42. HISTORY OF INDIAN ÆSTHETICS 45

HISTORY OF INDIAN ÆSTHETICS 45

from jaundice, perceives even conch to be yellow. The defect of Manas may be that it is preoccupied with some ideas. Thus it happens that when we have lost a com- panion in a fair and are looking for him, we mistake a person with slight resemblance with one, we are searching for, to be our companion, because our minds are preoccu- pied with the lost friend. The defect of cognising subject may be that he is swayed by an emotion. Thus we find Kalidasa's Yaksa in Meghaduta, taking the insentient cloud to be a sentient being, capable of taking his message to his darling. Error is subjective. It does not lie in the object. For, the object remains what it is even when it is taken to be something else. The flickering rays of the sun, which are taken to be water, are the same at the time when they are mistaken to be water, no less than when they are viewed correctly as rays. And error exists1 only so long as it is not set aside by valid knowledge. For instance, when a person takes mother of pearl to be silver and proceeds to pick it up, the error exists till the moment when he comes close enough to discover the true nature of the object and finds the object to be incapable of serving the purpose that he thought it would. Thus, error is error only when it is discovered to be so, at least from the point of view of the erring subject. For, if he had known it to be such, his erroneous knowledge would not have been followed by activity towards the object of error. It is the practical point of view, the utilitarian attitude, which expresses itself in action, that destroys the error. The Nyaya theory of error, technically called Anyatha- khyāti is distinct from (i) jñānākāra khyāti of yogācāra. 1. N. D. 290.