Rasarnavasudhakara 2.529.p5

2.529.p5

apare tu rasābhāsaṃ tiryakṣu pracakṣate | tan na parīkṣā-kṣamam | teṣv api vibhāvādi-sambhavāt | vibhāvādi-jñāna-śūnyās tiryañco na bhājanaṃ bhavitum arhanti rasasyeti cet, na | manuṣyeṣv api keṣucit tathā-bhūteṣu rasa-viṣaya-bhāvābhāva-prasaṅgāt | vibhāvādi-sambhavo hi rasaṃ prati prayojakaḥ | na vibhāvādi-jñānam | tataś ca tiraścām apy asty eva rasaḥ iti | (ekāvalyām 106)

"Others declare that the semblance of aesthetic sentiment occurs in animals. That does not withstand scrutiny, because determinants and the like are possible even in them. If it is argued that animals, being devoid of knowledge of determinants and so on, cannot be fit receptacles for aesthetic sentiment, we say: No; for there would follow the consequence that the presence of aesthetic sentiment would be absent in certain human beings also who are like that. The possibility of determinants and the like is indeed the productive condition for aesthetic sentiment, not the knowledge of determinants and the like. Therefore, aesthetic sentiment exists even in animals." (Ekāvalī [p.] 106)