Explaining (away?) conflicting emotions : A view from Sanskrit aesthetic phenomenology

Ram-Prasad, Chakravarthi (2025) Explaining (away?) conflicting emotions : A view from Sanskrit aesthetic phenomenology. In: Mixed Feelings : An Interdisciplinary Phenomenology. Ancient Emotions V . de Gruyter, Berlin, pp. 115-135. ISBN 9783111390543

Abstract

How can formal Sanskrit dramaturgical theory’s claim that the dominant aesthetic essence (rasa) of a literary work must be unmixed with another be reconciled with the evident complexity of emotions (bhāvas) that such works strive to convey? In the 10th-century text The Ten Dramatic Forms by Dhanamjaya and Observations on it by Dhanika the issue of how conflicting emotions can be conveyed and understood aesthetically is directly tackled. Drawing on the complex typology of emotions they inherit through the tradition, Dhanamjaya and Dhanika seek to demonstrate that a mix of emotions in a single scenario (romantic attraction and heroic resolve, or attraction and spiritual calmness; or attraction and revulsion) do not conflict with each other, but can be explained through various analytic relationships between states and types of emotions. I present these moves and suggest that they provide us with some interesting ideas for a philosophical anthropology of conflicting emotions.