What is Rasa?
Rasa literally means the ultimate essence of a work of art. Rasa is a two-way process. The artist strives for rasa in his work and the rasika or connoisseur intuitively detects it. Rasa is bestowed, not made. In its most obvious sense, rasa refers to the sap, juice of plants, or extract/ fluid. In this physical sense, it is easy to identify: for instance, one speaks of the rasa of orange or sugarcane. Rasa also signifies the non-material essence of something or the best or finest part of it, like perfume, which comes from matter but is not so easy to describe or comprehend. Rasa also denotes taste and flavour, relating to consuming or handling either the physical object or taking in its nonphysical properties that yield pleasure. And when Rasa is applied to art and aesthetic experiences, the word signifies a state of heightened delight or ananda, the kind of bliss that can be experienced only by the spirit. The theory of art that focuses on the idea of rasa was enunciated for the first
