Rasa Quotes in Indian Ink
DAS My painting has no rasa today.
FLORA What is rasa?
DAS Rasa is juice. Its taste. Its essence. A painting must have its rasa … which is not in the painting exactly. Rasa is what you must feel when you see a painting, or hear music; it is the emotion which the artist must arouse in you.
FLORA And poetry? Does a poem have rasa?
DAS Oh yes! Poetry is a sentence whose soul is rasa. That is a famous dictum of Vishvanata, a great teacher of poetry, six hundred years ago.
FLORA Rasa … yes. My poem has no rasa.
DAS Or perhaps it has two rasa which are in conflict.
DAS (Unhesitatingly) The rasa of erotic love is called Shringara. Its god is Vishnu, and its colour is shyama, which is blue-black. Vishvanata in his book on poetics tells us: Shringara requires, naturally, a lover and his loved one, who may be a courtesan if she is sincerely enamoured, and it is aroused by, for example, the moon, the scent of sandalwood, or being in an empty house. Shringara goes harmoniously with all other rasa and their complementary emotions, with the exception of fear, cruelty, disgust and sloth.
FLORA That was the thing I was going to ask you.
DAS When?
FLORA The delicate question … whether you would prefer to paint me nude.
DAS Oh.
LORA I preferred it. I had more what-do-you-call it.
DAS Rasa.
FLORA (Laughs quietly) Yes, rasa.
Rasa Term Timeline in Indian Ink
