b y r a l bouquet of rasa river of rasa - clay sanskrit library bhava·bhuti. he is the author of wf...

Sheldon I. Pollock is William B. Ransford Professor of Sanskrit and Indian Studies, Columbia University. He has also translated Books Two and Three of the Ramáyana, “Ayódhya” and “The Forest,” and Rama’s Last Act by Bhava·bhuti. He is the author of

and editor of and

.

The Clay Sanskrit Library is a unique series that, through original text and English translation, gives an international readership access to the beauty and variety of classical Sanskrit literature.

For a full list of titles, a searchable corpus of CSL texts and translations, and further information, please visit: www.claysanskritlibrary.com

Bhanu·datta’s twin sixteenth-century masterpieces, his Bouquet of Rasa (on types of female and male

characters in poetry) and River of Rasa (on aesthetics), together summarized beautifully the thousand-year-long

tradition of Sanskrit literary theory, and did so in illustrative verses of far higher literary caliber

than anyone had offered before.

WWW.CLAYSANSKRITLIBRARY.COM

clay

sanskrit library

NEW YORK UNIVERSIT Y PRESS & JJC FOUNDATION

Bouquet of Rasa &

River of Rasaby Bhanu·datta

Edited and translated by

SHELDON I. POLLOCK

CLAY SANSKRIT LIBRARY Here is a new Clay Sanskrit Library edition and translation of Bhanu·datta’s Bouquet of Rasa and River of Rasa.

Bhanu·datta is probably the most famous Sanskrit poet that no one today has ever heard of. His Bouquet of Rasa and River

of Rasa, both composed in the early sixteenth century, probably under the patronage of the Nizam of Ahmadnagar in western India, attracted the attention of the most celebrated commentators in early modern India. Some of the greatest painters of Mewar and Basohli vied to turn his subtle poems into pictures. And his verses were prized by poets everywhere: Abu al-Fazl, the preeminent scholar at Akbar’s court, translated them into Persian, and, Kshetráyya, the great Andhra poet of the next century, adapted them into Telugu.

Many writers have described the types of heroines and heroes of Sanskrit literature (the subject of the Bouquet of

Rasa) or explained the nature of aesthetic emotion (that of the River of Rasa), but none did so in verse of such exquisite and subtle artistry.

jjcNEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS

Washington SquareNew York, NY 10003www.nyupress.org

bouquet

of rasa

&

river of

rasa

pollock

bhanu·

datta

CSL Bouquet & River of Rasa2.indd 1 24/10/08 10:46:03

T H E C L A Y S A N S K R I T L I B R A R Y

F O U N D E D B Y J O H N & J E N N I F E R C L A Y

G E N E R A L E D I T O R

Sheldon Pollock

E D I T E D B Y

Isabelle Onians

www.claysanskritlibrary.com

www.nyupress.org

i

“BOUQUET OF RASA”&

“RIVER OF RASA”by BHĀNUDATTA

T R A N S L A T E D B Y

Sheldon Pollock

N E W Y O R K U N I V E R S I T Y P R E S S

J J C F O U N D A T I O N

iii

Copyright © by the CSLAll rights reserved.

First Edition

e Clay Sanskrit Library is co-published byNew York University Pressand the JJC Foundation.

Further information about this volumeand the rest of the Clay Sanskrit Library

is available at the end of this bookand on the following websites:www.claysanskritlibrary.com

www.nyupress.org

ISBN-: ---- (cloth : alk. paper)ISBN-: --- (cloth : alk. paper)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication DataBhānudatta Miśra.

[Rasamañjarī. English & Sanskrit]"Bouquet of rasa" ; & "River of rasa" / by Bhanudatta ;

translated by Sheldon Pollock.p. cm.Poems.

In English and Sanskrit (romanized) on facing pages.Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN-: ---- (cloth : alk. paper)ISBN-: --- (cloth : alk. paper)

. Bhanudatta Misra.--Translations into English.. Sanskrit poetry--Translations into English. . Rasas--Poetry.

. Poetics--Poetry. I. Pollock, Sheldon I.II. Bhanudatta Misra. Rasatarangini. English & Sanskrit.

III. Title. IV. Title: River of rasa.PK.BR

'.--dc

iv

CONTENTS

CSL Conventions vii

Acknowledgments xvii

Introduction xix

BOUQUET OF RASA

Description of the Náyika Description of the Náyaka and Related Matters

RIVER OF RASA

First Wave Description of the StableEmotions

Second Wave Description of the Factors ird Wave Description of the Physical

Reactions Fourth Wave Description of the Involuntary

Physical Reactions Fifth Wave Description of the Transitory

Feelings Sixth Wave Description of Rasas Seventh Wave Description of Rasas Continued Eighth Wave Miscellany

Notes

v

THE FOURTHWAVE

DESCRIPTION OF THE INVOLUNTARY

PHYSICAL REACTIONS

N, physical reactions will be de- .

scribed. With reference to them, Bhárata says:

“Paralysis, sweating, horripilation, a breaking voice,trembling, pallor, weeping, and absorption are heldto be the eight involuntary reactions.”

It could be asked why these are reckoned as involuntaryreactions (sáttvika) rather than transitory feelings, giventhat they are likewise common to all the rasas. Some haveanswered that the word sattva refers to a feeling of deepsympathy for the experience of sorrow on the part of others,and this produces the involuntary physical reactions; thatis why the designation sáttvika is used for them without re-gard to their transitory character. But that answer cannotbe correct, since the designation sáttvika would then haveto be applied to such transitory feelings as despair, remem-brance, and fortitude.* Nor does the meaning of the word“sympathy” refer to the fact that only the eight reactionsarise in response to the experience of sorrow on the part ofothers, since despair and so on also arise in response to an-other’s sorrow. What seems to be at issue here is this: eword sattva refers to a living being, sattva in this contextbeing the enlivened body.e properties of a sattva, or be-ing, are called sáttvika, and accordingly bodily reactions arecalled sáttvika reactions. Because the stable emotions andthe transitory feelings are internal they are not properties ofthe body.

Paralysis, being a property of the body, is the obstruc-tion of ambulatory movement. is definition is not sowide as to include transitory feelings such as sleep or posses-sion, since those are excluded by the words “property of thebody.”* Paralysis is distinguished from absorption, whereall motion is obstructed. Its factors are joy, passion, fear,sorrow, depression, wonder, and anger. An example:

“My hips are so wide, and my waist so thin, .

and heavier than a mountainare my breasts. How then, dear mother,i

am I supposedto go back to my own hut?”So the lovely woman confessed, but when Govíndaii

entered the kadámba groveslyly smiling, she looked up and saw him—and at once her paralysis vanished.

Sweating is the arising of perspiration on the body. Itsfactors are remorse, joy, shame, anger, fear, fatigue, pain,distress, fainting, etc. An example:

My beloved, drops of sweatare glistening on your breastslike a rain of flowers showered downby the joyful God of love.

Horripilation is the bristling of hair in consequence ofsome transformation. Its factors are cold,* an embrace, joy,fear, and anger. An example:

In the grove filled with the buzz of beesdarting in anger from the bákula budswhy is Nanda’s soni smiling today, and whyis the fuzz stiffening on his cheek?*

A breaking voice is a deformation in the nature of the .

voice that occasions stammering. Its factors are anger, fear,joy, and intoxication. An example:

“If I spoke, my voicewould clearly break in anger.”So Radhaii simply stoodin silence before her husband.

Trembling, in the discourse on aesthetic feeling, is a quiv-ering of the body. e qualification “aesthetic feeling” isused to exclude gesturing toward something or twitching.e word “body” refers merely to the locus of the action,and thus the definition is not so narrow as to exclude theshaking of a body part. Its factors are an embrace, joy, fear,etc. An example:iii

Tell me, how can the Yadu lordivgather chámpakas for my garlandwhen his hand is shaking so? Dear friend,his thinking of me is my undoing!

Pallor is a change in one’s natural coloring as a result ofsome transformation. Its factors are confusion, fear, anger,cold, heat, and exhaustion. An example:

As the cock began to crow .their faces, lying cheek by cheek,took on the pale glow of the moonflooded by the rays of the sun.

Tears are water in the eyes produced by some transfor-mation. Its factors are joy, vindictiveness, smoke, fear, grief,yawning, cold, and unblinking staring. An example:

“Give up, poor heart, give up this sorrow,here is Murárii headed this way,”the stream of tears proclaimed as it fellupon the large-eyed woman’s breast.

Absorption, being a bodily property, is the obstruction ofall motion. By the qualification “being a bodily property”the definition is not so wide as to include transitory feelingssuch as sleep. Paralysis and the rest are properties of thebody, and by being mentioned along with them, absorptiontoo must be considered a property of the body. And therebythe word “motion” here must be taken as referring solelyto the motion of the body. e mind has actions but notmotions—thus the scientific definition of “body,” namely,that it is the locus of motion.e factors of absorption arepassion, longing, etc. An example:

She did not lower her face, shake her head,turn her body aside,catch her garment slipping down, or uttera single simple “No,”nor even turn toward him a reddened eye.iAll Radha did was focusher mind, so bashful in the arts of love,upon Murári’s face.

Yawning would appear to be a ninth involuntary physical .reaction. An example:

With mouth gaping, a pair of breasts heaving,cheeks beaded with sweat,drooping lashes, slipping dress, and navelshowing, eyebrows playing,arms in a circle clasped by her small fingers,hips turned and inclined,with bodice bursting and armpits peeking throughthe young girl stands there yawning.

In such poems as the above, and in the “Forehead Orna-ment of the Erotic”* and similar works, we find that yawn-ing is referred to in parallel with other involuntary physi-cal reactions. As for the argument that this should be re-versed—that this yawning is an effect of an involuntaryphysical reaction—there is no force to it. So long as it isan effect there is nothing contradictory about its being areaction, given that this is precisely what we see in suchthings as horripilation. Nor does this mean that things such

as stretching or batting the eyes would thereby also becomeinvoluntary physical reactions, for the simple reason thatthey do not share the definition of a reaction (which hasbeen defined as a “transformation conducive to rasa”i), andbecause we find references to that effect in the descriptionof the involuntary physical reactions of Mahá·shveta andothers in the “Kadámbari.”ii ings like stretching are nottransformations but motions of the body. And it is further-more empirically known that stretching or batting the eyesis something people do or do not do at will, whereas yawn-ing arises from some transformation and ends when thatends.* An example:

As the daughter of the Mountainnursed her love-anger in privatethe Great Lord saw her yawn,* and smilingstarted snapping his fingers.iii

e end of the Description of the Involuntary Physical Reactions,the Fourth Wave of Bhanu·datta’s “River of Rasa.”

Sheldon I. Pollock is William B. Ransford Professor of Sanskrit and Indian Studies, Columbia University. He has also translated Books Two and Three of the Ramáyana, “Ayódhya” and “The Forest,” and Rama’s Last Act by Bhava·bhuti. He is the author of

and editor of and

.

The Clay Sanskrit Library is a unique series that, through original text and English translation, gives an international readership access to the beauty and variety of classical Sanskrit literature.

For a full list of titles, a searchable corpus of CSL texts and translations, and further information, please visit: www.claysanskritlibrary.com

Bhanu·datta’s twin sixteenth-century masterpieces, his Bouquet of Rasa (on types of female and male

characters in poetry) and River of Rasa (on aesthetics), together summarized beautifully the thousand-year-long

tradition of Sanskrit literary theory, and did so in illustrative verses of far higher literary caliber

than anyone had offered before.

WWW.CLAYSANSKRITLIBRARY.COMcl

aysa

nskrit library

NEW YORK UNIVERSIT Y PRESS & JJC FOUNDATION

Bouquet of Rasa &

River of Rasaby Bhanu·datta

Edited and translated by

SHELDON I. POLLOCK

CLAY SANSKRIT LIBRARY Here is a new Clay Sanskrit Library edition and translation of Bhanu·datta’s Bouquet of Rasa and River of Rasa.

Bhanu·datta is probably the most famous Sanskrit poet that no one today has ever heard of. His Bouquet of Rasa and River

of Rasa, both composed in the early sixteenth century, probably under the patronage of the Nizam of Ahmadnagar in western India, attracted the attention of the most celebrated commentators in early modern India. Some of the greatest painters of Mewar and Basohli vied to turn his subtle poems into pictures. And his verses were prized by poets everywhere: Abu al-Fazl, the preeminent scholar at Akbar’s court, translated them into Persian, and, Kshetráyya, the great Andhra poet of the next century, adapted them into Telugu.

Many writers have described the types of heroines and heroes of Sanskrit literature (the subject of the Bouquet of

Rasa) or explained the nature of aesthetic emotion (that of the River of Rasa), but none did so in verse of such exquisite and subtle artistry.

jjcNEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS

Washington SquareNew York, NY 10003www.nyupress.org

bouquet

of rasa

&

river of

rasa

pollock

bhanu·

datta

CSL Bouquet & River of Rasa2.indd 1 24/10/08 10:46:03

b y r a l bouquet of rasa river of rasa - clay sanskrit library bhava·bhuti. he is the author of wf...

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