113. SAIVA BASIS OF ABHINAVA'S ÆSTHETICS 129

SAIVA BASIS OF ABHINAVA'S ÆSTHETICS 129

is on the basis of this varying sub.conscious element that it is divided into various types, such as śrngara and vīra etc. The function of drama is only to awaken this sub.conscious element.

He admits that there1 is a stage in the process of asthetic experience, in which the Self experiences itself as affected by the Sthayin ; but asserts that it is not the final stage. In the course of discussion on Camatkara, on which we have al- ready thrown a little light in an earlier section, he definitely asserts that æsthetic experience, which arises from witnes. sing a dramatic performance or reading a good poem, is distinct from the experience that we get from objective perception of a pleasant object : because æsthetic experience is characterised by freedom from all elements of individua- lity. It is an experience, in which the self-luminous aspect of the universalised subject is thrown into background. Hence æsthetic experience is the experience of Ananda, Vimarsa or rest of universal subject in itself. Here he distinguishes between two levels in æsthetic experience and refers to Abhinava Bharati, in which he discusses the problem in detail. 1. The level, at which the universalised basic mental state is apprehended, as it were objectively, the so-called objective apprehension is due, not to the inference of a basic mental state in the focus of the dramatic situation, the hero, but to the fact that it is awakened from the sub- conscious (Samskara) by dramatic presentation. It awakes because the æsthete has completely identified himself with the hero.

2. The other level is that, in which the duality of

3. B. V., (Mss), 408, 1-5-11. D 179-179). 17