[Advaita-l] Parmana

[Bhaskar YR]

I think the connection here is that rasa leads to ananda/happiness.
This happiness in the aesthetic pursuit, where one loses oneself, is close to the atmananda that brahman is. Hence the importance of the classical arts which lead to rasa anubhava.

it can be given the importance of pramana.

That's at least the way I can reason it out for myself.

praNAms Sri Ananda prabhuji
Hare Krishna

First and foremost thing here is AtmAnanda is not pramANa janita whereas  it is its svarUpa.  The 'rasa' that originates because of travelling aloof from vishayasukha and nearing or realizing the svAtmAnanda is not praMANa in itself it is pramANa janita jnAnAnanda (to the extent similar to vishaya sukha/Ananda only).  This is also type of vrutti restricted to antaHkaraNa.  Staying there or wishing to be there in this rasa / Ananda is rasAsvAda which is again an obstacle in realizing the svarUpa paramAnanda.  I think in kArikA bhAshya bhagavatpAda discusses this along with sakashAya, laya type obstacles that sAdhaka would encounter before realizing his svarUpAnanda.  

Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
bhaskar