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76
the poet and his reader. The dramatist, however, was working with a
time span which itself imposed a kind of unity on his creation, in terms of
which a determinate effect was produced in a definite audience.
170
In the dramatic mode, it would, by contrast, not be far wrong to say
that the work as a whole constituted the unit of composition, into which
entered as conditioning factors the audience, the actors, their actions and
gestures, the events portrayed, and, finally, the spoken words of the play."
In contemporary terms the distinction between the written and dramatic
is somewhat obscured, owing to the great diffusion of printed texts.
Plays are produced, but they have also become an important part of the
written literature. One might wonder, for example, whether A Long
Day's Journey into Night was ever meant by its author to be performed.
As the unit of composition, the work's special existence, apart from
its conditional factors, was expressed in terms of the peculiar relation
which all of these factors bore to one another in the understanding of
the audience, and which constituted the proper consequence or effect
of the dramatic production. Bharata determines this special unity of
the work as the rasa or 'dominant mood', and this term has come to
denote the leading idea and is perhaps the most distinctive feature of
Indian poetics.
INTRODUCTION
We cannot develop here the many interesting implications of the rasa
theory for dramatic criticism. We are concerned with it only insofar
as it provides a contrast both in subject matter and in critical point of
view with the alamkāra theory, which we hold was addressed to the stan-
zaic poetry of the Sanskrit kävya. The two criticisms, coexisting for
several centuries, were largely kept compartmentalized not only by their
orientation to different subject matter, but also by their emphasis on the
means of expression. Neither was interested in the analogical question
of creativity.
170 Bharata deals with the spoken word as it affects drama in chaps. 15 (on metre)
and 16 (on the figures, gunas, dosas, etc.). Metre is important because of the many set
verses, in classical kavya style, which were placed in the dialogue of the drama, and
by which were stated its moods and climaxes, in a manner analogous to the arias of an
opera. In the chapter on figuration, Bharata mentions only four figures, upamā,
rūpaka, dipaka and yamaka; this has usually been taken as a primitive or germinal
form of the alamkāraśāstra; Bhämaha, the next writer whose works are extant,
discusses over thirty figures. It may be, and it is just as likely, that the four figures
were not intended as exhaustive, but were, like the metres of the preceding chapter,
presented in abridged form, more to suggest the importance of the subject to the dram-
atist, who would then be expected to turn to the available manuals of metrics and
figuration for fuller treatment. The alamkāra texts, similarly, refer peripherally to
topics which are central in the dramatic tradition, nāyaka, rasa, etc.
the poet and his reader. The dramatist, however, was working with a
time span which itself imposed a kind of unity on his creation, in terms of
which a determinate effect was produced in a definite audience.
170
In the dramatic mode, it would, by contrast, not be far wrong to say
that the work as a whole constituted the unit of composition, into which
entered as conditioning factors the audience, the actors, their actions and
gestures, the events portrayed, and, finally, the spoken words of the play."
In contemporary terms the distinction between the written and dramatic
is somewhat obscured, owing to the great diffusion of printed texts.
Plays are produced, but they have also become an important part of the
written literature. One might wonder, for example, whether A Long
Day's Journey into Night was ever meant by its author to be performed.
As the unit of composition, the work's special existence, apart from
its conditional factors, was expressed in terms of the peculiar relation
which all of these factors bore to one another in the understanding of
the audience, and which constituted the proper consequence or effect
of the dramatic production. Bharata determines this special unity of
the work as the rasa or 'dominant mood', and this term has come to
denote the leading idea and is perhaps the most distinctive feature of
Indian poetics.
INTRODUCTION
We cannot develop here the many interesting implications of the rasa
theory for dramatic criticism. We are concerned with it only insofar
as it provides a contrast both in subject matter and in critical point of
view with the alamkāra theory, which we hold was addressed to the stan-
zaic poetry of the Sanskrit kävya. The two criticisms, coexisting for
several centuries, were largely kept compartmentalized not only by their
orientation to different subject matter, but also by their emphasis on the
means of expression. Neither was interested in the analogical question
of creativity.
170 Bharata deals with the spoken word as it affects drama in chaps. 15 (on metre)
and 16 (on the figures, gunas, dosas, etc.). Metre is important because of the many set
verses, in classical kavya style, which were placed in the dialogue of the drama, and
by which were stated its moods and climaxes, in a manner analogous to the arias of an
opera. In the chapter on figuration, Bharata mentions only four figures, upamā,
rūpaka, dipaka and yamaka; this has usually been taken as a primitive or germinal
form of the alamkāraśāstra; Bhämaha, the next writer whose works are extant,
discusses over thirty figures. It may be, and it is just as likely, that the four figures
were not intended as exhaustive, but were, like the metres of the preceding chapter,
presented in abridged form, more to suggest the importance of the subject to the dram-
atist, who would then be expected to turn to the available manuals of metrics and
figuration for fuller treatment. The alamkāra texts, similarly, refer peripherally to
topics which are central in the dramatic tradition, nāyaka, rasa, etc.