Learning to taste the emotions: The Mughal rasika

TY - CHAP

T1 - Learning to taste the emotions

T2 - The Mughal rasika

AU - Butler Schofield, Katherine

PY - 2015/10/5

Y1 - 2015/10/5

N2 - In Indic aesthetic theory, from as early as the first centuries of the Common Era, the connoisseur has been known as the rasika, the “taster” of the nine affective essences, or rasas, that are ideally manifested in music, poetry, and other arts. A rasika must possess comprehensive knowledge of the art of which he (for it is always “he”) is a connoisseur, but knowledge in and of itself is never sufficient: the true rasika must correctly experience the emotions encapsulated in the rasas. The question this paper will address is whether it is possible for a patron coming from outside the Indic aesthetic culture to ever truly become a rasika: to learn to taste the rasas not only intellectually but also experientially. Focussing on Mughal patrons of music in the seventeenth century, this paper will suggest that it is possible to translate non-verbal experience from one cultural domain into another – in this case from Sanskritic to Persianate – in order to re-experience it on a deeper level in the new domain. The key to this translation is perceived affinities between different ontologies of music and of affect, particularly of love.

AB - In Indic aesthetic theory, from as early as the first centuries of the Common Era, the connoisseur has been known as the rasika, the “taster” of the nine affective essences, or rasas, that are ideally manifested in music, poetry, and other arts. A rasika must possess comprehensive knowledge of the art of which he (for it is always “he”) is a connoisseur, but knowledge in and of itself is never sufficient: the true rasika must correctly experience the emotions encapsulated in the rasas. The question this paper will address is whether it is possible for a patron coming from outside the Indic aesthetic culture to ever truly become a rasika: to learn to taste the rasas not only intellectually but also experientially. Focussing on Mughal patrons of music in the seventeenth century, this paper will suggest that it is possible to translate non-verbal experience from one cultural domain into another – in this case from Sanskritic to Persianate – in order to re-experience it on a deeper level in the new domain. The key to this translation is perceived affinities between different ontologies of music and of affect, particularly of love.

UR - http://www.openbookpublishers.com/product/311/tellings-and-texts--music--literature-and-performance-in-north-india

U2 - 10.11647/OBP.0062

DO - 10.11647/OBP.0062

M3 - Chapter

SN - 9781783741038

SN - 9781783741021

SP - 407

BT - Tellings and texts

A2 - Orsini, Francesca

A2 - Schofield, Katherine Butler

PB - Open Book Publishers

ER -