English Studies Journal | The Evocation of Sringara Rasa Through the Interplay of Karuna Rasa and Vipralambhasringara Rasa in Dinnaga’s Kundamala

The IUP Journal of English Studies :

The Evocation of Sringara Rasa Through the Interplay of Karuna Rasa and Vipralambhasringara Rasa in Dinnaga’s Kundamala

Article Details

Pub. Date	:	Jun, 2016
Product Name	:	The IUP Journal of English Studies
Product Type	:	Article
Product Code	:	IJES71606
Author Name	:	G R K Murty
Availability	:	YES
Subject/Domain	:	English Studies
Download Format	:	PDF Format
No. of Pages	:	17

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Abstract

True to Anandavardhana’s dictum, “the significance of the ancient theme and emotional content should never be disturbed,” Dinnaga, the author of the play Kundamala, taking the episode of Sita’s banishment to the forest from Valmiki’s Ramayana, and tweaking it a little bit—crafting exquisite and delicate scenes in Acts 2-4 that are totally his own creation, all ultimately leading to the union of Sita with Rama—has produced a very aesthetically consummate work of lasting literary and dramatic merit. In this six-act play, we come across characters that are more human and realistic, uttering simple dialogues and verses that are forceful and rich in thought-content depicting the rapidity of thought and action. This paper examines how the interplay of karuna rasa and the intense vipralambhasringara rasa (love in separation), as though they were vying (spardha) with each other, strikingly evokes sringara rasa in sahrudayas—the prepared hearts.

Description

As is the case with all other Sanskrit poets, very little is known about the author of the play Kundamāla, and whatever little is known, it is again controversial. Initially, it was argued that the author of Kundamāla was Dinnaga, a famous Buddhist logician. But it is almost conclusive now that the playwright Dinnaga was a Hindu with intrinsic faith in the Vedic religion, was different from the Buddhist logician, and lived around the sixth or seventh century AD. Controversies aside, the author has produced “a very aesthetically consummate work of lasting literary and dramatic merit” (Datta 1988). The play itself was discovered only in 1923 by M Ramakrishna Kavi and published by him along with S K Ramanatha Sastry from the then Madras in 1923 (Mukherjee 1999).

Keywords

English Studies Journal, The Evocation, Rasa, Interplay, Karuna Rasa, Vipralambhasringara Rasa, Sanskrit poets, Dinnaga, Unreined People Evoking Karuna Rasa, Dinnaga’s Kundamala.