24. HISTORY OF INDIAN ÆSTHETICS 27

HISTORY OF INDIAN ÆSTHETICS 27

and of the subtle distinctions among them. 3. Knowledge of various languages, including the provincial dialects, which are used in drama. 4. The capacity of concentration. 5. The power of quick understanding. 6. The capacity to maintain impartial attitude. 7. Character and breeding. 8. Interest in the presentation. 9. And above all the capacity to identify with the human focus of the situation so as to have the identity of experience. The aforesaid are the common subjective conditions, necessary in the spectator for the æsthetic experience. But every individual spectator, though possessed of the above qualities, cannot get æsthetic experience from every æsthetic presentation. The age1, the inborn tendencies and the psycho-physical conditions at the time of witnessing a dramatic performance, are great factors in æsthetic exper- ience. An old man, for instance, cannot have the æsthetic experience, the basic mental state of which is youthful love; nor can one, who is a coward at heart, have an empathic apprehension of the representation of the heroic emotion; for the simple reason that they are by nature incapable of identifying themselves with the presented human focus of the situation. Thus, it is clear that Srisankuka's theory, that the æsthetic experience is due to inference of the basic mental state from its external physical signs by the spectator, is not supported by Bharata. According to Bharata, as stated above, æsthetic experience is due to identification 1. N. S., 313.