7: Alaṃkāra-śāstra according to Vāmana (8th century)

Vāmana (c. 8th cen.–9th cen. A.D.) is the first rhetorician to point out the supreme importance of rīti in kāvya. This rīti, he adds, has to be ‘guṇātmaka’ or consisting of the poetic merits that determine the quality of a kāvya. He has also put forth a detailed discussion on the classification of guṇas and their basic difference with alaṃkāras.

Vāmana’s concept of alaṃkāras deserves very special attention. He follows his predecessor Bhāmaha when he announces the unassailable importance of alaṃkāra in a kāvya.

He opines that poetry is acceptable on the account of alaṃkāra—

kāvyaṃ grāhyamalaṃkārāt
  —Kāvyālaṃkārasūtravṛtti (of Vāmana) 1.1.1.

Vāmana defines alaṃkāra in two-folds—

a) Anything which beautifies a kāvya is to be recognised as an alaṃkāra. Therefore, alaṃkāra is beauty in general—

saundaryamalaṃkāraḥ/
  —Kāvyālaṃkārasūtravṛtti (of Vāmana) 1.1.2

This is the ‘sāmānya lakṣaṇa’ of alaṃkāra. By this definition Vāmana has explained the term alaṃkāra as primarily synonymous with ‘embellishment’ or with ‘the act of embellishing’, thus including in itself all the general elements of beautification in a kāvya such as guṇa, rīti, alaṃkāra, rasa, doṣahīnatva etc.

Vāmana also asserts that this beauty is to be attained by avoiding doṣas and employing guṇas and alaṃkāras—

sa ca doṣaguṇālaṃkārahānādānābhyām/
  —Kāvyālaṃkārasūtravṛtti (of Vāmana) 1.1.3.

b) In the secondary instrumental sense the term alaṃkāra is identified to that which embellishes or ‘the means of embellishment’. By this definition of alaṃkāra, the conventional figures of speech like upamā, rūpaka etc have been also termed as alaṃkāra. This is the ‘viśeṣa lakṣaṇa’ of alaṃkāra and it includes all the ‘pāribhāṣika’ or traditional figures of speech mentioned by the Sanskrit rhetoricians.

As far as the importance of alaṃkāra in a kāvya is concerned Vāmana describes alaṃkāras such as upamā etc as ‘anitya dharma’ of kāvya while guṇa as ‘nitya dharma’. Thus he asserts that ‘guṇatmaka rīti’ is the soul (ātman) of a kāvya while alaṃkāras only embellish the body of poetry, i.e, śabda and artha.