The Bible of Sanskrit Poetics

Kāvya-prakāśa is a classic. It is taught in almost all the universities in India. Its prestige is such that Viśvanātha Kavirāja wrote a commentary on it even after composing Sāhitya-darpaṇa. Mammaṭa wrote Kāvya-prakāśa in Kashmir in the second half of the eleventh century.^[1] Caitanya Mahāprabhu studied Kāvya-prakāśa. For instance, He recited the famous verse that begins yaḥ kaumāra-haraḥ (that person who stole my heart during my youth) (Kāvya-prakāśa, verse 1) (Caitanya-caritāmṛta 3.1.78). In response, Rūpa Gosvāmī composed an outstanding verse, cited by Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa (1.7).

Viśvanātha Kavirāja’s Sāhitya-darpaṇa and other important treatises on Sanskrit poetics mostly follow Kāvya-prakāśa. In their commentaries on Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu and on Ujjvalanīlamaṇi, Jīva Gosvāmī and Viśvanātha Cakravartī quote from Kāvya-prakāśa and Sāhitya-darpaṇa. The Gosvāmīs attentively studied those two books. In addition, several verses in Padyāvali (208, 219, 239, 258, 264, 303) are sourced either in Kāvya-prakāśa or in Sāhitya-darpaṇa.

Kavikarṇapūra’s Alaṅkāra-kaustubha as well follows Mammaṭa’s methodology through and through. Kavikarṇapūra paraphrased Mammaṭa’s definitional verses and wrote outstanding illustrative examples, many of which are not well-suited for Brahmacārīs.

Among Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavas, Kāvya-prakāśa was highly revered:

sarva-śāstre pravīṇa, kāvya-prakāśa-adhyāpaka |
parama-vaiṣṇava, raghunātha-upāsaka ||

“He (Rāmadāsa Viśvāsa) was highly learned in all the scriptures. He was a teacher of Kāvya-prakāśa. He was a foremost Vaiṣṇava and a worshiper of Rāmacandra” (Caitanya-caritāmṛta 3.13.92).

rāmadāsa kailā tabe nīlācale vāsa |
paṭṭanāyaka-goṣṭhīke paḍāya ‘kāvya-prakāśa’ ||

“Rāmadāsa took up residence in Jagannātha Purī and taught Kāvya-prakāśa to the Paṭṭanāyaka family (the descendants of Bhavānanda Rāya)” (Caitanya-caritāmṛta 3.13.111).

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Kane, P.V. (1995), The Sāhitya-darpaṇa, Introduction, p. 7.