Rasa: Abhinavagupta on the Purpose(s) of Art

International audienceThis essay cries to formulate an (over-)interpretation of the concept of rasa, as it is understood by Abhinavagupta especially, insofar as the purposeof art is concerned. In contrast with the well known binomial opposition as to the aim of art deemed as a source of knowledge and pleasure, being one of the horns of the issue primary and the other secondary and accessorial, this essay understands the rasa experience as a transformative practice involving both a beatific pleasure (prīti, or better ānanda) and an ethical Bildung (vyutpatti), which ultimately represent nothing but two aspects of the same sentimental education or educative emotional arousal. Art brings forth a pleasurable experience that is an education to the right choice to be made, among a range of emotive possibilities, in front of any situational context to be coped with. In such an understanding of the concept of rasa as a cognitive, emotional as well as moral experience, a specific interpretation of the ethical field is implicit, i.e., any morally meaningful choice coincides with the emotional response to any given situation. Consequently, emotions are moral acts, liable to moral judgements and evaluations