ABSTRACT
One of the lines of query that a seminar on 'Cultural Studies in the Indian Context' can lead us into is how classical Indian aesthetic theories and propositions may be relevant to the discipline of culture studies in general and with regards to contemporary popular culture studies. Interestingly, in classical Indian aesthetics, in a similar vein, equal validation has been given to both the high canonized forms and the odd, the marginal, the queer forms of art. Very interestingly, this first implication of the ontology of culture studies, and both its corollaries elaborated previously, have significant resonances in classical Indian aesthetics. The model of togetherness or sahitya is extended in classical Indian aesthetics to the relationship between the text and the reader too, so much so that Anandavardhana says in his Dhvanyaloka that the aesthete has to be a sahrdaya, or sharing one's heart with, totally in empathy with, the work of art.
