''Abhinavabharati'' is a commentary on ancient

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

n author

Bharata Muni Bharata Muni (Hindi: भरत मुनि) was an ancient sage who the musical treatise '' Natya Shastra'' is traditionally attributed to. The work covers ancient Indian dramaturgy and histrionics, especially Sanskrit theatre. Bharata is con ...

's work of dramatic theory, the ''

Natyasastra The ''Nāṭya Śāstra'' (, ''Nāṭyaśāstra'') is a Sanskrit treatise on the performing arts. The text is attributed to sage Bharata Muni, and its first complete compilation is dated to between 200 BCE and 200 CE, but estimates vary ...

''. It is the oldest commentary available on the treatise. The ''Abhinavabharati'' was written by

Abhinavagupta Abhinavagupta (c. 950 – 1016 Common Era, CE) was a Indian philosophy, philosopher, Mysticism, mystic and Aesthetics, aesthetician from Kashmir. He was also considered an influential Music of India, musician, Indian poetry, poet, Theatre in ...

(c. 950–1020), the great

Kashmir Kashmir () is the northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term "Kashmir" denoted only the Kashmir Valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal Range. Today, the term encompas ...

Saivite Shaivism (; sa, शैवसम्प्रदायः, Śaivasampradāyaḥ) is one of the major Hindu traditions, which worships Shiva as the Supreme Being. One of the largest Hindu denominations, it incorporates many sub-traditions rangin ...

spiritual leader Clergy are formal leaders within established religions. Their roles and functions vary in different religious traditions, but usually involve presiding over specific rituals and teaching their religion's doctrines and practices. Some of the ter ...

and a yogi. In this monumental work, Abhinavagupta explains the ''rasasutra'' of Bharata in consonance with the theory of ''abhivyakti'' (expression) propounded in

Anandavardhana Ānandavardhana (c. 820–890 CE) was the author of ''Dhvanyāloka'', or ''A Light on Suggestion'' (''dhvani''), a work articulating the philosophy of "aesthetic suggestion" (''dhvani'', ''vyañjanā''). The philosopher Abhinavagupta (c. 950 – 10 ...

's (820–890) work ''Dhvanyaloka'' ("aesthetic suggestion"), as well as the tenets of the

Pratyabhijna Pratyabhijñā or Pratyabhigyā ( sa, प्रत्यभिज्ञा, pratyabhijñā, re-cognition) is an idealistic, monistic, and theistic school of philosophy in Kashmir Shaivism which originated in the ninth century CE. The term ''Tri ...

philosophy of

. According to Abhinavagupta, the

aesthetic Aesthetics, or esthetics, is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of beauty and taste, as well as the philosophy of art (its own area of philosophy that comes out of aesthetics). It examines aesthetic values, often expressed th ...

experience is the manifestation of the innate dispositions of the

self The self is an individual as the object of that individual’s own reflective consciousness. Since the ''self'' is a reference by a subject to the same subject, this reference is necessarily subjective. The sense of having a self—or ''selfhood ...

, such as love and sorrow, by the self. It is characterised by the contemplation of the bliss of the self by the connoisseur. It is akin to the spiritual experience as one transcends the limitations of one's limited self because of the process of universalisation taking place during the aesthetic contemplation of characters depicted in the work of

art Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas. There is no generally agreed definition of wha ...

. Abhinavagupta maintains that this ''rasa'' (literally, ''taste'' or ''essence'', the final outcome)of the various constituents of an artistic or theatrical performance, has been a central concept in Indian art and aesthetics from ancient times. is the ''summum bonum'' of all literature.

Bibliography

Natyasastra of Bharatamuni: Text, Commentary of Abhinava Bharati by Abhinavaguptacarya and English Translation/edited by Pushpendra Kumar. Translated by M.M. Ghosh. Delhi, New Bharatiya Book Corporation, 2006, 3 Vols., 1614 p

Notes

Ancient Indian literature {{India-lit-stub