Indian Classical Music And Sikh Kirtan
by Gobind Singh Mansukhani (M.A., LL.B, Ph.D.) © 1982
Rasa (Emotion)
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by Gobind Singh Mansukhani (M.A., LL.B, Ph.D.) © 1982
Rasa (Emotion)
Indian Classical Music And Sikh Kirtan by Gobind Singh Mansukhani (M.A., LL.B, Ph.D.) © 1982 Rasa (Emotion) |
| Rasa (Emotion) If raga (melodic pattern) be compared to a tree, rasa, is its fruit. Just as the tree gives fruit, which provides juice, flavour, relish or delight and nutrition, in the same way raga provides all these things symbolically. As one musicologist puts it, "Emotions is the food and the artistic consciousness is the tongue. The resulting experience is rasa [4]." Those who practice the raga are able to give the appropriate rasa to the listeners. Just as the fruit produces the seed which later grows into another tree, in the same way, the thath (parent scale) can contribute to the creation of another raga. Undoubtedly, different types of music evoke different feelings and emotions. Certain sounds produce joy, others grief and yet others affection and tenderness. According to Indian aesthetics, each poem or musical composition produces a certain rasa (emotion). Literally, rasa means juice, but in musical context it implies more than an aesthetic relish-a transcendental experience. Some consider rasa as sentiment, but it is something subtle, even more than an emotion or empathy. Rasa is essentially emotional reaction and awareness of it. The feeling may be pleasant or sad, high or low, sublime or ludicrous, actual or imaginary, furious or peaceful. Every raga or ragini is like a hero or heroine respectively in a certain emotional situation, and the musician or singer is expected to create that very situation to enable the audience to share it. By and large, each raga is supposed to evoke a single emotion. For example, the notes of Khamaj raga are said to evoke erotic feelings or to create a romantic mood. Kafi raga is tranquilizing and pleasing and gives a feeling of peace. In the system of Indian aesthetics, there are nine emotions called nava rasa. These are: shingara (romantic or erotic feeling), hasya (comic or humorous feeling), karuna (pathetic or sad emotion), rudra (anger or fury), veer (valorous or heroic), bhayanak (fear or terror), vibhatsa (odious or disgusting), adhbuta (wonder or surprise) and shanta (peace and tranquility). American psychologists who made a scientific study of the effects of music found nine kinds of emotional changes in the listeners [5]. Their feelings were similar to the nine rasas. These sentiments become more concretised in drama by the expressions of the eyes, lips, hands and words of the actor. In a musical performance, the audience gets the particular emotion or mood of the raga through the notes and rhythm, the style of singing and graces, the vibrations of the scale, and the feeling and ethos of the singer. |