Text 1.6

तस्य स्वरूपम् आह,

tasya svarūpam āha,

He states the definition of poetry:

tad adoṣau śabdārthau sa-guṇāv analaṅkṛtī punaḥ kvāpi ||1.4ab||

tad—that (poetry); adoṣau—which are faultless; śabda-arthau—sounds and meanings (or words and meanings); sa-guṇau—which have a quality; analaṅkṛtī—which do not have an ornament; punaḥ—moreover; kva api—sometimes.

Poetry is faultless sounds and meanings which have a literary quality and an ornament, although sometimes there is no ornament.

doṣa-śūnyaṃ sa-guṇaṃ sālaṅkāraṃ śabdārtha-yugalaṃ tat kāvyam. adoṣāv iti, yāvad-doṣa-rāhityaṃ sphuṭa-doṣa-rāhityaṃ rasāpakarṣaka-doṣa-rāhityaṃ vā nañ-arthaḥ. analaṅkṛtī kvāpīti, sphuṭālaṅkāra-virahe’pi na kāvyatva-hāniḥ.

The pair of “sounds and meanings” which is devoid of a literary fault, which has a literary quality and which has a figure of speech is poetry. Regarding adoṣau (faultless): The sense of the negation is either: (1) The poetry is entirely devoid of a literary fault, (2) It has no obvious literary fault, or (3) It has no literary fault which mars the relishment. Regarding analaṅkṛtī kvāpi (although sometimes devoid of an ornament): Even if it is unclear whether there is an ornament, there is no diminution of being poetry (the next verse is an example).

Commentary:

In the elaboration on the next verse, Mammaṭa specifies that if there is no ornament, the text must have a first-rate rasa-dhvani in order to be called poetry. Mammaṭa’s definition is wide enough to include third-rate poetry, where a rasa is not essential (1.12).

Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa’ explanation of adoṣau (faultless) in Mammaṭa’s definition is his own interpretation. Mammaṭa does not expound. According to Govinda Ṭhakkura, here the negative particle in adoṣau has the sense of “slight”.^[1] Therefore adoṣau signifies īṣad-doṣāv api, “even if the sounds or the meanings are a little faulty,” such as the occurrence of few sounds of ojas guṇa (the literary quality called vigor) in the context of mādhurya-rasa, and so on, or the occurrence of a minor fault such as nirarthaka (meaningless) (7.9).

There are three kinds of literary qualities (guṇa): mādhurya (sweetness, melting), ojas (vigor), and prasāda (clarity of the meaning). In an analysis of a verse, poetical rhetoricians only refer to either mādhurya or ojas because mādhurya and ojas each have a set of particular phonemes. A verse is said to have either mādhuryaguṇa or ojas guṇa by looking at three factors of literary composition: (1) The type of phoneme (sweet or harsh), (2) The style of compounding (ojas is enhanced by long compounds), and (3) The type of phonetic combinations (sweet or harsh) (8.20). The construction of mādhurya is used for śṛṅgāra-rasa, karuṇa-rasa and so on (8.8). The construction of ojas is used for vīra-rasa, raudra-rasa and so on (8.9).

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

naño’lpārthatvāt. alpatvasya cātrāsphuṭatva eva viśramāt (Kāvya-pradīpa 1.4).