111. 126 BOITHET CHAPTER IIBA AVIA

SAIVA. BASIS OF ABHINAVA'S ÆSTHETICS 127

state is Rasa, because1 it is relishable. This relish consists in the experience of blissfulness of the subject, that is free from limitations of individuality; it arises from the realisation of the full meaning of the presented, whether it be expressed, indicated or suggested. Although Rasa is only one, because the universal subjective2 blissfulness has no variety, yet, because of variety of emotive affections of mind as also of accompanying conditions of heart, it is divided into four primary Rasas. Thus the blissful state of universalised subject is accompanied by blooming (Vikāśa) of heart in Srngāra, by broadening of it (Vistara) in Vīra, by tossing of it (Ksobha) in Bībhatsa and by violent agitation of it in Raudra". Æsthetic experience, according to Dhananjaya, who follows Bhatta Nayaka, consists in the realisation of bliss- fulness of the universalised subject, affected by an universa- lised basic mental state and accompanied by a correspond- ing condition of heart.

The emotive nature of æsthetic experience is emphasi- sed by Pandita Jagannatha3 also in his Rasagangadhara, when he states Abhinavagupta's view of Rasa and points out how his view differs from that of Abhinava gupta. Æsthetic experience, according to Abhinavagupta, Pandita Jagannātha holds, is the experience of a basic mental state such as Rati, with the universalised Self (i. e. Cit freed from all obscuring limitations) as its attribute. His own view differs from the above inasmuch as he maintains that the Self is not an attribute of the basic mental state; on the contrary, it is the substantive of which the Sthayin is an attribute. Abhinavagupta's view of æsthetic experience, which marks the culminating point, is not what has been attributed level 1. D. R., 96. 2. D. R. 97. 3. R. G. 22-3