Rasa Theory and Aesthetic Emotion: Bridging Indian Poetics, Culture, and Narrative Empathy

Rasa Theory, as articulated in Bharata’s Nāṭyaśāstra, offers a comprehensive model of aesthetic experience, highlighting how emotional states are evoked, transformed, and shared through performance and narrative. Traditionally grounded in classical Indian dramaturgy, this theory continues to provide valuable conceptual tools for understanding emotion as an embodied, affective, and culturally nuanced phenomenon. The present study engages with the relatively limited integration of Rasa theory into global discourses on emotion, empathy, and intercultural narrative aesthetics. It presents a conceptual inquiry that engages closely with Sanskrit aesthetic texts and places them in interpretive dialogue with contemporary scholarship in intercultural aesthetics, narrative psychology, and affect theory. This approach enables Rasa Theory to function not only as a classical aesthetic model but also as a versatile tool for interpreting emotional resonance in literature, modern art forms, and digital narratives. By focusing on key elements such as bhāva (emotional states), sādhāraṇīkaraṇa (universalization), and the sahr̥daya (empathetic spectator), the study repositions Rasa theory as both a rooted South Asian epistemology and a globally relevant aesthetic paradigm. The study’s contribution lies in showing how Rasa, as an indigenous aesthetic framework, can enrich global discourse on emotion, narrative, and cultural meaning by bridging classical poetics with contemporary aesthetic forms across diverse cultural contexts.