1. Meaning and importance of Alaṃkāra

Alaṃkāra is a very ancient word. The genesis of this word can perhaps be traced to the age of Ṛgveda, though the word was not exactly used as alaṃkāra but a slightly different variant as araṃkāra or araṃkṛti.^[1] However in Śatapathabrāhmaṇa and Chāndogyopaniṣad the expression alaṃkāra can be found as it is.

The word alaṃkāra in Sanskrit can be interpreted in many ways—

1. alaṃ karoti—to decorate,
2. alaṃ karoti—in negative sense and
3. alaṃ karoti—meaning sufficiency.

Most of the rhetoricians have taken the meaning of the word alaṃkāra as to decorate or to embellish. Vāmana uses the word alaṃkāra as ‘a thing of beauty’-saundaryaṃ alaṃkāraḥ. The author himself further explained it as, alamkṛtir alaṃkāraḥ| -meaning beautifying element is called alaṃkāra.^[2]

Dandin considered all beautifying features in a kāvya as alaṃkāra—

kāvyaśobhākarān dharmān alaṃkārān pracakṣate.^[3]

Ānandavardhana states alaṃkāra as the charming speech that enhances the beauty of rasa, it is only a beautifying object—

alaṃkāro hi cārutvahetuḥ prasiddhaḥ.^[4]

They are like the outer ornaments of the body. Nobody mentions alaṃkāra as the soul of the poetry; rather alaṃkāras are treated as the embellishments that enhance the soul of the poetry. But the importance of alaṃkāra is equally supported by them. Vāmana exhibited his view through the first line of his book Kāvyālaṃkāra, kāvyaṃ grāhyaṃ alaṃkārāt -a kāvya or poetic creation should be taken into consideration only when it is decorated with alaṃkāra.^[5] Jayadeva in his Candrāloka opines that the existence of a kāvya not having a single alaṃkāra is impossible. As no one can separate fire from warmth; neither can anyone create any kāvya sans alaṃkāra.

Cf.

aṅgīkaroti yaḥ kāvyaṃ śabdārthāvanalaṃkṛtī/ asau na manyate kasmād anuṣṇamanalaṃkṛtī//^[6]

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

kā te astyaraṃkṛtiḥ sūktaiḥ kadā nūnaṃ te maghavan dāśema// Ṛgveda, VII.29.3

[2]:

Kāvyālaṃkārasūtravṛtti of Vāmana,I.2

[3]:

Kāvyādarśa, II.1

[4]:

Dhvanyāloka, II.5, p.170

[5]:

Kāvyālaṃkārasūtravṛtti of Vāmana, I.1

[6]:

Candrāloka, I.8