Reading English Literature through the Lens of Indian Aesthetics

Abstract

English Studies in India are highly derivative as are other domains of knowledge in modern Indian universities. In the Postcolonial discourse, replacing colonial knowledge with indigenous knowledge is an important act/tool to overthrow the colonial hegemony. In view of this, in order to decolonise English Studies, the Indian scholars must look at their own roots and native aesthetics. Indian Aesthetics is quite rich and ancient Indian theoreticians have thought over different aspects of a literary text. Bharata’s Natya Shastra (date estimates vary between 500 BCE and 500 CE) contains Rasa Siddhanta. Besides, this there are five other indigenous schools of aesthetics viz. Alankara-sampradaya (Bhamaha, 6^th cen), Riti-sampradaya (Vamana, 8^th – 9^th AD), Dhvani-sampradaya (Anandvardhan, 9^th century), Vakrokti-sampradaya (Kuntaka, 10^th -11^th century), and Auchitya-sampradaya (Kshemendra, 10^th -11^th century). All of them can very well be used to analyse a literary text irrespective of its language identity. Sometimes even better results are there in its application as new interpretations emerge and a more intense textual analysis is done. T S Eliot, for example, made use of Rasa Theory in enunciating the concept of Objective Correlative and found Shakespeare’s Hamlet an artistic failure. The paper will demonstrate the use of Indian Aesthetics in analysing John Donne’s poetry.