23. 26 CHAPTER I

26 CHAPTER I

the world of daily life and may be called the æsthetic world. THE SEAT OF RASA. Rasa or the æsthetic fact is a configuration or pattern, of which Vibhāva, Anubhāva, Vyabhicāribhāva and Sthāyi- bhava are the constituents. Only a human being can represent their fusion. Thus, the æsthetic configuration is in the human focus of an emotive situation, according to Bharata. For, he speaks of ocular expressions consequent on the completion of Rasa-configuration (Rasaja drstayah). Thus, the problem of Bharata is purely practical and his solution is based upon a full analysis of all the factors of mental life and dramatic technique. This is the tradi- tional view of Rasa, which is found in Dandin's Kavyadarsa. This very view, without any modification, is maintained by Bhatta Lollata. The criticism of it by Śrīśankuka from the spectator's point of view cannot affect its correctness in any way. FROM THE SPECTATOR'S POINT OF VIEW.

But Bharata has not totally ignored the spectator, because the æsthetic object is after all for the spectator. He has, in fact, stated in detail the qualifications of the spectator in the 27th chapter of his Natya Sastra. There he gives a clear idea of the subjective conditions, necessary for æsthetic experience. The most important of them1 are as follows :- 1. Intellectual background, consisting in the knowledge of arts and literature in general and of the dramatic art in particular. 2. Knowledge of the various types of æsthetic configuration, of the accompanying psycho-physical states

1. N.S. 312.