became a point of ridicule.Western scholars saw our multitude of gods and demigods as demonic beings, devils and creation of a barbaric mind and wrote profusely of their horror of seeing such images being worshipped .
But whosoever has ventured to penetrate deeper than the superficial appearance of Indian deities has been rewarded with the knowledge of beautiful philosophy and eventually the concept of Advaitvada.which underlines all polytheistic rituals and attitudes. Most ancient of the Vedas and a storehouse of information on Indian mythology and philosophy ,There is a shloka in Rik Veda which translates as …..MAY THIS RELIC BE YOUR PERSONIFICATION….
The highest,most comprehensive truth set forth in the Upanisads is nondual.But Vedantic sages recognized that gradations of philosophical truth was inevitable because Brahman, the absolute , non dual reality is only partially revealed to the vast majority of us. The experience of Brahman is so utterly impersonal , so devoid of anything describable in human terms, as to be suited only to the greatest saints and to those also only in their most strenuous moments. Hence devotees throughout the world have created images of the deities and saints in whom they feel a holy presence.The devotees are very much aware that the image is not the deity itself but just serves as a reminder of the all pervading one and as an object to concentrate ones devotion on.An image or an idol allows one to have a one to one relationship with the deity and worship Almighty in form of mother, friend, lover ,father and thus personalize their worship.Here one needs to understand the difference between idolatry and idol worship. While idolatory can lead to completely blind faith and result in devotee fearing the deity, the idol worship does no such thing. The idol worshippers have tremendous faith but they are conscious of the presence of Almight beyond the image.Thus it’s the symbolic representation of the all pervading one.
Realizing the importance of symbolic representation the German thinker Hegel has compared the images of deities to a set of symbols intelligible only to people who have placed their faith in them in a way which restof the world cannot make sense of. He says “Symbol is a sensuous object which must not be taken in itself such as it is presents itself immediately to us., butin a more extended and more general sense….we must pass beyond the sensuous form in order to penetrate its more extended and profound meaning”
It is often heard that the people who have profound faith in a deity get to see him/her as well. They are blessed with a darshana of their favorite deity in whose bhakti they have completely lost themselves. The formless Brahman appears to the true devotee in whatever form he/she has visualized it, it could be in the form of Lord Krishna, Goddess Kali, Lord Shiva and so on.In no matter what form Almighty appears to a devotee the essence is unique and the phenomenon leads to stronger faith and devotion. Thus idol or image worship can work as an important medium to reach or atleast an attemp to reach the all encompassing one.
Swami Vivekananda while explaining the concept of idol worship says “This poor hindu sits before the idol and tries to think that he is That, and then says , O,lord I cannot conceive Thee as spirit,so let me conceive Thee in this form and then he opens his eyes and sees this form and prostrating he repeats his prayers.And when his prayer is ended he says, O, Lord forgive me for this imperfect worship of Thee”.
But whosoever has ventured to penetrate deeper than the superficial appearance of Indian deities has been rewarded with the knowledge of beautiful philosophy and eventually the concept of Advaitvada.which underlines all polytheistic rituals and attitudes. Most ancient of the Vedas and a storehouse of information on Indian mythology and philosophy ,There is a shloka in Rik Veda which translates as …..MAY THIS RELIC BE YOUR PERSONIFICATION….
The highest,most comprehensive truth set forth in the Upanisads is nondual.But Vedantic sages recognized that gradations of philosophical truth was inevitable because Brahman, the absolute , non dual reality is only partially revealed to the vast majority of us. The experience of Brahman is so utterly impersonal , so devoid of anything describable in human terms, as to be suited only to the greatest saints and to those also only in their most strenuous moments. Hence devotees throughout the world have created images of the deities and saints in whom they feel a holy presence.The devotees are very much aware that the image is not the deity itself but just serves as a reminder of the all pervading one and as an object to concentrate ones devotion on.An image or an idol allows one to have a one to one relationship with the deity and worship Almighty in form of mother, friend, lover ,father and thus personalize their worship.Here one needs to understand the difference between idolatry and idol worship. While idolatory can lead to completely blind faith and result in devotee fearing the deity, the idol worship does no such thing. The idol worshippers have tremendous faith but they are conscious of the presence of Almight beyond the image.Thus it’s the symbolic representation of the all pervading one.
Realizing the importance of symbolic representation the German thinker Hegel has compared the images of deities to a set of symbols intelligible only to people who have placed their faith in them in a way which restof the world cannot make sense of. He says “Symbol is a sensuous object which must not be taken in itself such as it is presents itself immediately to us., butin a more extended and more general sense….we must pass beyond the sensuous form in order to penetrate its more extended and profound meaning”
It is often heard that the people who have profound faith in a deity get to see him/her as well. They are blessed with a darshana of their favorite deity in whose bhakti they have completely lost themselves. The formless Brahman appears to the true devotee in whatever form he/she has visualized it, it could be in the form of Lord Krishna, Goddess Kali, Lord Shiva and so on.In no matter what form Almighty appears to a devotee the essence is unique and the phenomenon leads to stronger faith and devotion. Thus idol or image worship can work as an important medium to reach or atleast an attemp to reach the all encompassing one.
Swami Vivekananda while explaining the concept of idol worship says “This poor hindu sits before the idol and tries to think that he is That, and then says , O,lord I cannot conceive Thee as spirit,so let me conceive Thee in this form and then he opens his eyes and sees this form and prostrating he repeats his prayers.And when his prayer is ended he says, O, Lord forgive me for this imperfect worship of Thee”.
Wednesday, January 3, 2007
A glimpse in Abhinavagupta’s ideas on aesthetics
Abhinavagupta a distinguished philosopher ,aesthete and saint was one of the most outstanding Acharyas of the Monistic Shaivism. His exact date of birth is not known but we learn from references about him in his works Tantraloka and Paratrimshika Vivarana that he lived in Kashmir about the end of the tenth and beginning of the eleventh century A.D. The earliest known ancestor of Abhinavagupta was a famous Brahmin Attrigupta a great Shaiva teacher and scholar of Kanauj, who had been invited to settle in Kashmir by King Lalitaditya.
Abhinava Gupta was thus born in a family which had a long tradition of scholarship and devoutness for Lord Siva. His father Narasimhagupta (Cukhulaka) and mother Vimalakala were great influence in his life and it is believed that they both underwent austerities to be bestowed with an extra ordinary son with spiritual powers.
Traditionally believed to have been a Yoginibhu (born of aYogini), he mastered subjects like metaphysics, poetry and aesthetics at a very young age. He possessed all the eight Yogic powers explained in Shastras. His biographers observed six great spiritual signs as explained in ‘Malinivijayotara Shastra’, in him. Kashmir Shaivism is classified by Abhinavagupta in four systems viz. Krama system, Spanda system, Kula system and Pratyabijnya system. ‘Krama’ deals with space and time, ‘Spanda’, with the movement, ‘Kula’ with the Science of Totality and ‘Pratyabijnya’ with the school of Recognition.(Ref G.T.Deshpande’s monogram on Abhinava Gupta for detailed explanation)
His two major works on Poetics , Dhavnyalokalocana and Abhinava Bharati point towards his quest into the nature of aesthetic experience. In both these works Abhinava Gupta suggests that Aesthetic experience is something beyond worldly experience and he has used the word ‘Alaukika’ to distinguish the former feeling from the mundane latter ones. He subscribed to the theory of Rasa Dhvani and thus entered the ongoing aesthetic debate on nature of Aesthetic pleasure.
Rasa--roughly translated: "as emotive aesthetics"--is one of the most important concept in classical Indian aesthetics, having pervasive influence in theories of painting, sculpture, dance, poetry, and drama. . Rasa theory argues that the presentation of emotions is the proper object and domain of poetic discourse. Bharata in Natyashastra his pioneering work on Indian dramatics mentions eight rasas and says Rasa is produced when ‘Vibhaava’, Anubhava and Vyabhichari bhava come together.
Vibhavanubhava-vyabhicari-samyogat Rasa nispattih (Rasa Sutra,Natyasastra)
Vibhava: A medium through which an emotion arises in an actor e.g. A child riding a stick and enjoying it as if he were actually riding a horse
Anubhava: All the physical changes arising due to the vibhavas e.g.changes in facial expression and body language
Vyahicari bhava:Transient emotions eg.weeping with joy
The language of feelings is not a private language; it is more a system of symbols, a language game that is understood by those who have learned its conventions and usages. Emotions treated in a poem are neither the projections of the reader's own mental states nor the private feelings of the poet; rather, they are the objective situations abiding in the poem as its cognitive content. Rasa is understood as residing in the situational factors presented in an appropriate language. A poet chooses a theme because he sees a certain promise for developing its emotional possibilities and exploits it by dramatizing its details.
The adherents of rasa theory believed rasa, to be the meaning of the poetic sentence but they had different ideas about the definition of art. Abhinavabharati a commentary on Bharata,s Natyasastra talks about these scholars and comments on their theories. Bhatta Lollata believed art to be an imitation of reality. His views were contested by Sri Sankuka who stated that art cannot be an imitation simply because it exists in a different place and time. Further he explained his point of view by giving the analogy of a pictorial horse (chitaraturaganyaya). He says when one sees a horse painted one doesn’t mistake it for the original horse but one sees it as the representation of the original horse and thus derives the aesthetic pleasure through this identification. Since art cannot imitate all the qualities of the original subject hence it is just an inference and not an imitation. BhattaTauta ,Abhinavagupta's teacher raised a valid question regarding the imitation of the mental state. According to him there is no way an actor can feel and react in exactly the same way as the original character. The actor presents his feelings i.e. How he would react if put in the original characters position. Hence art cannot be inferred but depends on the imagination of the spectator.
Abhinavagupta though agrees to many of the suggestions put forward by Rasa theory also points at its various limitations. According to him art is not just about evoking certain feelings but a real work of art in addition to possessing emotive charge needs to have a strong sense of suggestion and capacity to produce various meanings. This is where he refers to Dhvanivada . He says that for a work of art it is not enough to be having abhida(literal meaning) and laksana(metaphorical meaning ) but it should also possess Vyanjana the suggested meaning which has absolutely nothing to do with the other two levels of meaning. Thus an aesthetic experience cannot be experienced like any ordinary mundane experience. A true aesthetic object does not simply stimulate the senses but also stimulates the imagination of the spectator. Once the imagination is stimulated the spectator aesthete gets transported to a world of his own creation. This emotion deindividualises an individual by freeing him from those elements which constitute individuality such as place, time etc. and raises him to the level of universal. Thus art is otherworldly or Alaukika in its nature.
One of the major passage in which he dwells on alaukikatva is:
“When a man hears the words :’A son is born to you’ joy is produced (through the power of denotation-abhida).But the suggested sense (rasa and the like) is not produced the way joy is produced in the above case. Nor does it come about through the secondary usage (laksana,gunavrtti,bhakti).But it arises in a sensitive man (sahrdaya-a man who is sensitive to literature )through his knowledge of vibhavas and anubhava, because of his hrdaya-samvada (sympathetic response)and his tanmayibhava (identification). It is vilaksana (different)from ordinary awareness of happiness etc. and it is not an objective thing” Dhvaynalokalocana, p.79
In this passage he points out clearly that the vibhavas do not correspond to any karana(reason) in case of art like they do in everyday life. They make the relish of Rasa possible and hence exist at a different plane altogether.
Abhinavagupta turned his attention away from the linguistic and related abstractions which had preoccupied even Anandavardhana, focusing his attention instead on the human mind, specifically the mind of the reader or viewer of a literary work. The first step in Abhinavagupta's project involved the recognition that the theory of rasadhvani , could not be understood as a theory of abstract linguistic structure. Rather, it only made sense as a theory of the way people respond to literature. In other words, rasadhvani had to be conceived in psychological terms. According to this system the reader becomes the central focus of literary criticism. The aim of kavya is to give pleasure, but this pleasure must not bind the soul to the body.
Thus he attributed the state of divinity to arts and considered Shanta Rasa as the ultimate Rasa. According to him the pleasure one derives out of a real work of art is no less than divine pleasure. As one has to constantly struggle and detach oneself to reach the Almighty similarly a true connoisseur of arts has to learn to detach the work from its surroundings and happenings and view it independently e.g. the feeling that might bring pain in real life is capable of causing pleasure in an art form. The great success of Greek tragedies can be attributed to the pleasure it aroused in the spectators and brought about the emotional Catharsis (purging out)
In his Dhvanyaloka Anandavardhana observes: “In the province of poetry (creative literature) obviously standards of truth and falsity have no relevance. Any attempt to find out or discover whether a poem (or any literary composition) is true or false by employing means of valid cognition leads to ridicule alone” Abhinavagupta comments on it :”Such a person will be ridiculed as follows: He is not able or competent to appreciate aesthetic experience or his mind has become (truly) hard by indulging in dry logic.”
Thus he asserts that the “willful suspension of disbelief” is a prerequisite for enjoying any art form. The moment one starts questioning it or doubting it and looking at it objectively it loses its charm and status and becomes equivalent to any mundane object. One enjoys a play only when one can identify the character as the character from the drama and not as ones friend or associate. For the time that the drama goes on the character should take over the actor in a spectators mind i.e. The spectator should rise above the worldly connections and try to experience the supernatural aspect of art which has nothing to do with the worldly concerns.
Geetika Kaw Kher
Abhinava Gupta was thus born in a family which had a long tradition of scholarship and devoutness for Lord Siva. His father Narasimhagupta (Cukhulaka) and mother Vimalakala were great influence in his life and it is believed that they both underwent austerities to be bestowed with an extra ordinary son with spiritual powers.
Traditionally believed to have been a Yoginibhu (born of aYogini), he mastered subjects like metaphysics, poetry and aesthetics at a very young age. He possessed all the eight Yogic powers explained in Shastras. His biographers observed six great spiritual signs as explained in ‘Malinivijayotara Shastra’, in him. Kashmir Shaivism is classified by Abhinavagupta in four systems viz. Krama system, Spanda system, Kula system and Pratyabijnya system. ‘Krama’ deals with space and time, ‘Spanda’, with the movement, ‘Kula’ with the Science of Totality and ‘Pratyabijnya’ with the school of Recognition.(Ref G.T.Deshpande’s monogram on Abhinava Gupta for detailed explanation)
His two major works on Poetics , Dhavnyalokalocana and Abhinava Bharati point towards his quest into the nature of aesthetic experience. In both these works Abhinava Gupta suggests that Aesthetic experience is something beyond worldly experience and he has used the word ‘Alaukika’ to distinguish the former feeling from the mundane latter ones. He subscribed to the theory of Rasa Dhvani and thus entered the ongoing aesthetic debate on nature of Aesthetic pleasure.
Rasa--roughly translated: "as emotive aesthetics"--is one of the most important concept in classical Indian aesthetics, having pervasive influence in theories of painting, sculpture, dance, poetry, and drama. . Rasa theory argues that the presentation of emotions is the proper object and domain of poetic discourse. Bharata in Natyashastra his pioneering work on Indian dramatics mentions eight rasas and says Rasa is produced when ‘Vibhaava’, Anubhava and Vyabhichari bhava come together.
Vibhavanubhava-vyabhicari-samyogat Rasa nispattih (Rasa Sutra,Natyasastra)
Vibhava: A medium through which an emotion arises in an actor e.g. A child riding a stick and enjoying it as if he were actually riding a horse
Anubhava: All the physical changes arising due to the vibhavas e.g.changes in facial expression and body language
Vyahicari bhava:Transient emotions eg.weeping with joy
The language of feelings is not a private language; it is more a system of symbols, a language game that is understood by those who have learned its conventions and usages. Emotions treated in a poem are neither the projections of the reader's own mental states nor the private feelings of the poet; rather, they are the objective situations abiding in the poem as its cognitive content. Rasa is understood as residing in the situational factors presented in an appropriate language. A poet chooses a theme because he sees a certain promise for developing its emotional possibilities and exploits it by dramatizing its details.
The adherents of rasa theory believed rasa, to be the meaning of the poetic sentence but they had different ideas about the definition of art. Abhinavabharati a commentary on Bharata,s Natyasastra talks about these scholars and comments on their theories. Bhatta Lollata believed art to be an imitation of reality. His views were contested by Sri Sankuka who stated that art cannot be an imitation simply because it exists in a different place and time. Further he explained his point of view by giving the analogy of a pictorial horse (chitaraturaganyaya). He says when one sees a horse painted one doesn’t mistake it for the original horse but one sees it as the representation of the original horse and thus derives the aesthetic pleasure through this identification. Since art cannot imitate all the qualities of the original subject hence it is just an inference and not an imitation. BhattaTauta ,Abhinavagupta's teacher raised a valid question regarding the imitation of the mental state. According to him there is no way an actor can feel and react in exactly the same way as the original character. The actor presents his feelings i.e. How he would react if put in the original characters position. Hence art cannot be inferred but depends on the imagination of the spectator.
Abhinavagupta though agrees to many of the suggestions put forward by Rasa theory also points at its various limitations. According to him art is not just about evoking certain feelings but a real work of art in addition to possessing emotive charge needs to have a strong sense of suggestion and capacity to produce various meanings. This is where he refers to Dhvanivada . He says that for a work of art it is not enough to be having abhida(literal meaning) and laksana(metaphorical meaning ) but it should also possess Vyanjana the suggested meaning which has absolutely nothing to do with the other two levels of meaning. Thus an aesthetic experience cannot be experienced like any ordinary mundane experience. A true aesthetic object does not simply stimulate the senses but also stimulates the imagination of the spectator. Once the imagination is stimulated the spectator aesthete gets transported to a world of his own creation. This emotion deindividualises an individual by freeing him from those elements which constitute individuality such as place, time etc. and raises him to the level of universal. Thus art is otherworldly or Alaukika in its nature.
One of the major passage in which he dwells on alaukikatva is:
“When a man hears the words :’A son is born to you’ joy is produced (through the power of denotation-abhida).But the suggested sense (rasa and the like) is not produced the way joy is produced in the above case. Nor does it come about through the secondary usage (laksana,gunavrtti,bhakti).But it arises in a sensitive man (sahrdaya-a man who is sensitive to literature )through his knowledge of vibhavas and anubhava, because of his hrdaya-samvada (sympathetic response)and his tanmayibhava (identification). It is vilaksana (different)from ordinary awareness of happiness etc. and it is not an objective thing” Dhvaynalokalocana, p.79
In this passage he points out clearly that the vibhavas do not correspond to any karana(reason) in case of art like they do in everyday life. They make the relish of Rasa possible and hence exist at a different plane altogether.
Abhinavagupta turned his attention away from the linguistic and related abstractions which had preoccupied even Anandavardhana, focusing his attention instead on the human mind, specifically the mind of the reader or viewer of a literary work. The first step in Abhinavagupta's project involved the recognition that the theory of rasadhvani , could not be understood as a theory of abstract linguistic structure. Rather, it only made sense as a theory of the way people respond to literature. In other words, rasadhvani had to be conceived in psychological terms. According to this system the reader becomes the central focus of literary criticism. The aim of kavya is to give pleasure, but this pleasure must not bind the soul to the body.
Thus he attributed the state of divinity to arts and considered Shanta Rasa as the ultimate Rasa. According to him the pleasure one derives out of a real work of art is no less than divine pleasure. As one has to constantly struggle and detach oneself to reach the Almighty similarly a true connoisseur of arts has to learn to detach the work from its surroundings and happenings and view it independently e.g. the feeling that might bring pain in real life is capable of causing pleasure in an art form. The great success of Greek tragedies can be attributed to the pleasure it aroused in the spectators and brought about the emotional Catharsis (purging out)
In his Dhvanyaloka Anandavardhana observes: “In the province of poetry (creative literature) obviously standards of truth and falsity have no relevance. Any attempt to find out or discover whether a poem (or any literary composition) is true or false by employing means of valid cognition leads to ridicule alone” Abhinavagupta comments on it :”Such a person will be ridiculed as follows: He is not able or competent to appreciate aesthetic experience or his mind has become (truly) hard by indulging in dry logic.”
Thus he asserts that the “willful suspension of disbelief” is a prerequisite for enjoying any art form. The moment one starts questioning it or doubting it and looking at it objectively it loses its charm and status and becomes equivalent to any mundane object. One enjoys a play only when one can identify the character as the character from the drama and not as ones friend or associate. For the time that the drama goes on the character should take over the actor in a spectators mind i.e. The spectator should rise above the worldly connections and try to experience the supernatural aspect of art which has nothing to do with the worldly concerns.
Geetika Kaw Kher
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