The sentiment (Rasa) is the lasting impression or feeling which is produced in a man of poetic sensibility. It is regarded as the soul of poetry. But the literary critics like Bhāmaha and Daṇḍin of the earlier age did not give a special consideration to it. It was not treated as an essential and separate cannon in their books of rhetoric. It is found to be included within the figure of speech called Rasavat.1 Vāmana, the exponent of the Rīti School, assesses it as an element of the Arthaguņa called Kānti.2 Thus, these rhetoricians are found to ascribe a subordinate position to Rasa. It is in the works of later rhetoricians like Ānandavardhana and Viśvanātha, that we notice the special recognition assigned to it. Abhinavagupta,3 in his famous commentary (to Ānanda's Dhvanyāloka) called Locana distinctly recognizes the Rasadhvani to be the principal kind of Dhvani (i.e. suggestion), which is the soul of poetry. Viśvanātha4 holds that a literary piece can be called kāvya proper provided it possesses Rasa. However, it cannot be said that the earlier rhetoricians had not been able to recognize the aesthetic value in poetry as they lacked the idea of Rasa of the later theorists. The works of earlier poets did contain reference to Rasa. In fact, Bhāmaha also opined that there should be separate delineation of the eight Rasas in a Mahākāvya. Actually the earlier writer's approach to Rasa was different from that of the later writers.