12: Alaṃkāra-śāstra in the Agni-purāṇa and the Viṣṇudharmottara-purāṇa

The Agnipurāṇa, recognised as the ‘Puranic Encyclopaedia’, devotes a portion of its contents to alaṃkāras. The unknown compiler of the alaṃkāra section of the Agnipurāṇa has collected material from various known and unknown sources. This alaṃkāra portion follows an unorthodox tradition in many respects. As regards to the definition of alaṃkāra the Agnipurāṇa follows the tradition laid down by Daṇḍin^[1] . The Agnipurāṇa gives more importance to guṇas than alaṃkāras in poetry. It asserts that the poetic composition, devoid of excellences or guṇas, does not produce charm, even though it is embellished.

A necklace becomes excessively burdensome to women who do not possess natural beauty—

alaṃkṛtamapi prītyai na kāvyaṃ nirguṇaṃ bhavet/
vapuṣvalalite strīṇāṃ hāro bhārāyate param//
  —Agnipurāṇa 346.1.

The Agnipurāṇa divides alaṃkāras into three classes–

i) The embellishment of word (‘śabdālaṃkāra’)

ii) The embellishment of sense (‘arthālaṃkāra’)

iii) The embellishment of both word and sense (‘ubhayālaṃkāra’)—

alaṃkariṣṇavaste ca śabdamathamubhau tridhā/
  —Agnipurāṇa 343.17.

It is noteworthy that the Agnipurāṇa is the earliest known work which treats ‘ubhayālaṃkāra’ in a separate elaborate chapter. The Agnipurāṇa defines ‘śabdālaṃkāras’ as those which are capable of embellishing words by means of verbal proficiency–

ye vyutpatyādināśabdamalaṃkartumiha kṣamāḥ/
śabdālaṃkāranāmnastān kāvyamīmāmsakāviduḥ//
  —Agnipurāṇa 343.18.

The definition of ‘arthālaṃkāras’ laid by the Purāṇa follows from its general definition of alaṃkāra. According to the Purāṇa, the ‘arthālaṃkāra’ is the adornment of the meaning and without it the worldly beauty lacks the poetic charm–

subhagaṃ karaṇo'rthānāmarthālaṃkāra iṣyate/
taṃ vināśabdasaundaryamapi nāsti manoharam//
  —Agnipurāṇa 344.1

The Agnipurāṇa also states that the goddess of speech is widowed by the absence of arthālaṃkāras—

arthālaṃkārarahitāvidhaveva sarasvatī/
  —Agnipurāṇa 344.2.

In the 9th chapter of the Agnipurāṇa the author attempts to define and illustrate various kinds of śabdārthālaṃkāras or poetic figures which pertain both to sound and sense.

The author compares śabdārthālaṃkāra or ubhayālaṃkāra to a necklace which embellishes both the breast and the neck of a woman–

śabdārthayoralaṃkāra dvāvalaṃkurute samam/
ekatra nihita hāraḥ stanaṃ grīvāmiva striyāḥ//
  —Agnipurāṇa 345.1.

The Viṣṇudharmottarapurāṇa is considered as an ‘Upapurāṇa’ in Indian tradition. It is also a work of an encyclopaedic character and it is probably a much older compilation than the Agnipurāṇa. In the third kāṇḍa of this work we come across two chapters (chapters fourteen and fifteen) which deal with the topics of Sanskrit Poetics. The Viṣṇu-dharmottarapurāṇa defines seventeen (17) poetic figures and occasionally mentions the figure upamā.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

kāvyaśobhākarān dharmānalaṃkārān pracakṣate/
  —Kāvyādarśa (of Daṇḍin) 2.1.