59. HISTORY OF INDIAN ÆSTHETICS 65

HISTORY OF INDIAN ÆSTHETICS 65

presentation by the assumed particular power of the poetic language, called Bhavakatva. Response is due to the cognition of the particular, that being absent, it does not arise. Hence there arises the state of the subject with the predominance of Sattva, in which the Bliss consists. The constituents of the experience, therefore, accordin g to this theory, are the universalised subject and the universal- ised æsthetic object. The following question arises here :- "How are the subject and the object related ?" To answer this he postulates a new cognising activity, called Bhoga, and the experience, he represents to be Ananda. Let us, therefore, see what are the implications of these expressions in the known schools of philosophy. VEDĀNTA METAPHYSICS AND ĀNANDA. The variety of ordinary experiences can be brought under three heads, (i) pleasure (ii) pain and (iii) insensi- bility. Similarly states in the life of a conscious being can be put under three heads, (i) the state of knowing (ii) of acting and (iii) of senselessness. But in ordinary life pleasure, pain and insensibility are not unmixed, nor are so knowledge, action and senselessness. The ultimate cause of both the sets, mentioned above, is the triad of qualities, Sattva, Rajas and Tamas, which constitutes the Avidya or ignorance. There is no moment in the life of an individual, in which they are inoperative. There is no determinate knowledge, which does not arouse attitudes and responses. And deter- minate knowledge of one thing means the ignorance of others. At some moment, however, one is predominantly operative and at others another. Thus in ordinary life one 9