For the purposes of this essay and in the effort to articulate a particular expression of bhakti, the focus will be on emotional bhakti through the lens of a form of Kṛṣṇa Bhakti that draws upon conventions found in aesthetic theory in order to communicate the loving devotion towards God. While there are many expressions of bhakti traditions depending on the deity of worship, the ontology subscribed or the way and goal taken asunder, I will explore the role of rasa in the discourses of Kṛṣṇa bhakti expressed in influential form in the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, and the Gītagovinda of Jayadeva and theoretically elaborated in the dualist Gauḍīya Sampradāya tradition in a selection from Rūpa Gosvāmin’s Bhaktirasāmṛtasindhu as well as in the Bhakti Rasa for the Advaitin Renunciate in Madhusūdana Sarasvatī’s theory of devotional sentiment from the Bhaktirasāyana. This is because the focus of this study will be to understand the cultivation of devotional sentiment drawn from the wellspring of affective experience that is gathered through a particular interweaving of artistic sentiment and devotional sentiment.

The thesis explores elements of Sanskrit drama studies, its philosophy of aesthetics, Hindu theology and Indian cinema studies. It seeks to identify and appreciate the continual influence of a pioneering and influential idea from the Indian subcontinent’s cultural memory and history – the ‘theory of aesthetics’, also known as the ‘Rasa Theory’. The rasa theory is a seminal contribution of the ancient Indian Sanskrit drama textbook, the Natyashastra, whose postulates have provided a definitive template for appreciating and analysing all major fine arts in the Indian sub-continent for over two millennia. No criticism of an art form in India is more devastating than the allegation that it is devoid of rasa. Though ‘rasa’ has many literal meanings like taste, essence and ultimately bliss, in Natyashastra it is used to signify the “essence of emotion” or the final emotional state of ‘relish/reaction/aesthetic experience’ achieved by a spectator while watching a performing art. The thesis uses this fundamental aesthetic influence from India’s cultural memory and heritage to understand its working in the shaping of emotive performances, and the structuring of multiple genre mixing narrative styles in Indian cinema. It identifies and explains how the story telling attributes in Indian cinema, still preserve, transmit and represent, drama and performance aesthetics established 2000 years ago. The chapters are divided into two sections – evidence-led correlation confirming the direct influence of Natyashastra guidelines on Indian filmmaking practices, and arguments-driven proposals on how to use the rasa theory for appreciating cinematic aesthetics. Section One, comprising of the first three chapters, engages with direct evidence of the influence and use of Natyashastra prescriptions and rasa theory expectations in the early years of Indian cinema, when the movie industry was intimately tied to theatre for creative guidance. Section Two, comprising of chapters four to six, goes beyond these conscious engagements to explore the continuing relevance of the concepts of bhava and rasa for studies and methods in film appreciation, and their potential usage in discussing alternate modes of cinematic expression, like melodrama. In this section, recommendations are made on how to re-read and review influential and representative cinematic achievements from different eras, regions and genres of Indian on-screen entertainment, using the rasa theory for better understanding of foundational cinematic attributes like plot construction, performances and directorial achievement in non-realism prioritising on-screen narrations. The thesis shows how to appreciate expressive acting, song and dance performances and melodramatic narratives/ movies using the rasa theory’s prescriptions on good acting in a navarasa exploring drama. It calls for a greater engagement with the theory’s aesthetic appreciation ideas, beyond its current peripheral acknowledgement in academic scholarship as an exotic and ancient review model with doubtful contemporary relevance. My conclusions offer a valuable guide for a fair and better appreciation of dramatic, stylistic and stereotypical acting in cinema that Western models of film criticism privileging the realistic form have been inadequate in comprehending. These findings propose a mode of inclusive aesthetic criticism that enjoys broad application across a wide range of cinematic art genres and national cinema styles using non-Euro/American modes of storytelling, towards the establishment of a humanist film education.

This research investigates sensory-somatic awareness based approaches to the conditioning, training and performance of Odissi dance in India. Through a multidisciplinary and embodied methodology it analyses the practices of three contemporary Odissi dance institutes and a selection of individual dancers in India, who are moving beyond the traditional methodology. Drawing from ethnographic fieldwork in India, this research explores how sensory-somatic approaches incorporated by these dancers generate meaning-making and in what ways this enriches the dancers’ experience of dancing Odissi. As an outcome of the fieldwork, the term sensory-somatic is proposed and analysed in line with the dancers’ embodied experience of dancing Odissi. The analysis entails a paradigm that embraces the corporeal, sentient and socio-cultural bodymind, and the sensory aspects of senses, sensation, perception, sensibility and sensuality. These form two layers: the somatic and sensory which merge together as the sensory-somatic awareness. It takes into consideration the sensory perception and awareness leading to an agentic, enactive and embodied meaning-making and emotional engagement of the dancers. It also examines how the changing socio-cultural situation has been continuously affecting the Odissi dance embodiment. This thesis does not address the religious aspect and the experience of the audience in Odissi performance. The main focus remains the dancers’ individual experience of learning and performing Odissi dance. Moving away from the study of Odissi dance just as a reflection of the state, regional culture and representation of mythologies, this thesis is an investigation of the Odissi dancer’s meaningful, embodied and lived experience of Odissi dancing. It contributes to the debates on body-mind relationship, emotional engagement, place of the ‘self’, the student-oriented learning, psychophysical training and performance, and rasa-bhāva aesthetics. This study reveals that the sensory-somatic awareness is based upon reflexivity, independent enquiry, psychophysical health, bodymind awareness and leads to empowerment, agency, autonomy, plurality, confidence and responsibility, a level of relief from gender biases, and an inclusive approach to learning and performing.