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Priyadarshi Patnaik 159For instance, here are a few dosas and gunas that Bharatalists. Among gunas he indicates slesa (apt use), prasada (clarity),samatā (evenness), mādhurya (sweetness) etc. Among dosas he listsqudarthā (circumlocution or difficult words), arthantara (digressioninto irrelevance), arthahina (incoherence, multiple meanings),ekārtha (tautology) etc.Dosas and gunas, we must admit, are both context- andculture-dependent and hence relative. Say, ‘sweetness’ may not beapt in all writings. In some, it may even be considered a defect. Noris it the translator’s main job to identify ‘defects’ in the text andremedy them. But dosas and gunas are insightful indicators of thesubtle nuances of the style of writing. They get linked to riti orstylistics. They can make the translator choose the right strategy foremulating the style (or collage of styles) to be found in the text to betranslated, be they dosas or gunas.Finally, it must be said that the five elements of Indianpoetics indicated above do not necessarily work in unity when onecomes to translation. There might be inherently contradictorydemands that each makes on the translator. If one goes by laterpoeticians in the Indian tradition, one would resolve the issue byfocusing on rasa, the emotional evocation of the translation and itsapproximation to the text that is translated. Other elements mustwork in accord, and where they do not, must be subordinated to orabandoned in favour of rasa.I also subscribe to such a view. In spite of the various thingsthat we have to say in literary theory about texts, a very significantcomponent of any act of literature is the response of thereader/audience to it, and this can never be purely intellectual orcerebral. Aesthetic relish always brings in certain emotions or theirevocations. All translations must finally be read/experienced, andthey must evoke certain aesthetic emotions in the reader/audience. In