The Advaita of Art

This inquiry is an undertaking to demonstrate that aesthetic experience in the classical Indian tradition, on its own merit, without being subordinated to rituals and practices commonly held under the rubric of religion, is capable of providing a transcendent experience to a prepared aesthete. Dr. Dehejia examines the dynamics of two aesthetics processes, that stemming from aesthetic emotion or rasa and from aesthetic form or rupa, and cogently underpins them within the advaitic epistemology of Kasmir Saivism. The Advaita of Art, Dr. Dehejia argues, is a joyous celebration of affirmation and assertion and not negation.