145. ABHINAVAGUPTA'S THEORY OF ÆSTHETICS 165

ABHINAVAGUPTA'S THEORY OF ÆSTHETICS 165

individual naturally follows. The consciousness at this stage may be spoken of as "Terrified" (Bhitah). The "Terrified" presupposes the cause of the terror. That in the present case being without any objective reality and, therefore, the "Terrified" being free trom the objective relation, is reduced to "terror" (Bhayam). This terror, appearing in the consciousness of the spectator, who is free from all elements of individuality, affecting his heart so as to seem penetrating it, and being visualised so as to seem to be dancing as it were before the eyes, is the spiritual suggested meaning, technically called Bhayānaka Rasa which develops on the spiritual plane.1

THE SOURCE OF TERROR. Here it may naturally be asked, where does this terror come from ? In reply to this, Abhinava says that it does not come from outside. It springs from within the self. The soul is beginningless and the tendencies of love and fear etc. (Vasanas) are innate in it. These tendencies manifest themselves in such a way as to get clearly visualized within, when a man, possessed of æsthetic susceptibility finds himself in a situation which pleases the eye and the ear. When this happens in an æsthetic situation, it constitutes the suggested spiritual aspect of the meaning of æsthetic situation. In support of this view he cites the authority of no less a person than Kālidāsa." Thus we find that at the Kathartic level the process of universalisation is completed and that æsthetic experi- ence at this level is nothing more than the experience of the universalised object by the universalised subject. The objective aspect, however, predominates, just as in 1. A. Bh., Vol I. p. 280. 2. A. Bh., Vol. I., p. 281.