Indian and Western Aesthetics in Sri Aurobindo’s Criticism, A Comparative Study

Indian and Western Aesthetics in Sri Aurobindo’s Criticism

A Comparative Study

Indian and Western Aesthetics in Sri Aurobindo’s Criticism

A Comparative Study

Dr. Ujjwala Kakarla

Published in India by Zorba Books, 2017

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Copyright © Dr. Ujjwala Kakarla

ISBN Print Book - 978-93-86407-58-0

ISBN eBook - 978-93-86407-59-7

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CONTENTS

Preface

Acknowledgements

1. The Evolution of Western and Indian Aesthetics

2. Indian Aesthetics in Sri Aurobindo’s Criticism

3. Western Aesthetics in Sri Aurobindo’s Criticism

4. T. S. Eliot and Sri Aurobindo as Mystics and Critics

Conclusion

Bibiliography

PREFACE

The book Indian and Western Aesthetics in Sri Aurobindo’s Criticism is purely a compendium on Science of aesthetics which deals with a comparative study of Indian and western aesthetics taking from evolution to vastness of concepts and multiplicity of theories postulated by different literary theoreticians with a keen insight into Sri Aurobindo’s aesthetics. Sri Aurobindo is one of the greatest literary critics whose aesthetics accommodated many modern trends on the foundation of Indian culture.

Sri Aurobindo (1872-1950) is the most widely known and influential critic in the Literary Criticism of modern India. His critical power is as great as his creative genius and his critical perception proceeds directly from his manyfaceted personality. He is a poet, philosopher and Yogi and his aesthetics is naturally comprehensive, synthetic and inclusive which is rooted in the Vedas and Upanishads, but in the course of its development it has assimilated and accommodated many of the modern trends.

Sri Aurobindo’s criticism has given the complete synthesis of Eastern and Western thought and experience revivified, regenerated and reshaped in his own being. He is a literary critic of astonishing power and range of unsurpassed depth of insight, width of outlook and height of vision; a seer who moving with lose among the literatures of the East and West prepares humanity for a multitudinous, full-throated utterance that is going to be the mantra of a new civilization.

Sri Aurobindo is an adhikari of unquestioned competence, equally at home in the East and in the West, a distinguished teacher in the aesthetic education of man. Utterly free from all dogmatism, he is unimpressed by either the exclusive prestige of the past or in the pride of the present. With his faith in the evolving human whole he has his eyes fixed on the emerging values.

Sri Aurobindo’s is intuitive criticism who does not refer to too much or at all to literary canons. With nimble intuition he fixes on just a few essential insights in his case usually having affinity with the Vedic or Upanishad and utilizes them in a grand manner, in expounding cycles of experience, and a body of literature utterly dissimilar to the source of his value or insights.

The outstanding fact about Sri Aurobindo’s aesthetic speculations is his ceaseless endeavor to view life in its totality. The way he ranges and relates is a mark of his capacious orchestral mind and it was for him the natural thing to do, a rare example of rediscovered tradition and individual talent.

Sri Aurobindo breaks away for preconceived patterns and establishes in terms of unified culture based on deepened need for luminous totality and sense of direction. It is certain that, sooner or later, and sooner than later, the comprehensiveness of his statements on life and art will be regarded as one of the most precious of human possessions.

The Book incorporates four chapters. The First Chapter The Evolution of Western and Indian Aesthetics deals with the beginnings of Western and Indian literary criticism and also the influence of Western thought on Indian aesthetics that has awakened the Indian mind in three different directions.

The Second Chapter Indian Aesthetics in Sri Aurobindo’s Criticism deals with Indian poetic theories which have striking parallels to modern Western literary theories. Further there is an insight into Sri Aurobindo’s asethetics who has recovered the salient principles of ancient Indian aesthetics and their potentialities.

The Third Chapter Western Aesthetics in Sri Aurobindo’s Criticism deals with the revised history of English Poetry which has followed the true successive steps of natural ascending order of developing perceptions and consciousness. It also states about the problems that they have not solved and successfully achieved the possibility of real advance i.e. Sri Aurobindo’s overhead heights of human consciousness.

The Fourth Chapter T.S. Eliot and Sri Aurobindo as Mystics and Critics deals with the comparative study of their aesthetics by taking into account their critical essential aspects who also draw close to each other at the summits of poetic recordation.

The Conclusion deals with the best analysis of Indian and Western aesthetics. Moreover, a keen insight into Sri Aurobindo’s aesthetics is portrayed who has been assessed as a great Spiritual force and whose ultimate aim is to lift the humanity to the level of Super Mind.

Dr. K. Ujjwala

Hyderabad

June 2017

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Firstly, I offer my humble and respectful pranams to the Almighty God without whose grace, I would not have carried out my research.

I owe an indebt gratitude to my revered Professor and mentor, Dr. M. Kumara Swamy Raju, Rt. Prof. of English, S.K. University for his constant support and guidance; I also express my humble gratitude to Dr. V.C. Sudheer, Linguist, Rt. Prof. of English, Andhra University, whose in depth knowledge and insightful suggestions from time to time inspired and obligated me to carry out my research with a great challenge. Moreover, I express my thankfulness to Dr. K. Sukumar, Professor of English, S.V. University, Tirupathi whose recommendations strengthened the quality my research.

I also extend my hearty gratitude to my beloved Guru, Late Prof. Venkata Subbaiah, critic and writer, Sahitya Akademi Awardee, and my paternal father, Krishnam Naidu, Rt. Principal, USA whose critical principles and wise pieces of advice initiated and obliged me to commit and progress my research.

I am also grateful to Dr. Ramachandra Prasad, Professor of Mathematics, Madanapalle Institute of Technology; my brother Narendra Mandava, Senior Manager, Corporate Strategy at Coffee Day Enterprises Limited, Bangalore, Venkata Narayana, the Librarian, S.K. University and Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry for their helping hands.

I am grateful to my beloved Parents whose support and constant interest in my progress made me achieve my target.

Ultimately I convey my thankfulness to Zorba Pulishers for considering my manuscript and extending their best services in publishing my book.

Many people have also helped me to complete my work in many ways. I owe special and heartfelt thanks to them all.

Dr. K. Ujjwala

Hyderabad

CHAPTER 1

The Evolution of Western and

Indian Aesthetics

‘Aesthetics’ or the ‘Theory of Beauty’ in Art and Literature has been one of the early pursuits of human mind. The idea of beauty naturally brings in the idea of aesthetics. A thing of beauty is not only a joy forever, but it is an invitation forever to explore the reasons for that joy. Since poetry and drama are the earliest arts, it was only natural that the science of aesthetics should be inspired by the thoughts about early poetry and drama. Butcher S.H. points out, "Aristotle’s Poetics is regarded not only as the treatise setting forth his theory of poetry and drama but also about the art in general.¹

The theory of beauty need not be regarded as being confined only to literary forms of Poetry or Literature and Drama but also applicable to other arts like music, dance, painting, sculpture etc. The Hindus first developed the science of music from the chanting of the Vedic Hymns. The Sama Veda was especially meant for music. And the scale with seven notes and three octaves was known in India centuries before Greeks had it. Probably the Greeks learned it from the Hindus. According to Swami Abhedananda, It will be interesting to know that Wagner was indebted to the Hindu science of music, especially for his principal idea of the ‘leading motive’; and this is perhaps the reason why it is so difficult for many people to understand Wagner’s music.² Eminent Indologists and art critics like A.K. Coomaraswamy vouchsafe that the theory is capable of considerable extension even to the other Indian arts like painting. He points out, It is true that this theory is mainly developed in connection with poetry, drama, dancing and music, but it is immediately applicable to art of all kinds, much of its terminology employs the concept of color and we have evidence that the theory also in fact applied to painting.³

If Literature is communication of a special kind, Language is the means of that communication. The Language of Literature is emotive and it has a feeling of content. The major difference between Literary forms and other forms of art music, painting, dance, sculpture is that they can exist without use of any language. Poetry is considered to be more superior to other literary forms like drama, novel, short story, personal essays etc. So the language of poetry has to be different from the language used in other literary forms as it is in and through language that the poem comes into being. According to Mohit K. Ray, It is the language that subsumes the meaning and the music, the denotation and the connotation, the symbols and the images, the thought-content, the sonic and the semantic.⁴

A poem in addition to being an aesthetic object it is also a cognitive discourse and is governed by various aesthetic criteria such as harmony, intensity, depth, structural tension etc. According to Mohit K. Ray, As an aesthetic object its meanings are immanent and intransitive rather than immediately referential as is the language of Science. But at the same time it is a cognitive object and therefore, it is bound to say something; it is referential and it does reveal something of the external world.⁵

The aim of all arts was regarded to be the attempt to delight the human mind but it is difficult to decide what constitutes the locus of literariness or the poesis of a poem. It is this question that has engaged the critical attention of Poeticians of the highest order both in the West and in India. If the European Literature is more than two thousand years old, the Indian intellectual tradition also dates back to the second century B.C. According to Mohit K. Ray, In both India and the West, great aestheticians have tried to examine the nature of literature, its ontology and the secret of its appeal. They have tried to define in their own ways the nature of poetry and what constitutes the poesis of a poem. The notion of literary universal and its timelessness implies that there must be affinities between the western thinkers and the Indian thinkers down the centuries in regard to these problems.⁶

The beginnings of Western aesthetics took place in ancient Greece simultaneously with literary creation which may be traced back to the earliest Homeric Hymns while a systematic presentation of its underlying tenets is said to begin with Plato and Aristotle. Indian literary criticism is often traced back to the earliest known works in Sanskrit like the Vedas and Itihasas