55. HISTORY OF INDIAN ÆSTHETICS 59

HISTORY OF INDIAN ÆSTHETICS 59

that was advanced in the light of the Sankhya philosophy. According to this, there is causal relation between the situation etc. and the basic mental state. The former cons- titute the sum total of external causes and are responsible for the being of the latter, which is essentially an inner state of pleasure or pain. Obviously the exponents of this theory took the basic mental state to be identical with æsthetic experience. Hence they have gone not only against the fact of experience but also against the textual authority of Bharata, according to whom the two are very distinct from each other. CRITICISM OF THE EARLIER THEORIES. We have so far discussed two theories (i) the theory of inference, which is apparently from the point of view of the Naiyayika, and (ii) the Sankhya theory of asthetics. The common question which can be raised about them is whether the basic mental state (Sthayi), according to them, is cognised in the actor or arises in the spectator. Neither of the two positions is defensible. For, in the former case, this cognition, being in no way different from ordinary wordly cognitions, will naturally arouse ordinary' attitudes and responses. And admission of this will mean denial of an independent value to art. In the latter case, that is, if we admit the rise of basic mental state in the spectator,it will mean condemnation of all tragic presentation, for, we will have to admit the rise of the tragic feeling of sorrow in the spectator, which, as such is not relishable. In fact subjective rise of a basic mental state from the art-presentation is not possible. The reason may be stated as follows :- Suppose we are attempting psycho-epistemically to account for the rise of Rati (love) from the presentation of

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60 aITHCHAPTER IO YHOT2IH

Rama and Sita on the stage. How can love arise in the spectator ? For, Sita has not the same value to him as she had to Rama. The spectator does not look upon Sita as an object of love. In fact the historical and religious associa- tions, which surround the personality of Sīta, will prevent the rise of such feeling from such a presentation. INTELLECTUAL BACKGROUND OF BHATTA NAYAKA.

Bhatta Nayaka was an immediate predecessor, or an older contemporary, of Abhinava : for, he was king Sankara Varman's contemporary (883-902 A. D.). He, therefore, lived in the same literary atmosphere as that in which Abhinava lived. By his time the two important factors in the evolution of the form, which the æsthetic theory assumed in the hands of Abhinava, had come into being. (1) Ananda Vardhana had propounded the theory of Dhvani, the power of language to convey the spiritual meaning (Dhvani) and (2) Saiva metaphysics also had been well systematised by Utpala in his detailed commentary, the Vivrti, on his own Īśvara Pratyabhijnā Kārikā. But Bhațța Nayaka did not come under the influence of either. He was an ayowed opponent of the spiritual meaning theory and wrote a work, Hrdaya Darpana, with the expressed object of demolishing it. And he seems to have simply ignored the Saiva Philosophy. He followed the Vedanta school and based his theory upon the same school of philosophy. VEDĀNTIC TENDENCIES OF BHAȚȚA NĀYAKA. Bhatta Nayaka's date and place we have discussed in in an earlier work. (Abh. 128-30). He had Vedantic tendencies. For, in the course of his commentary on the very first verse of Bharata's Natya Sastra, he refers to the Vedantic conception of the phenomenal world. He points out its similarity with the dramatic presentation. Accor- ding to him, the activities of Rama and Ravana etc. (in stage-