Text 1.12

शब्द-चित्रं वाच्य-चित्रम् अव्यङ्ग्यं त्व् अवरं स्मृतम् ॥ १.५cd ॥

śabda-citraṃ vācya-citram avyaṅgyaṃ tv avaraṃ smṛtam ||1.5cd ||

śabda-citram—amazing because of the sounds; vācya-citram—amazing because of the literal meaning; avyaṅgyam—[poetry] wherein there is no implied sense; tu—however; avaram—as inferior; smṛtam—is called (“is remembered” i.e. is known from the tradition of poets).

Inferior poetry has no implied sense and is known as either śabda-citra (amazing because of the sounds) or vācya-citra (amazing because of the literal meaning).

sphuṭa-vyaṅgya-rahitaṃ tad idam avaraṃ kāvyaṃ citram ity abhidhīyate. tac ca śabda-citram artha-citram iti dvi-vidham.

Poetry devoid of an obvious implied meaning is third-rate and is called citra (amazing). There are two kinds: śabda-citra (amazing because of an ornament of sound) and artha-citra (amazing because of an ornament of meaning).

Commentary:

The terms artha-citra and vācya-citra are synonymous. Third-rate poetry is the topic of chapter six. This type of poetry, called citra (amazing) or avara-kāvya (inferior poetry), is not exactly the same as citra-kāvya (picture poetry) (9.37). Mammaṭa indicates that citra-kāvya is third-rate poetry,^[1] but that is not the case when a citra-kāvya verse is outstanding. Rūpa Gosvāmī and Kavikarṇapūra raised the standards of citra-kāvya. Ānandavardhana equated citra and citra-kāvya simply because the citra-kāvya verses of old-school poets did not have a rasa nor a significant implied sense.^[2] Mammaṭa partly reiterates Ānandavardhana’s methodology.

In the sūtra, the word smṛta (remembered) signifies that the concepts were taken from a previous authoritative author: The three categories of poetry were invented by Ānandavardhana.^[3] Mammaṭa added the term avara (inferior) as a synonym of citra (third-rate poetry). In this regard, Kavikarṇapūra follows Mammaṭa as usual, but he changed the terms śabda-citra and artha-citra to śabda-vaicitrya and artha-vaicitrya (Alaṅkāra-kaustubha 1.20-21).

In essence, in śabda-citra, an ornament of sound is predominant and an ornament of meaning is secondary, whereas in artha-citra, an ornament of meaning is predominant and an ornament of sound is secondary. However, if by nature the ornament of meaning inherently contains an implied sense, such as an implied similarity in a metaphor, the poetry can be considered second-rate (Commentary 5.16).

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

tac citraṃ varṇānāṃ khaḍgādy-ākṛti-hetutā (Kāvya-prakāśa 9.85) (Sāhitya-kaumudī 9.37).

[2]:

vyaṅgyasyārthasya prādhānye dhvani-saṃjñita-kāvya-prakāraḥ guṇa-bhāve tu guṇībhūta-vyaṅgyatā. tato’nyad rasa-bhāvādi-tātparya-rahitaṃ vyaṅgyārtha-viśeṣa-prakāśana-śakti-śūnyaṃ ca kāvyaṃ kevala-vācya-vācaka-vaicitrya-mātrāśrayeṇopanibaddham ālekhya-prakhyaṃ yad ābhāsate tac citram (Dhvanyāloka 3.42).

[3]:

pradhāna-guṇa-bhāvābhyāṃ vyaṅgyasyaivaṃ vyavasthite, kāvye ubhe tato’nyad yat tac citram abhidhīyate, “There are two kinds of poetry, depending on whether an implied sense is first-rate or second-rate. What is other than that is called citra (amazing)” (Dhvanyāloka 3.41).