Alamkaras mentioned by Vamana

by Pratim Bhattacharya | 2016 | 65,462 words

This page relates ‘Alamkara-shastra according to Kavikarnapura (16th Century)’ of the study on Alamkaras (‘figure of speech’) mentioned by Vamana in his Kavyalankara-sutra Vritti, a treatise dealing with the ancient Indian science of Rhetoric and Poetic elements. Vamana flourished in the 8th century and defined thirty-one varieties of Alamkara (lit. “anything which beautifies a Kavya or poetic composition”)

25: Alaṃkāra-śāstra according to Kavikarṇapūra (16th Century)

Paramānanda Dāssena, well-known as Kavikarṇāpūra, is a keen follower of the Vaiṣṇava movement led by Śrīcaitanya. Flourished in the latter half of the 16th century, Kavikarṇapūra wrote several poetical works and he is the author of a work on Sanskrit Rhetoric called ‘Alaṃkārakaustubha’. It is basically a derivative work designed on the pattern of the Kāvyaprakāśa of Mammaṭāwith certain original deviations. It follows the most prevalent ‘rasa-dhvani’ system of Sanskrit Poetics. The work is composed in ten (10) kiraṇas or chapters.

The author opines that poetry is a special type of composition with extra ordinary strikingness and it is generated from the intuition of the poet—

kavivāṅnirmitiḥ kāvyam/
  —Alaṃkāra-kaustubha (of Kavikarṇāpūra) 1.2.

Also

asādhāraṇacamatkārakāriṇīracanāhi nirmitiḥ /
  —Alaṃkāra-kaustubha (of Kavikarṇāpūra) 1.2 (vṛtti)

He also presents, like Rājaśekhara and Vidyānatha, the complete picture of the ‘kāvya-puruṣa’ and regards upamā and other figures as necklaces and other ornaments of the said ‘puruṣa[1] . Kavikarṇapūra gives detailed analysis of śabdālaṃkāras and arthālaṃkāras in the 7th and 8th kiraṇa of his work respectively.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

śarīraṃ śabdārthau dhvanirasava ātmākila rasau
guṇāmādhuryyādyāupamitimukho'laṅkṛtigaṇaḥ/
susaṃsthānaṃ rītiḥ sa kila paramaḥ kāvyapuruṣo
yadasmin doṣaḥ syācchravaṇakaṭutādiḥ sa na paraḥ//

  — Alaṃkāra-kaustubha (of Kavikarṇāpūra) 1.1.

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