The flight of the antelope: Outlining two different perspectives on the aesthetic reception of a verse from Kālidāsa’s Abhijñānaśākuntala

Authors

  • Luigi H. T. Singh Austrian Academy of Sciences

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.13135/1825-263X/12287

Abstract

This article will explore the aesthetic reception of a verse from the first act of Kālidāsa’s Abhijñānaśākuntala as evidenced by the works of Kuntaka, Abhinavagupta and Rāghavabhaṭṭa. In doing so, this research critically examines the problem of how this one verse, which describes an antelope fleeing from Duṣyanta during his hunt, was employed as an example to illustrate two very different models of aesthetics: one which implicitly accepted that animal characters could evoke rasa and another which aimed to explicitly exclude animals from such a possibility.

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Author Biography

Luigi H. T. Singh, Austrian Academy of Sciences

Having completed his Batchelor’s and Master’s degrees from the University of Bologna, Luigi H. T. Singh is currently pursuing a PhD in Philosophy Languages and Cultures in South Asia and Tibet at the University of Vienna. He is also employed as a Doctoral researcher at the Institute for the Cultural and Intellectual History of Asia (IKGA) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Previously, he worked as a Research fellow at the University of Bologna within the PRIN 2022 project, For a Multivocal History of the Attitudes Towards Non-Human Animals in South Asia.

Luigi can be contacted at: luigiharitehel.singh@oeaw.ac.at

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Published

2025-07-21

Issue

Vol. 29 No. 2 (2025): For a multivocal history of the attitudes towards animals in South Asia: Concepts, ethics, practices, symbolism

Section

Sentience and Rasa

License

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