Emotion, Cognition and Consciousness: A Continuum in Indian Philosophy and Aesthetics

Human emotions are recognized as epistemic moments in the Indian thought, and constitute the cognition of an object, feeling or situation in interaction with the conceptual cognates. My talk would present a key statement from the Rasa theory of Bharata (2 nd century BCE- 2 nd century CE) and Abhinavagupta (10 th -11 th century CE) in relation to the theories of epistemology in Sankhya, Mimamsa and Kashmir Shaivism. How is the psychological stream from cognition to consciousness understood in the shared frameworks of philosophy and aesthetics? This will be the main subject of enquiry.