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the sine qua non of poetry, the other two aims, glory and advice, being ancillary. For, beautiful things are those which are apprehended with pleasure : 'A thing of beauty is a joy for ever'. Prof. S. P. Bhattacharya quotes Longinus to say that our souls are somehow naturally exalted by the true sublime; and, as if rearing or prancing, are filled with joy and exaltation.2 4 2 The Longinian doctrine of Transport, too, requires the poet so. to speak in his verse that he may teach, that he may delight, and last but not least, that he may move, Hemachandra's view on Art Experience finds an adequate echo in these words of Victor M. Hamm:
"The products of fine arts are primarily intended for the delight of perception and contemplation which they elicit, and. if they provide this, they do their work." 2 4 3 The Aesthetic Experience
On 'aesthetic experience', Hemachandra completely subscribes to Abhinavagupta's interpretation of Bharata's famous dictum on Rasa in terms of the Rasadhvani doctrine of Ānanda-. vardhana, setting aside the views of Lollata, Srišankuka and Bhattanāyaka and others. But Hemachandra is especially fondi of Bhatta Tauta's profound observations on the Art, Philosophy and Nature of the poetic process. But it is in Abhinavagupta's writings that Hemachandra finds the culmination of the true. theory of Art. P. Pañcāpageśa śāstri aptly brings out this feel-- ing of success on the part of Sanskrit aestheticians in his preface to his well known classic 'The Philosophy of Aesthetic Pleasure' 2 4 4
"Basing their discussions on Bharata's Nātyaśāstra and confining their activities to the explanation of his Rasasūtra.. those great men sought a true and correct explanation of the experience called "Kāvyarasāsvāda' or the enjoyment of aesthe-- tic pleasure. Some stumbled; some halted; others caught a shadow on the way and declared it substance; and some went: right to the soul of the affair and were in a position to cry out 'Eureka' !"
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