House of Navrasa
House of Navrasa
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A collective of designers, engineers & researchers aspiring to make technology more human, more felt, more alive.

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Navrasa
House of
Observations, reflections and work in progress.
House of Navrasa

A collective of designers, engineers & researchers aspiring to make technology more human, more felt, more alive.

Navrasa is an ancient 2,000-year-old operational framework for human emotion, originating from the Nāṭyaśāstra—a foundational Sanskrit user manual for performance art.

Think of it as the original design system for user experience, where the “product” is a shared feeling, and the audience is the active user. Rasa ux framework inspires us to breathe life into digital products and experiences that are globally accessible and a joy to use.

Welcome to our digital diary. Here, we share our reflections, daily insights, and the latest updates on the products we craft with care.

We write down what we notice, a colour on a wall, a line in a song, the way someone holds a door, because what we notice ends up shaping what we make. This is the margin of that notebook, where the observations that influence our creative space are kept.

The Nine Emotional Modes

Navrasa

Originally, the system shipped with eight core emotional profiles:

  1. 01

    Śṛṅgāra

    Love, attraction, and romance

  2. 02

    Hāsya

    Laughter, joy, and comedy

  3. 03

    Karuṇa

    Compassion and sorrow

  4. 04

    Raudra

    Fierce, righteous anger

  5. 05

    Vīra

    Heroism, courage, and valor

  6. 06

    Bhayānaka

    Fear and dread

  7. 07

    Bībhatsa

    Disgust and aversion

  8. 08

    Adbhuta

    Wonder and awe

  9. Around the 10th century, Abhinavagupta added a ninth rasa:

    09

    Śānta

    Deep peace, stillness, and tranquility

The Core Formula

In modern product terms, an emotional response (rasa) doesn’t just happen by accident. It is engineered. The ancient text breaks down the interaction design like this:

The TriggerVibhāva
The context, visual, or narrative hook that sets the stage.
The Micro-InteractionAnubhāva
The visible, tangible expression or cue.
The Dynamic StateVyabhicāri Bhāva
The shifting, supporting emotional sub-currents that bubble up and pass through.
When you wire these components together correctly, they trigger a distinct, resonant “flavor” in the user’s mind.

Why It Matters for Modern Design

Instead of asking, “What does this brand look like?” Navarasa forces us to ask,

“What emotional state are we leaving the user in?”

It treats emotion not as a vague happy accident, but as a modular palette you can tune, balance, and orchestrate.