Sadharanikaran, an Indian theory of communications and one of the significant theories in Sanskrit poetics, has its root in Natyashastra and is identified with Bhattanayaka, refers to the attainment of sahridayata (a state of common orientation) by the communicating parties. When a sender and receiver accomplish the process of sadharanikaran,they attain saharidayata and become sahrdaya (irrespective of complex hierarchies of castes, languages, cultures and religious practices).
If communication is taken as a step by step process, the sahrdaya-preshaka (the sender) who has bhavas (moods or emotions or thoughts or ideas) in mind, initiates the process. The sender has to pass the process of abhivyanjana (encoding) for expressing those bhavas in perceivable form.It is the sahrdaya-prabhakar (the receiver) with whom the bhavas are to be shared and has to pass the process of rasaswadaya (decoding). There is no such thing as perfect communication. There are continuous forces at work, doshas or noises, which tend to distort the message and lead to miscommunication.
Human being in his/her essential characteristics is a bundle of bhavas that constitutes his/her being and forms part of his/her total consciousness. It is due to the bhavas that human beings aim to engage in communication or sadharanikaran process. If there were no bhavas and human beings had no desire to share their bhavas with others, there would be no need for communication.
The guiding principle while encoding or abhivyanjana in sadharanikaran is simplification. In the communication process; the complex concepts and ideas are simplified by the sender as per the understanding of the receiver. Sanketa (code) is an integral part of abhivyanjana. A kind of code is a must to let the bhavas manifest. Codes are symbols that are organized in accordance with specific rules. For example, the language is a code. The sender encodes the bhava in a code. For communication to be successful, both the sender and receiver must understand the code being used. Abhivyanjana may be in verbal (words) or non-verbal (including gestures of limbs,representation through makeup and temperamental expressions as well as various sounds) code, and both codes may be used simultaneously.With the completion of the process of abhivyanjana, bhavas are manifested as sandesha. In other words, sandesha is outcome of the abhivyanjana process.
For transmission of sandesha, there needs sarani (channel or medium), which is the means through which sandesha travels across space. The channels may be natural corresponding to biological nature of human being such as: auditory (hearing), tactile (touching), visual (seeing), olfactory (smelling) and taste (tasting through the taste buds on the tongue) channels. The channels may be artificial such as paintings, sculptures, letters, etc. The channels may be mechanical such as telephones, radio or computers.Whether the text talks about mechanical channels is yet to be studied.
With the proper use of various saranis as discussed above, the sender successfully sends the message toward the receiver. As abhivyanjana was crucial for the sender, so is rasaswadaya for
the receiver.The term as used here should be understood as a ‘technical term’ carrying a wide range of meaning. Its range is from receiving the message to decoding and interpreting the message and finally to the attainment of the rasa.
Pratikriya refers to the responses of the receiver after receiving the message. It is the process of feedback, which allows the receiver to have active role in the communication process. Feedback can be understood as the same step-by-step process returning messages following exactly the same steps outlined above. Here, both the parties (the sahridaya-sender and the sahrdaya-receiver) act as senders and receivers simultaneously. Thus, feedback makes the communication process ongoing.
But after achieving the nididhyasana state, there is no need for feedback. In this state, the sahrdaya become able to understand each other and experience the same obviously. In the sakshatkara state there is experiencing of the Self as the Brahman which is considered as supreme rasa. Thus, rasaswadaya in its ultimate destination would be the rasaswadaya of the Brahman. In this stage also there is unity of the Self and the Brahman. Thus, in the sakshatkara state, the sahridaya is already in the state of moksha, which is the ultimate goal of the sadharanikaran process.
