151. ABHINAVAGUPTA'S THEORY OF ÆSTHETICS 171

ABHINAVAGUPTA'S THEORY OF ÆSTHETICS 171

ABHINAVA'S APPROACH TO THE PROBLEM OF NUMBER OF RASAS. 1. Bhanudatta in his Rasa Tarangiņī maintains the number of Rasas to be nine. But he holds that Nirveda is the Sthayibhava of Santa and that Santa with Nirveda as its sthayibhava, does not admit of stage-presentation. He also mentions four more Rasas (i) Vātsalya (ii) Laulya (iii) Bhakti and (iv) Kārpaņya, but only as a prima facie view (Pūrva pakșa). He does not accept these additional Rasas as independent. He asserts that (i) tenderness (Ārdrtā) (ii) yearning (Abhilāșā), (iii) faith (Sraddhā) and (iv) desire to acquire (Sprha), which are accepted to be the basic mental states (Sthayibhava) of the said Rasas, are not independent: on the contrary, they are identical with Rati, when it appears as a Vyabhicarin (a transient state of mind that accompanies the basic) in some other Rasa than Srngara. He holds that (i) Rati is called Vatsalya, when it appears as Vyabhicarin and expresses itself in tenderness in the context of Karuna; (ii) it is called Bhakti when it figures as Vyabhicarin and manifests itself as faith in the context of Santa; (iii) it is spoken of as Laulya, when it figures as Vyabhicārin of Hāsya and shows itself as yearning for an object of desire, which is yet to be acquired : (iv) if, however, Rati appears as Vyabhicārī of Hasya and expresses itself in intense desire for preservation of what is in one's possession, it is called Kārpaņya.1 His view in regard to Santa may be stated as follows :- He holds that Santa admits of the stage-represen- tation also; but the situations etc. in this case are different. In the case of dramatic presentation of Santa, its

1. R. T. 33.