Jagat

The adulterous heroine in Sanskrit poetics 1. Introduction The impetus for this investigation into the adulterous heroine is the figure of Radha, who is almost universally depicted as married to someone other than Krishna, with whom she is nevertheless eternally involved in the archetype of all romantic relationships. We are particularly interested here in finding the background to theology of Radha and Krishna as found the work of Rupa and Jiva Goswamis of Vrindavan, 16th century devotees and theologians of the Gaudiya Vaishnava school set into motion by Chaitanya. Rupa wrote numerous works of drama in which Krishna is depicted in an adulterous relationship with Radha. Indeed, his Vidagdha-mādhava (1) may well be the first play in which an entire Sanskrit drama has been constructed around the theme of such a relationship. In his Ujjvala-nīlamaṇi , Rupa also rearranged many of the poeticians' traditional categories in order to make them suitable for the specifics of the Radha...

Bharata Muni names eight rasas, coupling them in four complementary pairs. Thus he associates hāsya with śṛṅgāra (laughter and romantic love), vīra with bhayānaka (fear and heroism), adbhuta and bībhatsa (wonder or astonishment with disgust or horror), and karuṇa with raudra (grief, empathy or pity with anger). Bharata did not accept śānta as a rasa, and there is a debate going on pretty much through the tradition about whether it should be considered one. Abhinava Gupta was the great defender of śānta-rasa and since his time there have been nine rasas rather than eight. Abhinava Gupta also denied bhakti as a rasa and subsumed it to śānta-rasa , which is probably a reflection of his religious philosophy. Amongst the various poeticians there was always an attempt to find the one rasa that incorporated all the others, with some like Abhinava Gupta saying it was śānta , others claiming wonder ( adbhuta ), and Bhojadeva naming śṛṅgāra as the one rasa that included all the o...