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Original Article
Dancing with Nine Colours:
The Nine Emotional States of Indian Rasa Theory
Dyutiman Mukhopadhyay
MSc, AdvDipFA, PhD
Faculty in Information Art and Information Design Practices; Visual Communication,
Srishti Manipal Institute of Art, Design & Technology, Bangalore, India.
Adjunct Professor in Consciousness Studies Programme (CSP),
National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS), India.
Former British Academy Newton International Fellow, UK (University College London).
Former Research Fellows — DST & ICMR, India (IIT Gandhinagar; Calcutta University).
Email: dyutimanm@gmail.com
[Dated: December 2021, October 2022 (edited)]
‘I see you not from your face
I see You, from – Me.’
Abstract:
This is a brief review of the Rasa theory of Indian aesthetics and the works I have done on the same. A
major source of the Indian system of classification of emotional states comes from the ‘Natyasastra’, the
ancient Indian treatise on the performing arts, which dates back to the 2nd Century AD (or much earlier,
pg. LXXXVI: Natyasastra, Ghosh, 1951). The ‘Natyasastra’ speaks about ‘sentiments’ or ‘Rasas’ (pg.102:
Natyasastra, Ghosh, 1951) which are produced when certain ‘dominant states’ (sthayi Bhava), ‘transitory
states’ (vyabhicari Bhava) and ‘temperamental states’ (sattvika Bhava) of emotions come together
(pgs.102, 105: Natyasastra, Ghosh, 1951). This Rasa theory, which is still widely followed in classical
Indian performing arts, classifies eight Rasas or sentiments which are: Sringara (erotic), Hasya (comic),
Karuna (pathetic), Raudra (furious), Vira (heroic), Bhayanaka (terrible), Bibhatsa (odious) and Adbhuta
(marvellous). There was a later addition of the ninth sentiment or Rasa called Santa (peace) in later
Sanskrit poetics (pg.102: Natyasastra, Ghosh, 1951). According to ancient Indian aesthetics (especially in
the context of Bharatas’ ‘Natyasastra’, Anandavardhana’s ‘Dhvanyaloka’ and Abhinavagupta’s
‘Abhinavabharati’), ‘Rasa’ is the relishable state of elemental human emotions called ‘Bhavas’. Bharata’s
‘Natyasastra’ originally spoke of eight Rasas. The concept of the 9th Rasa was a later interpolation by the
Kashmiri Shaivist Abhinavagupta (10th Century AD) and also his predecessor Anandavardhana (9th
Century AD). Abhinavagupta extends the eight Rasas by adding the concept of the Santa Rasa which he
regards as the essence of all Rasas. It is this 9th Rasa which according to Abhinavagupta lets the Rasika
attain the aesthetic detachment and savour the essences of all other Rasas and therefore the true
aesthetic delight. The introduction of 9th Rasa integrates the concepts of Bharata’s Rasasutra and
Patanjali’s Yoga theory – the detachment necessary to introspect inwards into the inherent state of
freedom and bliss (aesthetic consciousness).
Indian system of classification of emotional ‘states’ (not emotions):
A major source of the Indian system of classification of emotional states comes from
the ‘Natyasastra’, the ancient Indian treatise on the performing arts, which dates back
to the 2nd Century AD (or much earlier, pg. LXXXVI: Natyasastra, Ghosh, 1951). The
‘Natyasastra’ speaks about ‘sentiments’ or ‘Rasas’ (pg.102: Natyasastra, Ghosh, 1951)
which are produced when certain ‘dominant states’ (sthayi Bhava), ‘transitory states’
(vyabhicari Bhava) and ‘temperamental states’ (sattvika Bhava) of emotions come
together (pgs.102, 105: Natyasastra, Ghosh, 1951). This Rasa theory, which is still
widely followed in classical Indian performing arts, classifies eight Rasas or sentiments
which are: Sringara (erotic), Hasya (comic), Karuna (pathetic), Raudra (furious), Vira
(heroic), Bhayanaka (terrible), Bibhatsa (odious) and Adbhuta (marvellous). There was a
later addition of the ninth sentiment or Rasa called Santa (peace) in later Sanskrit
poetics (pg.102: Natyasastra, Ghosh, 1951).
The Eight Rasas (Ghosh, 1951; Raghavan, 1940; Barlingay, 1981):
According to ancient Indian aesthetics (especially in the context of Bharatas’
‘Natyasastra’, Anandavardhana’s ‘Dhvanyaloka’ and Abhinavagupta’s
‘Abhinavabharati’), ‘Rasa’ is the relishable state of elemental human emotions called
‘Bhavas’. Bharata’s ‘Natyasastra’ originally spoke of eight Rasas. The conversion of
Bhava to Rasa as explained in Indian aesthetics is as follows:
The Ninth Rasa or Santa Rasa and aesthetic consciousness: is it just another
Rasa?
[Partly taken from author’s 2022 concept note: Mukhopadhyay, D. (2022). Musings: Why I study
aesthetics: an unwritten essay]
‘Two birds with shining wings,
Always intertwined—deepest of friends,
Cling on the same tree.
One eats the sweet fruit.
The other, without eating—watches’
—The Rig Veda Samhita 1.164.20-22, later incorporated in Mundaka Upanishad 3.1.1-2, and Svetasvatara
Upanishad 4.6-7. Adapted from the translations of JL Masson, MV Patwardhan, and Swamini
Svatmavidyananda.
Too idle am I—
To talk, or write, or even to think—
So I float—and drift—and soar,
To explode in bits of joy
In a dreamless sleep.
—Dyutiman Mukhopadhyay, 2022.
The concept of the ninth Rasa was a later interpolation by the Kashmiri Shaivist
Abhinavagupta (10th Century AD) and also his predecessor Anandavardhana (9th
Century AD). In Abhinavabharati, Abhinavagupta explains the essence of the Rasa
theory of Bharata in addition to the theory of Abhivyakti propounded in
Anandavardhana’s Dhvanyaloka.
Abhinavagupta extends the eight Rasas by adding the concept of the Santa Rasa which
he regards as the essence of all Rasas. It is this 9th Rasa which according to
Abhinavagupta lets the Rasika attain the aesthetic detachment and savour the essences
of all other Rasas and therefore the true aesthetic delight. The introduction of 9th
Rasa integrates the concepts of Bharata’s Rasasutra and Patanjali’s Yoga theory – the
detachment necessary to introspect inwards into the inherent state of freedom and
bliss (aesthetic consciousness).
Aesthetic delight is thus at once an emotional exaltation and a state of serenity
(Chaudhury, 1964). It has a different quality or flavour from that aroused in life.
Ordinary emotions are sublimed into Rasa through aesthetic delight. It is generated
when the sahrdaya (the sensitive experiencer):
01. Undergoes suspension of disbelief.
02. Dissociate work of art from surroundings.
03. Dissociate character from the actor.
The secret of aesthetic delight is thus detached contemplation and it is not felt as a
personal psychical affection (Chaudhury, 1964).
Abhinavagupta was a prodigious philosopher, aesthete, and literary critic who single-
handedly ‘alamkārasástrām tenaiva śāstratvam prāpitam—alone turned poetics into a
science.’(Masson & Patwardhan, 1969). Abhinavagupta extends the eight Rasas by
adding the concept of the Santa Rasa which he regards as the essence of all Rasas. It is
this 9th Rasa which according to Abhinavagupta lets the Rasika (sahrdaya) attain the
metacognitive aesthetic detachment and savour the essences of all other Rasas and
therefore the true aesthetic delight. The introduction of the 9th Rasa integrates the
concepts of Bharata’s Rasasutra and Patanjali’s Yoga theory – the detachment
necessary to introspect inwards into the inherent state of freedom and bliss (aesthetic
consciousness). Abhinavagupta felt it necessary to provide a unified theory of Rasa
since the Kashmiri Shaivists thought of integrating aesthetic experience with states of
religious ecstasy as well as transcendental Tantric sexual ecstasy. It is therefore not at
all surprising that the Indian Rasasutra, Kamasutra and Yogasutra all strive for the
same transcendental eternal where the transcendence of the self is the primary goal
obtained through detached passion – although the three methods are different
altogether. Through this detached passion, the world is viewed with the dual
detachment and involvement, through the access of imaginative experience
(hrdayànupraveśa) and empathic response (hrdayasamvāda) of the perfect spectator
(Masson & Patwardhan, 1969), who is both moved and yet distanced from the object he
contemplates.
The essence of Abhinavagupta’s Santa Rasa had been wonderfully summarized
through the translations of J.L. Masson and M.V. Patwardhan in their influential book
‘Santarasa and Abinavagupta’s theory of aesthetics’ (1969) as follows:
‘Reduced to its bare essentials the theory is as follows: watching a play or reading a
poem for the sensitive reader (sahrdaya) entails a loss of the sense of present time and
space. All worldly considerations for the time being cease. Since we are not indifferent
(tatastha) to what is taking place, our involvement must be of a purer variety than we
normally experience. We are not directly and personally involved, so the usual medley of
desires and anxieties dissolve. Our hearts respond sympathetically (hrdayasamvāda) but
not selfishly. Finally the response becomes total, all-engrossing, and we identify with the
situation depicted (tanmayibhavana). The ego is transcended, and for the duration of
the aesthetic experience, the normal waking “I” is suspended. Once this actually
happens, we suddenly find that our responses are not like anything we have hitherto
experienced, for now that all normal emotions are gone, now that the hard knot of
“selfness” has been untied, we find ourselves in an unprecedented state of mental and
emotional calm. The purity of our emotion and the intensity of it take us to a higher
level of pleasure than we could know before — we experience sheer undifferentiated
bliss (ānandaikaghana) for we have come into direct contact with the deepest recesses of
our own unconscious where the memory of a primaeval unity between man and the
universe is still strong. Inadvertently, says Abhinavagupta, we have arrived at the same
inner terrain as that occupied by the mystic, though our aim was very different from
his. Such an experience cannot but make us impatient with the ordinary turmoil of
emotions that is our inner life, and though Abhinava never explicitly says so, one cannot
help feeling that he expects the reader to search out now these experiences on a more
permanent basis.’
[For a detailed overview of Abinavagupta’s aesthetics, the following work can be consulted:
Masson J. L. & Patwardhan M.V. (1969) Santarasa and Abhnivagupta’s Theory Of Aesthetics,
Bhandarkar Oriental Series No. 9. For an updated overview of the Rasa theory and the
neuroscience, psychology and the principles of dual detachment and involvement my following
papers might be consulted: Mukhopadhyay, D. (2014). Understanding the neuropsychology of
aesthetic paradox: the dual-phase oscillation hypothesis. Review of General Psychology (USA),
18(3), 237-248. ISSN: 1089- 2680, https://doi.org/10.1037%2Fgpr0000009].
The Facial Action Units of Indian performing arts:
Current facial emotion research is hugely influenced by the Facial Action Coding
System (FACS) manual as formulated by the Paul Ekman research group. This is a
research tool that explains how to categorize facial behaviours based on the muscles
that produce them. The Natyasastra by Bharata and the Abhinaya Darpana by
Nandikesvara (Coomaraswamy & Duggirala, 1917) are two of the most reliable treatise
which elaborates a categorization of facial action units for facial behaviour and
emotion according to the Indian context. Apart from clearly elaborating the facial
zones for each emotion, there has also been an extensive analysis of the various eye
glances for different facial behaviours. Table 1 gives a short, summarized description
of the different facial action units for the nine different emotional states as well as the
role of specific eye glances for each emotion. It is evident from the texts that a
significant amount of attention was placed on the eyes. This summary is adapted from
the Natyasastra (Ghosh, 1951) as well as Abhinaya Darpana (Coomaraswamy &
Duggirala, 1917).
Table 1 [Adapted from the translations of Natyasastra (Ghosh, 1951) & Abhinaya
Darpana (Coomaraswamy & Duggirala, 1917)]:
The emotional states
Facial Zones
Eye Glance type
Sringara
(erotic, dominant state:
love)
Eye, Eyebrows (clever
movements), Mouth (smiling).
Raising the eyebrows and looking
out of the corners of the eyes.
Hasya
(comic, dominant state:
mirth)
Lips, Nose, Cheeks, Eyes, Teeth
conveying smile, moderate
laughter or excessive laughter.
Fluttering, pleasant, twinkling
eyes.
Karuna (pathetic, dominant state:
sorrow)
Eyes (with/without shedding
tears), Mouth.
A downcast glance, half-revealed,
with tears, benevolent, the black
pupil slowly moving, regarding
the tip of the nose.
Raudra (furious, dominant state:
anger)
Eyes (red), Eyebrows (knitting of
eyebrows), Lips (biting of lips),
Cheeks.
The pupils fixed and the lids not
moved, the brows contracted and
raised.
Vira
(heroic, dominant state:
energy)
Eyes (radiant, direct, open, rather
majestic, self-controlled).
The pupils at rest.
Bhayanaka
(terrible, dominant
state: terror)
Mouth (drooping), Eyes.
The eyelids raised and fixed, the
pupil bright and fluttering.
Bibhatsa (odious, dominant state:
disgust)
Mouth and Eyes (narrowing down).
No specific glance mentioned.
Adbhuta (marvel
lous, dominant
state: astonishment)
Eyes (wide open).
Quickly raised, straight-staring.
Santa (peace)
Eyes (the peaceful glance of
dispassion). Not mentioned by
Bharata but mentioned in
Abhinaya Darpana.
Gradually closing the lids, the
eyes slightly moving, the pupils
moving to the comers.
Linking Rasa theory with Western studies: rationale for studying Rasas:
According to Westernized versions of emotion classification, there are Basic or
Universal emotions (Paul Ekman, 1971, 1984, 1992) which are happiness, sadness, fear,
anger, surprise, disgust (later addition: contempt; Paul Ekman, 1971, 1984, 1992).
However, there are also Background emotions sets which are: well-being-malaise; calm-
tense; pain-pleasure; Antonio Damasio, 1999), as well as Self-referential social
emotions which, are embarrassment, guilt, shame, jealousy, envy, empathy, pride,
admiration; (Bennett & Gillingham, 1991; Hareli et al., 2002, 2006; Oatley & Johnson-
Laird, 1987; Tangney & Fischer, 1995). Also, there are pioneering works of scientists
like Lisa Feldman Barrett (Barrett, 2006) who questions Ekman's concepts of
discreetness of emotions.
Apart from defining the boundaries of universal emotions, research in emotion science
also places equal emphasis on trying to understand the interplay of the different
orchestrated processes that give rise to a basic emotion (Barrett, 2006; Panksepp, 1994;
Kagan, 1997). For example, Jaak Panksepp (1994, 2010), defined primary processes of
emotion (not the basic or universal emotions of Ekman) as primary sub-neocortical
processes of emotion having their corresponding affective states which can be
artificially generated by brain stimulation in animals. Also, the four-step cascade
process proposed by Jerome Kagan (1997) defines a provocative event that leads to
brain change and subsequently leads to a feeling and the interpretation of the feeling
gives rise to an emotion.
We can find startling similarities between the Rasa theory (its concepts of the
generation of Rasas from the Bhavas) with the works of Panksepp, (1994, 2010) and
Kagan (1997). However, there had been very little previous work done on the
perception or brain science of emotional states based on Rasa theory mostly due to the
lack of awareness regarding the science of the Rasa theory among the scientific
community. One behavioural study was conducted by Hejmadi et al., (2000) which
investigated the identification of these emotions across cultures. An image processing
study was conducted by Srimani and Hegde (2012) for investigating the variations in
facial features based on nine Rasas. The study proposes a tool for the design of an
intelligent emotion recognition system but does not offer a psychophysical or brain-
based perspective on how these individual emotions differ in the way they affect our
perceptual process.
Natyasastra and Popular Indian Cinema:
[Based on the theoretical propositions by Mukhopadhyay, D. (2021) – Rethinking the psychology
of film melodrama: A theoretical framework integrating social appraisal and cultural
psychology. PsychArchives. https://doi.org/10.23668/psycharchives.5282 (Full paper link)]
As an avid film watcher from a very young age of both world and Indian cinema, I was
intrigued by the distinctive melodramatic style of popular Hindi cinema of India
(commonly known as Bollywood, Joshi., 2015). and the overwhelming effect that it has
on the Indian public in general often in sharp contrast to the lukewarm and cynical
critical response that it generates from European/American audience/critics (by the
term ‘melodramatic’ I am currently referring to the definition and meaning as implied
by Ben Singer in the context of film studies: ‘a set of subgenres that remain close to the
heart and hearth and emphasize a register of heightened emotionalism and
sentimentality.’
The history of cinema and the history of melodrama studies tell us how the use of film
melodrama across cultures had its distinctive versions and transformations [Brooks &
James (1976), Hays & Nikolopoulou (1999), Hadley (1997)].
They also show how the use of melodramatic techniques in popular cinema across
different cultures resulted in the development of indigenous film styles. These film
styles conform to the aesthetic and emotional experiences and preferences of the
audience of a particular culture. I was fascinated by this remarkable inter-cultural
difference in taste (regardless of intra-cultural variability and cross-cultural influences)
when it comes to appreciating a particular cinematic style. I believed that this
variability of preference across cultures might not solely be an obvious phenomenon
of changing tastes due to different socio-political-historical upbringing (as explained in
most existing discourses on film studies [Vasudevan (2011), Matusitz & Payano (2012)]
but might be driven by a strong, inherent behavioural-psychological predisposition
deep-rooted in the emotion system of a specific culture.
Cinema is an artistic medium that can evoke a wide range of emotional states in the
audience. One of the ways it can do so is by establishing an inter-personal relationship
between the film-actor and the audience following the social-appraisal theory - the
distinctive feature in film being, the actor does not have a live presence. In the film, the
dynamics of social appraisal is felt between an actor and the audience albeit uni-
directionally. A unique form of the social appraisal process might occur between
multiple actors in a film which in turn can influence the social appraisal mechanism of
the audience over time (bi-directionally between actors and uni-directionally between
the actors and audience). Here the dynamics of emotion elicitation has a triangular
relationship between the actors and the audience.
Film-acting itself varies with the general style of film-making across different cultures.
For example, though the divisions and demarcations are not set in concrete and there
is often an overlap of styles, still, two distinct styles of film-acting can be seen in
popular Euro-American and popular Asian cinema. Popular American (Hollywood) film-
acting is often characterized by the famous Lee Strasberg's individualistic method-
acting which is based upon the idea that the character's context with his own real-life
experience [Hull, 1985]. On the contrary, popular mainstream Indian cinema since its
beginning has been heavily influenced by the Rasa theory of 'Natyasastra' - which is
predominantly inter-personal and based on conveying the emotion to a spectator as
externally and evidently as possible [Ibkar, 2015]. The extraordinary popularity of
mainstream Indian cinema among the Indian audience is undeniable and cannot be
simply explained by the lack of exposure of a class of Indian audience to world cinema.
The inter-personal relationship that the Indian audience experience with the Indian
actor in a popular Indian movie while getting emotionally overwhelmed cannot be
simply ignored by undermining the intellectual standards of the audience at least
when comparing between two equally good (or equally bad) Hollywood and Indian
films.
Work by the author:
I have previously proposed the 'dual-phase oscillation hypothesis' (Mukhopadhyay,
2014) to answer the problem of the 'aesthetic paradox'. The hypothesis proposes that
aesthetic delight is the dynamic, oscillatory balance between Suspension of Disbelief
(SD) and Introspective Detached Contemplation (IDC). SD is whereby the person
experiencing art temporarily suspends the belief of surface reality and the
phenomenon of Introspective Detached Contemplation (IDC) is whereby the same
person while experiencing the same art, reflects on the artistic phenomenon and is
simultaneously aware of the surface reality. The hypothesis is primarily based on two
previous neuroscientific findings (Mukhopadhyay, 2014) which uses two separate
neuro-imaging techniques (MEG and fMRI respectively) to find that art appreciation
consists of two separate temporal phases. My paper (Mukhopadhyay, 2014) highlighted
how these works could be integrated with my proposed hypothesis to attain a
complete picture. The DPO hypothesis is based upon the fact that there is temporal
segregation of phases in art appreciation. The temporal transition between two phases
exists although the transition may be unperceived due to indiscernible temporal
difference (a difference of milliseconds, as found in the neuro-imaging studies) such
that the feeling of aesthetic delight may appear as a uniform non-transitional activity
(hence the apparent paradox is generated). My research domain at the Centre for
Cognitive science, IIT Gandhinagar, India, included behavioural, EEG and Eye-tracking
based study of human emotions using complex naturalistic stimuli like films and
studying the visual scans of facial close-ups of paintings and face-database. As a part
of my cognitive science training in India, I conducted an EEG study examining
emotional states and expressiveness in popular Bollywood and Hollywood movies
which were accepted as a talk at the Biennial Conference of the International
Association of Empirical Aesthetics at the University of Vienna, 2016. In that study, we
characterized functional brain networks and emotional centres based on Rasa theory
of Indian aesthetics (Papers: i) Tripathi R., Mukhopadhyay D., Singh C.K., Miyapuram K.P., Jolad S.
(2020). Characterization of Functional Brain Networks and Emotional Centers Using the Complex Networks
Techniques, Complex Networks 2019, SCI 882, pp. 854–867, 2020, in: H. Cherifi et al. (Eds.): Complex
Networks and Their Applications VIII. © Springer Nature Switzerland AG, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-
030-36683-4_68 and ii) Sonawane D., Pandey P., Mukopadhyay D., Miyapuram K.P. (2021). Movie
Identification from Electroencephalography Response Using Convolutional Neural Network. In: Mahmud
M., Kaiser M.S., Vassanelli S., Dai Q., Zhong N. (eds) Brain Informatics. BI 2021. Lecture Notes in Computer
Science, vol 12960. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-86993-9_25 ). This study
subsequently gave me the idea to collaborate with Dr Jeremy Skipper at University
College London - Experimental Psychology, Faculty of Brain Sciences. My research
proposal on the same theory was awarded the Newton International Fellowship by the
British Academy in 2017.
Supplementary Material:
Dancing with Nine Colours: the Nava Rasa Roller-Coaster:
This is an experiment in progress to develop an immersive film-viewing experience
where a viewer is exposed to a barrage of nine emotional states based on the Rasa
theory of Indian aesthetics (to see the audiovisual please follow the link:
https://youtu.be/rAgW7fW_W60 ).
Author Bibliography: (relevant work/projects based on the Rasa Theory)
1. [Dataset] Mukhopadhyay, D; Miyapuram, K.P.; Pandey, P.; Tripathi, R. (2022). Movie
Watching - Nine Emotions EEG Dataset, DOI 10.17605/OSF.IO/85N9U,
https://osf.io/85n9u/
2. Mukhopadhyay, D. (2022). [Concept-Note] (Musings) Why I study aesthetics: an unwritten
essay. PhilPapers, https://philpapers.org/rec/MUKMWI [Link]
3. Mukhopadhyay, D. (2021). Dancing with Nine Colours: The Nine emotional states of
Indian Rasa theory. PhilPapers, https://philarchive.org/rec/MUKDWN [Full paper link]
4. Mukhopadhyay, D. (2021). Rethinking the psychology of film melodrama: A theoretical
framework integrating social appraisal and cultural psychology. PsychArchives.
https://doi.org/10.23668/psycharchives.5282 [Full paper link]
5. Sonawane D., Pandey P., Mukopadhyay D., Miyapuram K.P. (2021). Movie Identification
from Electroencephalography Response Using Convolutional Neural Network. In:
Mahmud M., Kaiser M.S., Vassanelli S., Dai Q., Zhong N. (eds) Brain Informatics. BI 2021.
Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 12960. Springer, Cham.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-86993-9_25
6. Tripathi R., Mukhopadhyay D., Singh C.K., Miyapuram K.P., Jolad S. (2020).
Characterization of Functional Brain Networks and Emotional Centers Using the
Complex Networks Techniques, Complex Networks 2019, SCI 882, pp. 854–867, 2020, in:
H. Cherifi et al. (Eds.): Complex Networks and Their Applications VIII. © Springer Nature
Switzerland AG, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36683-4_68
7. Nath, S. S., Mukhopadhyay, D., & Miyapuram, K. P. (2019). Emotive Stimuli-triggered
Participant-based Clustering Using a Novel Split-and-Merge Algorithm. Proceedings of the
ACM India Joint International Conference on Data Science and Management of Data,
277-280. ISBN: 978-1-4503-6341-9. The Association for Computing Machinery.
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3297001.3297040
8. Newton International Fellowship (British Academy, UK): Mukhopadhyay, D. & Skipper, J.
(2017). CEE-through-Film: a neurobehavioural paradigm to test culture-appraisal-
interaction model of emotion (2017). Fellowship awarded to conduct research at
University College London, the UK, Division of Psychology and Language Sciences
(NF170643, Dated: 11 October 2017).
9. Mukhopadhyay, D., and Miyapuram K.P. (2016). EEG-based study on nine emotional
states of Indian Rasa theory from popular Bollywood and Hollywood film segments. The
talk was given at the 14th Conference of the International Association of Empirical
Aesthetics at the University of Vienna (August 29 to September 1, 2016).
10. Mukhopadhyay, D., and Miyapuram K.P. (2016). An eye-tracking study of nine facial
emotional states (Nava Rasa) in the Indian classical dance genre of Bharatanatyam. The
talk was given at the 3rd Annual Conference on Cognitive Science (ACCS-2016), 3rd to
5th October 2016, Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar.
11. Mukhopadhyay, D., and Miyapuram K.P. (2015). An eye-tracking study of nine emotional
states (Rasas) from visual scans of facial close-ups of Indian mural paintings: presented
at International Conference on Emotion and Cognition, 14th to 16th December 2015,
Centre of Behavioural and Cognitive Sciences, Allahabad, India.
12. Mukhopadhyay, D. (PI) and Miyapuram K.P. (2014 – 2016). The relevance of 9th Rasa in
the generation of aesthetic delight: a neuroaesthetic approach using EEG and
Eyetracking; Project sanctioned by Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India
to work as Post-Doctoral Scientist at Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar, India
(SR/CSI/PDF-08/2013, 30.10.2014).
13. Mukhopadhyay, D. (2014). Understanding the neuropsychology of aesthetic paradox: the
dual-phase oscillation hypothesis. Review of General Psychology (USA), 18(3), 237-248.
ISSN: 1089- 2680. https://doi.org/10.1037%2Fgpr0000009.
14. Mukhopadhyay, D. (2015). The dual-phase oscillation hypothesis and the
neuropsychology of docu-fiction film. Consciousness, Literature and the Arts (UK), 16
(1). ISSN: 1470-5648. [Online: http://www.dmd27.org/mukhopadhyay.pdf]
Other Bibliography:
Barrett, L.F. (2006). Are emotions natural kinds? Perspect. Psychol. Sci. 1(1), 28–58.
Barlingay, S.S. (1981) What did Bharata mean by Rasa, Indian Philosophical Quarterly, Vol VIII(4).
Bennett, M., Gillingham, K. (1991). The role of self-focused attention in children’s attributions of
social emotions to the self. J. Genet. Psychol. 152(3), 303–309.
Brooks, P., & James, H. (1976). The melodramatic imagination. New Haven, London Yale
University Press.
Chaudhury, P.J. (1964). Studies in aesthetics. Publisher: Rabindra Bharati, India.
Coomaraswamy A.K. & Duggirala G.K. trans. (1917). The Mirror of Gesture - Being the Abhinaya
Darpana of Nandikesvara, Published by Harvard University Press.
Damasio, A.R. (1999). The feeling of what happens: body and emotion in the making of
consciousness. N. Y. Times Book Rev. 104, 8–8.
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