Sing Rāga, Embody Bhāva: The Way of Being Rasa
Thanmayee Holalkere Krishnamurthy, B.E.
- Resource Type:
- Thesis/Dissertation (Online)
- Publication:
- [Denton, Texas] : University of North Texas, 2019
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- Summary:
- Abstract: The rasa theory of Indian aesthetics is concerned with the nature of the genesis of emotions and their corresponding experiences, as well as the condition of being in and experiencing the aesthetic world. According to the Indian aesthetic theory, rasa ("juice" or "essence," something that is savored, that is tasted) is an embodied aesthetic experienced through an artistic performance. In this thesis, I have investigated how the aesthetics of rasa philosophy account for creative presence and its experiences in Karnatik vocal performances. Beyond the facets of grammar, Karnatik rāga performance signifies a deeper ontological meaning as a way to experience rasa, idiomatically termed as rāga-rasa by South Indian rāga practitioners. A vocal performance of a rāga ideally depends on a singer's embodied experience of rāga and rāga-bhāva (emotive expression of rāga), as much as it does on his/her theoretical knowledge and skillset of a rāga's svaras (scale degrees), gamakas (ornamentation), lakṣhaṇās (emblematic phrases), and so on. Reflecting on my own experience of being a Karnatik student and performer for the last two decades, participant observation, interviews, and analysis of Indian aesthetic theory of rasa, I propose a way of understanding that to sing rāga is to embody bhāva opening the space that brings rasa into being. Reflecting on the epistemology of rāga theory, particularly its smaller entities of svaras and gamakas, and through a phenomenological description of the process through which a vocalist embodies rāga (including how a guru transmits this musical embodiment to his shishya [disciple]), I argue that the notion of rāga-rasa itself has agency in determining the nature of svaras and its gamakas in a rāga performance. Additionally, focusing on the relationship between performers and rasikas (drinkers of the juice), this thesis examines how the embodiment of rāga-bhāva and the experience of rasa open the possibility for musicians and audiences to live rāga-rasa in a performance.
- Table of Contents:
- Introduction to rasa and rāga rasa
- Rasa: the recipe and taste of transcendence in art
- Rāga-rasa: the quest of tasting rāga
- Rasa: the confluence of performer and rasika
- Conclusion.
- Author/Creator:
- Krishnamurthy, Thanmayee , author
- Contributors:
- Friedson, Steven M. (Steven Michael), 1948- , major professor
- Languages:
- English
- Language Notes:
- Item content: English
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- Subjects:
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- Dissertation Notes:
- M.A. ― University of North Texas, 2019.
- General Notes:
- Discipline: Ethnomusicology.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 83-88).
Description based on: Online resource; title from PDF title page (UNT Digital Library, viewed April 21, 2020). - Physical Description:
- 1 online resource (vii, 88 pages) : illustrations, music.
- Digital Characteristics:
- text file
- Call Numbers:
- Electronic Thesis
- OCLC Numbers:
- 1269313142