What happens when a science student from Malaysia abandons physics for Sanskrit and discovers Abhinavagupta in Banaras? Dr. Sundar Vishwalingam recounts his remarkable intellectual journey — from A-levels in Kuala Lumpur to a landmark 1984 PhD on rasa theory at BHU.This opening session establishes the philosophical stakes: why did the great Kashmiri philosopher treat laughter (haasya) as a distinct rasa, and why does humor specifically arise from the “semblance” of shringara rather than from shringara itself? Dr. Vishwalingam unpacks the relationship between rasa and bhava, explains why the emotions are simultaneously the greatest obstacle on the spiritual path and the gateway to aesthetic experience, and traces how his own spiritual crisis led him to discover that Indian philosophy offered a path that neither rejected the world nor the emotions.

About the Speaker:
Sunthar Visuvalingam’s 1984 PhD from BHU on “Abhinavagupta’s Conception of Humor: Its Resonances in Sanskrit Drama, Poetry, Hindu Mythology, and Spiritual Praxis,” was strongly recommended for DLitt. An independent researcher based in Chicago, his subsequent publications are developing its interdisciplinary insights in multiple directions, including comparative religion, aesthetics, and anthropology.

Prachand Praveer has published fifteen books, with notable fiction such as Alpahari Grihtyagi , the non-fiction prose viz. ‘Abhinav Cinema’ and its English translation ‘Cinema Through Rasa’, and an introductory book of Indian Classical phonology ‘Varnochchar Vidhan’.