‘Rasa’ MOST IMPORTANT CONCEPT OF INDIAN TRADITIONAL AESTHETIC THEORY PHILOSOPHY GIVEN BY BHARATA IN ‘NATYASHASTRA’
Karuna Rasa Shringara Rasa Veera Rasa Hasya Rasa Bhayankara Rasa Vibhatsa Rasa Adbhuta Rasa Raudra Rasa Shanti Rasa
KARUNA RASA THE COMPASSIONATE KEYWORDS Sadness, Pathos
SYNONYMS Considerate, Sorrow, Misery, Grief
ATTRIBUTED COLOUR Light Grey (White, Background 1, 15%)
KARUNA RASA
SHRINGARA RASA THE EROTIC KEYWORDS Love, Fondness, Yearning, Tenderness
SYNONYMS Passion, Enchantment, Infatuation, Idolatry, Narcissism, Seduction
ATTRIBUTED COLOUR Purple (Purple, Accent 4)
SHRINGARA RASA
VEERA RASA THE HEROIC KEYWORDS
SYNONYMS
Valour
Courage, Bravery, Gallantry
ATTRIBUTED COLOUR Light Green, (Olive Green, Accent 3,Lighter 80%)
VEERA RASA
HASYA RASA THE COMIC KEYWORDS
SYNONYMS
Laughter, Humour
Wit, Hilarity
ATTRIBUTED COLOUR White (White, Background 1)
HASYA RASA
BHAYANKARA RASA THE TERRIFYING KEYWORDS Fear
SYNONYMS Anxiety, Apprehension, Intimidation
ATTRIBUTED COLOUR Black (Black, Text 1)
BHAYANKARA RASA
VIBHATSA RASA THE DISGUSTING KEYWORDS
SYNONYMS
Aversion
Dislike, Loathing, Repugnance
ATTRIBUTED COLOUR Blue
VIBHATSA RASA
ADBHUTA RASA THE AWESOME KEYWORDS
SYNONYMS
Surprise
Disclosure, Blow, Astonishment
ATTRIBUTED COLOUR Yellow
ADBHUTA RASA
RAUDRA RASA THE WRATHFUL KEYWORDS
SYNONYMS
Anger, Vengeance, Arrogance
Fury, Temper, Ire, Frenzy
ATTRIBUTED COLOUR Red
RAUDRA RASA
SHANTI RASA THE PEACEFUL KEYWORDS
SYNONYMS
Calm
Serene, Quiet, Tranquil, Composed
ATTRIBUTED COLOUR White (White, Background 1)
SHANTI RASA
ARCHITECTURAL RELEVANCE OF THE NAVRASA THEORY
KARUNA RASA GENERAL ELUCIDATION
ARCHITECTURAL EXAMPLE
•Closed courts •Introverted planning •Rendering the aura with a sense of relaxation Nalakettu , India (traditional Kerala home with a quadrangle in the centre)
SHRINGARA RASA GENERAL ELUCIDATION
ARCHITECTURAL EXAMPLE
•Erotic environment •A house near a water body, like a pond; a large number of mango and other fruitbearing trees in the vicinity The Taj Mahal, Agra, India
VEERA RASA GENERAL ELUCIDATION
ARCHITECTURAL EXAMPLE
•Architecture that champions a noble cause •Could almost border on arrogance The Southern India Gopuram Sculpture
HASYA RASA ARCHITECTURAL EXAMPLE
GENERAL ELUCIDATION •Experienced
in
an
abnormal variation from the usual. •Emotions arising out of exaggerated confusion, irony or even pain
Kappal Matha Church in Uvari, Tamil Nadu, India
BHAYANKARA RASA GENERAL ELUCIDATION
ARCHITECTURAL EXAMPLE
•An edge-of-a-cliff situation. •An illustration could be a building constructed on a cliff and its glass balcony. Prabalgad Fort, Padaghe, Maharashtra, India
VIBHATSA RASA GENERAL ELUCIDATION
ARCHITECTURAL EXAMPLE
•Synonymous to a sickening distaste
or
dislike;
deep
aversion and repugnance. •Incidental architecture born more out of some freak accident.
Infosys, Rajiv Gandhi Infotech Park, Hinjawadi, Taluka Mulshi, Pune, India
ADBHUTA RASA GENERAL ELUCIDATION
ARCHITECTURAL EXAMPLE
•Contortion in the built form of any kind will invoke such emotions. •Any architecture that plays on scale and the human proportion.
Orange County, Ahinsa Khand 1, Indirapuram, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India
RAUDRA RASA GENERAL ELUCIDATION
ARCHITECTURAL EXAMPLE
•An office of an adamant NGO fighting social evil would perhaps justify such emotions. Antilia, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
SHANTI RASA GENERAL ELUCIDATION •A culmination of all these eight aforementioned moods together. •It would be easier for the architect to work on Peace or Shanti as an individual entity rather than a sum of parts.
RASAS AND THEIR WESTERN ARCHITECTURAL COUNTERPARTS
Organic Architecture Corresponds to KARUNA RASA Jean-Marie Tjibaou Cultural Centre, Noumea, New Caledonia It sought to make a tribute to a culture based on respect for its history and traditions, past, present and future, as well as its sensitivity.
Art-Nouveau Style Corresponds to SHRINGARA RASA A fine example of Art Nouveau, a stunning staircase designed by Victor Horta The dry and unnuanced eroticism of art nouveau is evident in its serpentine iconography and richly seductive colours.
Skyscraper Corresponds to VEERA RASA Record shattering hero :the Burj Khalifa, Dubai, United Arab Emirates The tower was to be a symbol of the triumph of the modern west and also of a masculine heroism
Post Modern Style Corresponds to HASYA RASA
Duck House, Flanders, New York, USA Classical features in a playful way.
Brutalism Corresponds to BHAYANKARA RASA The Research Institute for Experimental Medicine Unadorned and roughcast concrete was used; adding to its unfortunate reputation for evoking a bleak dystopian future.
Deconstruction Corresponds to VIBHATSA RASA ‘Deconstructing the Churches’ is a series of photo collages Part of a larger series of photos, these images visually deconstruct parts of the real world that we normally think of as stable.
Fascist Corresponds to ADBHUTA RASA The Palace of Justice, Milan (designed by Marcello Piacentini) Characterised by Monumental austerity and abstract formalism one is left in awe of it and doesn’t quite know what to make of these.
Deconstruction Corresponds to RAUDRA RASA Port House, Antwerp's Port Authority It’s impossible to be indifferent to a building that looks like a giant spaceship, or an artist’s rendering of a meteorite, or a kind of riff on a giant barnacle.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Emotions in architecture have been there since time immemorial, be it in Western thought or Indian. Papers have been written by Hernan and Mastandrea in 2009 and Droog and de Vries in 2009 on emotions in architecture in the Western orientation. Both have stated that there are four types of Aesthetic Emotions However, the Indian aesthetic theory states that there are nine types of emotions in their Navarasa Theory, which is a refinement and a far more elaborate expression.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Several Indian architects like Raj Rewal and Charles Correa have made references to the Rasas but none have very consciously used them in their design development. This discussion on Navarasa Theory may provide an idea to the young future designers to use these theories and produce architecture which will be in the realms of Classical Art as it has been used by ancient Indian dancers, musicians and artists.
“You employ stone, wood and concrete, and with these materials you build houses and palaces. That is construction. Ingenuity is at work. But suddenly you touch my heart, you do me good, I am happy and I say: "This is beautiful." That is Architecture. Art enters in”. (“Le Corbusier - Wikiquote,” n.d.)
