18. HISTORY OF INDIAN ÆSTHETICS 21

HISTORY OF INDIAN ÆSTHETICS 21

he intends to present. Actor also can make choice of dress and general make-up and can fix upon his reaction to situation only when he knows the Rasa, which he is expected to present. And spectator goes to theatre for nothing but the experience of Rasa. In his mind the constituents of Rasa, situation etc., do not figure independently and in isolation from one another, but as merged in the basic mental state, brought to a high pitch by the accompanying transient states of mind. The end of dramatic presentation, the instruction of the spectator, is realised through Rasa only. For, drama does not instruct through categorical imperative, but through identification with the focus of the situation and, therefore, through making the spectator experience the experience of hero, in which æsthetic experi- ence (Rasasvada) consists. Therefore, from whatever point of view we look at Rasa, it strikes us as the most important.

BHARATA'S CONCEPTION OF RASA. With Bharata the problem of asthetics was not a philosophical problem. He was not influenced in his con- ception of Rasa by the philosophical implication of it, such as is presented in the Upanisadic passages like "Raso Vai Sah" He was concerned with it as an object, which is res- ponsible for æsthetic experience, with showing what are the necessary constituents of it and their mutual relation and with the means and methods of its presentation. / No doubt, he talks of the subjective conditions necessary for relishing it, but that he does, because the object, with which he is primarily concerned, is after all for the enjoyment by spectator.

THE RELATION OF CONSTITUENTS OF RASA. We have already stated that the æsthetic object is a configuration of (i) situation with human focus (ii) mimetic