44. HISTORY OF INDIAN ÆSTHETICS 47

HISTORY OF INDIAN ÆSTHETICS 47

Nyaya, therefore, holds that recognition is a kind of qualified perception. It gives us knowledge of the present object as qualified by the past. When we see an object, discover it to be the same as that which we saw on a previous occasion and fuse the two images together much as we do the perception of a jar with that of blackness, recognitive form of consciousness arises.

Now that we have given a brief account of the rele- vant Nyaya technique, which Śrisankuka adopts in the course of his exposition of the æsthetic theory, let us elaborate it.

The basic mental state, (Sthayibhava) known through inference from an imitative presentation of the real, not cognised as such, is called Rasa for the simple reason that it is an imitation.

He applies the inferential technique of ancient Nyaya in inferring the basic mental state. We have already stated that the Nyaya accepts three methods of inference. (i) of effect from cause (Purvavat) (ii) of cause from effect (Sesavat) and (iii) of one of the two concomitants from the other (Samanyatodrsta). He, therefore, main- tains that the inferential knowledge of the basic mental state arises in the spectator, when he is aware of three types of inferential reason (Hetu), presented on the stage.

(i) Situation with human focus (Vibhava)1 the cause of the basic mental state.

(ii) Mimetic changes, the perceptible physical changes, voluntary or involuntary, the effects of basic mental state (Anubhāva).

1. A. Bh, Vol. I. 274,