34. HISTORY OF INDIAN ÆSTHETICS 37

HISTORY OF INDIAN ÆSTHETICS 37

Similarly anger, heroic enthusiasm and love, the basic mental states of Raudra, Vira and Śrngara respectively, weaken when the feeling of insult or injury is obliterated due to some change in the situation, or firmness of deter- mination is shaken or lack of devotion on the part of the object of love is felt. Therefore, according to Bhatta Lollata, those portions of drama shall have to be considered devoid of Rasa, and, therefore, unfit for the place that is given to them. But such a presentation of anger, heroic enthusiasm and love is necessary either because relief has got to be provided or because it is an important part of the original plot, which fixes the direction of the development of plot. And such parts are found in all good dramas. Hence Bhatta Lollata's conception of Rasa as the basic mental state at a high pitch is unsound. ŚRI SAŃKUKA'S CONTRIBUTION.

By his criticism, howsoever unacceptable, he made a very important contribution to æsthetics inasmuch as he gave a new point of view for the study of the æsthetic problem. He may, therefore, be regarded as the founder of æsthetics, which reached its culminating point in the writings of Abhinava.

He was a younger contemporary of Bhatta Lollata and belonged to Kashmir. He also commented upon Bharata's Natya Sastra. But unlike his older contem- porary he studied the problem of æsthetics as one mainly of theory, i. e. he was concerned not with the production of æsthetic object but with elucidation of the manner in which the æsthetic experience arises from the æsthetic object.

We may state at the very outset that, according to him, æsthetic experience is due to the objective perception of the æsthetic object and that this theory is maintained by