Being a Sanskrit student & teacher, I’m in a vicious habit of connecting everything around me with Sanskrit literature. I have been a dancer too, and a music and movie fan all along my life. Here’s what I found that connected all these seemingly different interests of mine!
What Mammata Meant by काव्य?
Mammata, a 14th Century Indian scholar of poetry and rhetorics, writes this in the opening lines of his text. Out of many other descriptions of poetry, Mammata describes it as ह्लादैकमयी. This stuck with me!
He says, the काव्य is actually a parallel world created by the कवि. Now here’s the catch—we may translate काव्य as poetry, but it is a very limited view of it. If we see from Mammata’s lens, anything that creates a fictional reality in our minds is काव्य. Thus, any piece of literature would count as काव्य—stories, songs, dramas, movies, music too.
As a dancer, dance too feels like poetry. Any performance, or let’s just widen the scope, any means through which we can teleport our audiences to a different space, can be called a काव्य.
Why Even Sad or Scary Art Gives Joy
The word ह्लादैकमयी literally means “that which gives only pleasure.” ह्लाद is pleasure, एक is only, and मयी is consisting of.
Now think about it—Mammata isn’t saying that all काव्यs depict joyous things. He is saying that every काव्य, regardless of the emotion it conveys, ultimately leads to a feeling of delight in the audience’s mind.
Do you remember reading a very touching story with a sad ending, but still loving it? Or maybe watching a horror movie that still gives you chills? Or seeing an aerial dance that left you awestruck? Or a painting depicting an angry Shiva ending the world with his rage? What was your reaction? Probably something like “Oh it was amazing, a must watch!” or “It was soo good!”
None of these scenarios depict “happiness” in the literal sense. But as audience, what we feel is joy. Even if the character of the artform is crying or angry, happy or sad, what reaches us is pleasure. And that’s what Mammata explains.
Art as Our Spiritual Journey
काव्य has the beautiful potency of transporting its audience to a world that gives joy. Be it art, dance, music, literature or even just words—काव्य beautifully entertains, pleases, and educates the recipients. Anything performed with pure intention and full dedication reaches the hearts of the audience as happiness.
And that’s what humans seek. According to philosophy, the highest goal of every human being is to attain the stage of summum bonum—the ultimate pleasure. Indian philosophy calls it सच्चिदानन्द. Happiness or आनन्द is what we seek in every bit of life. And art forms have the great capability of providing it.
Maybe that’s why a Sanskrit verse says:
साहित्यसङ्गीतकलाविहीनः साक्षात् पशुः पुच्छविषाणहीनः।
A person disinterested in any form of art like literature, music or any other, is just as an animal without a tail and horns!
Any art, sincere, soulful and earnest, will always connect to the heart of its audiences. And it’ll not just connect, but make its mark and stay there. It not only gives the bliss of creation to the creator, but also to the viewer or listener.
Art may not give us the tangible goals we chase in today’s world like instant money, profits, luxuries. But it takes us a step ahead in our philosophical and spiritual journey—bettering us as human beings.
My Takeaways from This!?
As we established, काव्य is anything that holds the potency to transport the audience beyond reality.
So, for me teaching too becomes a काव्य. It carries the same power that the speaker has: to use words and emotions in a way that carries the audience beyond their routine lives. To make them forget their problems and reality for a brief time, and travel with you on new paths. To take them to a place you want them to explore.
Be it teaching kids or elders, beginners or experts, I genuinely believe that it isn’t knowledge or superiority of the teacher that makes teaching impactful; but whether they can make their students fall in love with the new reality that the new topic has to offer.
In that sense, every act of true teaching is also art ह्लादैकमयी, filled with joy.
