143. ABHINAVAGUPTA'S THEORY OF ÆSTHETICS 163

ABHINAVAGUPTA'S THEORY OF ÆSTHETICS 163

bodily attitudes and dispositions are inspired directly by the actor, and the given also is received through him.

Thus when the æsthete, assisted by taste, intellectual background and power of visualisation arranges and moulds the sensations, unites with the given the necessary elements from the unconscious and so builds up a world of imagina- tion in which he lives and has his being, another subjective power, the æsthetic susceptibility, is evoked and requisi- tioned. Its harmonious working and arrangement with other subjective constituents leads to the formation of complete æsthetic image. Appropriate responses follow. And emotive state is the result.

VI. FROM EMOTION TO COMPLETE KATHARSIS.

While the experience of the spectator on the physical plane is identical with that of the focus of the situation, because his heart is beating and so nerves are responding to the situation exactly like those of the focus, for the reason that he is possessed of æsthetic susceptibility; and the same is the case with the experience on the intellectual plane, because the 'pratibha', assisted by intellectual background, has populated the field of imagina- tion with more or less the same figures; another and the most important aspect of the æsthetic experience also develops along the same line to the same pitch, on a higher, the spiritual, plane.

How the presented situation with a focus together with automatic physical changes is responsible for the development of the spiritual suggested meaning on a higher plane, is explained by Abhinavagupta in his Abhinava Bharatī. He takes the illustration from Kalidasa's famous drama, Abhijñāna Šakuntalam.