Chapter 347 - Investigation into poetic blemishes (kāvya-doṣa)

[Sanskrit text for this chapter is available]

Fire-god said:

1. Blemish [i.e., kāvya-doṣa] causes distaste in the refined men. It is sevenfold as applied to one, two and three of the speaker, the denoter and the denoted.

2-3. The speaker is certainly the poet therein. He is also known to be fourfold: suspicious, insolent, ignorant and learned. The denoter is that which affects the meaning on the ground (for employment) and technicality. Its subdivisions are two: word and sentence. The characteristics of both have been stated.

4. Grammatical incorrectness and reconditeness are the only two defects of word. Wisemen know grammatical incorrectness as repugnance to the science of word.

5-6a. Reconditeness is said to be the non-employment by the well-versed. It is fivefold: Chāndasatva (Vedic usage), Avispaṣṭatva (lack of clarity), Kaṣṭatva (unpleasantness), Asāmayikatva (not being conventional) and Grāmyatva (vulgarity).

6b-9. Chāndasatva is that which is not found in the spoken language. Lack of clarity arises from lack of understanding. Obscurity of meaning, Perversion of meaning and Ambiguity are varieties of Lack of clarity. It is known as obscurity of meaning in which the sense is understood with difficulty. Perversion of meaning again is wrong perception of the meaning of a word other than that intended. Non-conformity to established meaning and Incapability (of expressing the intended meaning) approach this only. Ambiguity is said to be the doubtful nature of the expressed (meaning).

10-11a. Without causing distress to good people, faultiness attaches to unpleasantness which comprises difficult pronunciation. Not being conventional consists of deviation from convention. The sages named it Neyā.

11b-12. Vulgarity is the damaging apprehension of a low meaning. It is threefold: arising from the expression of an intended vulgar sense, recollection (of the same) and from close resemblance (of an expression) with the word expressive (of that sense).

13. Defect of meaning is twofold: general and particular. The blemish that relates to many is said to be the general.

14. The general (impurities) are five, namely, Kriyābhraṃśa (dropping of the verb), Kārakabhraṃśa (dropping of the case-endings), Visandhi (lack of euphonic combination), Punaruktatā (tautology) and Vyastasambandhatā (confused connection).

15. The dropping of the verb is the absence of the verb. Dropping of the case-endings again is the absence of cases beginning with the subject. Lack of euphonic combination is the deficiency of the same.

16. It is twofold: deficient euphonic combination or repugnant. The repugnance of euphonic combination (arises) from difficulty in reading or from the appearance of a different sense.

17-18. The continued repetition of an expression is Tautology. It is also twofold: repetition of sense and repetition of word. The repetition of sense is also twofold: by making use of a chosen word and by means of a different word. In the repetition of a word, a word is repeated and not the sense.

19-21. The confused connection (is) improper connection that arises from the intervention (of a word). It is, indeed, threefold—arising from the implication of a different connection, from the occurrence of a different connection and in the absence of both of them, from internal intervention. Each one of these is, again, twofold by means of the intervention of a word or a sentence. Of the word and the sentence, the meaning^[1] is what is expressed, because it is intended to be conveyed. The expressed is divided into two, viz. already-developed or yet-to-be-developed.

22-23. The incapability of the cause is the state of causing obstacle to the intended. (It occurs in the following forms): inconclusiveness, contrariety, absence of invariable concomitance, being liable for a valid opposite argument, union of untimely reason, non-existence in the subject, non-existence in similar instance and existence in contrary instance.

24. The eleven kinds of meaninglessness do not become painful to those who are competent in poetry. They do not become defects in difficult compositions.

25. Obscurity of meaning does not make the knowers of defects in difficult compositions feel distress. Vulgarity does not annoy by being admitted by people (in general) and in technical works.

26. There is no blemish in the dropping of the verb because (the ellipsis) of the verb could be supplied. The dropping of the case (becomes possible) when the case is supplied by means of implication.

27. Non-occurrence of euphonic combination does not affect in the (case of a) pragṛhya^[2] (vowel). Absence of disagreeable euphonic combination that arises from difficulty in reading does not become unpleasant in harsh utterances and the like.

28-29a. The repetition of a word and confused connection are good in alliteration. It is not a defect in understanding the sense. It is also not tarnished by (the defects) such as the inversion of order and the like of the case ending, number and gender. There is no distress for the wise in these.

29b. There is difference in number between the standard of comparison and the object of comparison there.

30-33. The right practice of the poets is glorified as the (poetic) convention, where there is (comparison) of many with one and many with many, which is good. It is twofold: general and particular, similar to excellence. That which is well known from the absence of dispute among famous knowers of established truth is considered as the general convention of poets. According as all the knowers of truth or only a few agree faultlessly, the general is twofold. The other (namely, the particular), arises from defective doctrine, such as the error of some people.

34-35a. Some sage has the knowledge of reasoning. Some (has) transitory (consciousness) of the created beings. Some (has) self-manifestation^[3] of knowledge. Similarly, there is grossness of known objects and uncertainty of words for the Arhats (Jains).

35b-36a. The Śaivas (devotees of Śiva), Vaiṣṇavas (devotees of Viṣṇu), Sauras (devotees of Sun god), who know the established truth, opine that Brahman is the cause of the world. (The cause is associated) with Pradhāna (Primordial) for the Sāṅkhyas.^[4]

36b-40. It is said to be the particular, in this world of speech, that people moving together and perceiving mutually, fasten upon. This being divided, is also known as twofold, according as being accepted as unreal and being non-accepted as real. That which gets affected by the means of knowledge such as perception and the like, is known as the unreal. That is to be accepted by the poet as the manifestation of knowledge. That alone which accomplishes an action with purpose, is (taken to be) the highest truth, out of ignorance. Brahman alone is the real, the highest truth, from knowledge. (Lord) ViṣṇU is the cause of creation and the like. He is embodied of words and embellishments. Knowledge is Parā (superior) and Aparā (inferior). One is released from birth by knowing it.

Footnotes and references:

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[1]:

The correct reading is vācyamartho[?].

[2]:

That which is not governed by the rules of sandhi or euphony and is permitted to be written and pronounced separately.

[3]:

The reading svaprakāśatā seems to be better.

[4]:

The followers of the Sāṅkhya philosophy, promulgated by Sage Kapila.