Transmitting Awareness (saṅkrānti): A Point of Contact in Abhinavagupta’s Śaiva Aesthetics

Abstract

On the basis of a parallel passage in Abhinavagupta’s commentaries on the Nāṭyaśāstra and the Īśvarapratyabhijñākārikā, this article considers the ways in which Abhinavagupta theorized “transmission” (saṅkrānti) in his descriptions of aesthetic experience and the reception of knowledge in non-dual Śaiva philosophy. We argue that this notion of transmission, in which the lines between author and qualified audience are blurred, is indebted to a number of earlier sources that explain the way in which knowledge and liberation are transmitted, most significantly the Kaula Śākta traditions in the immediate background of Abhinavagupta’s tantric exegesis. Here the terms saṅkrānti and saṅkramaṇa are employed in descriptions of initiation, the transferal of lineage, and a Guru’s awakened awareness passing into the body of a disciple. In Abhinavagupta’s parallel passages, he expands upon this notion of “transmission” by showing how it can emerge even when a teacher/poet and a student/audience are separated by time and space. In both accounts, what allows an ideal audience to internalize or identify with a teaching or text is an act of participation that effectively dissolves the limitations of time, space, and individuality. Interestingly, in both the aesthetic and non-dual Śaiva context, this process of transmission unfolds through an indirect mode of expression that cannot be reduced to reasoning. The article concludes with an exploration of the purpose of Abhinavagupta’s vision of transmission, particularly related to the notion that texts can encode, preserve, and, in the presence of a sensitive audience, reenact the awareness of their authors, even after lineages break or traditions fragment.