15: Alaṃkāra-śāstra according to Ruyyaka (12th century)

Ruyyaka (c. 12th cen. A.D.) belongs to the Kashmirian school of rhetoricians and is a strong advocate of Ānandavardhana’s ‘dhvani’ doctrine. His work dealing with the poetic figures is called Alaṃkārasarvasva. Ruyyaka has not discarded the doctrines of his predecessors like Bhāmaha, Udbhaṭa etc. On the contrary he has categorically mentioned the contributions of older Kashmirian rhetoricians like Bhāmaha, Udbhaṭa, Rudraṭa, Kuntaka, Bhaṭṭanāyaka etc.

Ruyyaka has recognised the three-fold classification of dhvani (i.e. vastudhvani, rasadhvani and alaṃkāradhvani) led by Ānandavardhana. The three types of poetry (i.e. dhvani, guṇībhūtavyangya and citra) have been also admitted by Ruyyaka and he observed that all poetic figures relate to this ‘citra’ type of poetry. In this ‘citra-kāvya’ the dhvani recedes to an extreme level and the poetic figures get a natural upper hand over it. Ānandavardhana has omitted any detailed discussion on the ‘citra-kāvya’ as it does not fit within the sphere of his theory. Ruyyaka’s work is a kind of supplementary to the work of his famous predecessor.

Ruyyaka’s treatment of poetic figures has followed the path taken by his predecessor Kuntaka. He, like Kuntaka, regards that a poetic figure must consist of ‘vichitti-viśeṣa’ or ‘vaicitrya’ (a peculiar striking expression) and it has to be generated by the imagination of the poet (‘kavivyāpāra’ or ‘kavipratibhā’). Ruyyaka has also furnished an accurate analysis of the characteristics of a large number of individual poetic figures.