Indian aesthetics has borrowed highly from the myths and legends
related to Krishna. Krishna is the
archetypal rasika
. Indian philosophers emphasis
on the importance of rasa in
understanding and appreciating the arts in general, and the theatre arts in
particular.
1. The
rasa theory was originally formulated by BHARATHA in his treatise NATYASHASTRA.
2. Rasa
is not of one kind but of many, it is the total of many ingredients. Guna or Value is one of the ingredients.
3. From
BHARATHA onwards the term signified the aesthetic pleasure or thrill, invariably accompanied
with joy that the audience/spectator/reader, experience while
witnessing/hearing the enactment or reading of a drama or poem.
4. In
Sanskrit aesthetics, the term employed initially in the context of drama and
later poetry.
5. For
BHARATHA the main purpose of dramatic performance is to create and enact the rasas.
He clarifies his point by using an analogy: just as rasa (flavor) issues
from the combination of many spices, herbs and other dravyas, so does rasa in
drama, as it comes from the combination of many bhavas.