The Journey from Aesthetic Intuition to Vision of Reality in Shakespeare’s Hamlet: An Analysis in the Light of Panckriyā Theory

Abstract

Man begins his journey of creation with phenomenal activity, attains the purpose of his being and ultimately becomes a part of the eternal process. The same process is followed in artistic activity. In this process, the poet performs, realizes and attains the state of pure knowledge with perfect awareness of his energy as the identity of his being. The act of the poet has a universal effect which imparts rasa (aesthetic pleasure), in which the sahṛdaya (reader) transcends the world and enter the supra-human state where he is neither subjective nor object and nor even neutral. The Panckriyā theory Kashmir Shaivism demonstrates this process of literary composition through the five sequential steps of creation that takes place in the mind of the artist when he conceives the idea of literary composition. The present paper aims at analyzing Shakespeare’s Hamlet in the light of this theory which explains how the artist evolves from the first stage i.e. aesthetic intuition to the final stage of Grace.