Chapter 8 - The evolution of the names of Sanskrit poetics

[Full title: The evolution of the names of Sanskrit poetics and Kriya-kalpa—a pre-Bhamaha name of the Alankara Shastra]

It will not be a surprise if on examining the history of the several names of a branch of knowledge in its long course through the centuries, one finds that it is not always the survival of the best that is the rule in the realm of nomenclatural evolution. This is borne out by an examination of the names of the subject of Sanskrit Poetics also which is called Alankara Sastra, not because of the absolute appropriateness of that name. The name of the concept of Alankara stuck to the whole subject even though the concept itself got dethroned after a time. In English the subject called Literary Criticism has the old name Poetics or the Study of Poetry and we have Aristotle's work on the subject called Poetics. In Sanskrit, the most common name for the subject and as a matter of fact, the only name which finally stood, is Alankara Sastra. Sometimes we have in its place the name Sahitya Vidya. "pancami sahityavidya iti yayavariyah " says Rajasekhara. ([Kavyamala, N. S. Press, Bombay] p. 4). The name Sahitya is very much later than the name Alankara. It was evidently born out of Grammar and it slowly "

came to denote poetry itself upon the basis of Bhamaha's definition of poetry': sabdarthau sahitau kavyam | I, 16. K. A. Sahitya was gaining some importance after the time of Anandavardhana. It was taken up by two prominent writers who came immediately after Abhinavagupta, namely, Bhoja and Kuntaka. Sometime afterwards, we had the first regular work on Poetics which took the name Sahitya, namely, the Sahitya Mimamsa of Ruyyaka. After this, the word was in greater use and in later Alamkara literature one of the most important works had this name, namely, the Sahityadarpana of Visvanatha. Whenever accomplishments of men of taste were referred to, the word Sahitya was always used along with Sangita. Though not as old as Alankara, Sahitya is the only name of Sanskrit poetics, which became as common as Alamkara. Sahitya means the poetic harmony, the beautiful mutual appropriateness, the perfect mutual understanding, of Sabda and Artha. The concept is of great significance and I have dealt with it and its history in a chapter in my book 'Bhoja's Srngara Prakasa. Compared with Sahitya, the name Alankara is of less poetic worth. It is a reminder of that stage in the history of Sanskrit Poetics when the concept of Alamkara was sitting high on the throne of poetic expression. The Alankara-age of Sanskrit Poetics is much older than Bhamaha and lived up to the time of Udbhata, Vamana and Rudrata. Its last great votaries were Bhoja and Kuntaka. Bhamaha's work is called Kavyalankara Udbhata, who commented upon Bhamaha, names his independent work on the subject as Kavyalamkarasarasangraha; Vamana and Rudrata only follow and name 'See my thesis Bhoja's Srngara Prakasa, Vol. I, pt. 1, pp. 87-110.

their works also as Kavyalamkara. Though Dandin seems to be an exception, he only proves the rule; for, though he calls his work Kavyadarsa or Mirror of Poetry, he is the writer who pays the greatest tribute to Alankara. These ancients, the Alankara-vadins, took Alankara as the beautiful expression and as the distinguishing mark of poetry, and considered even the Rasas as only subserving this beauty of expression. Bhoja ardently walks behind Dandin and in his stupendous Srngaraprakasa, erects a new and huge throne for Alankara. Gunas Alankaras, Ritis, Vrttis, Sandhis, Laksanas, Rasas, Language, Metre, Form of composition, namely, epic, drama etc.,-why, everything is Alankara to Bhoja.' The Alankara-age of Sanskrit Poetics which can roughly be marked off as ending with Rudrata, is also a very significant period in the history of Sanskrit Poetics. For, it is the analysis of the Alankaras that led to the rise of Vakrokti and in another direction through such Alankaras as Dipaka, Samasokti, Paryayokta containing a suggested element, gave rise to the concept of suggestion, Dhvani. Vakrokti is a continuation of Alamkara ; its greatest exponent, Kuntaka, describes his work, the Vakrokti Jivita as Kavyalankara. kavyasyayamalankarah ko'pyapurvi vidhiyate | 1. 2. granthasyasya alankara ityabhidhanam | Vrtti. p. 3. | V. J., De's Edition It is as a result of the importance of this Alankara-stage of Sanskrit Poetics that the whole system got itself named after one of the several elements of poetry, Alankara. Says Kumarasvamin : 1 See my Bhoja's Singara Prakasa, Vol. I, pt. ii, chapter on Bhoja's Conception of Alankara.

yadyapi rasalankaradyanekavisayamidam sastram tathapi cchatrinyayena alankarasastramucyate | p. 3, Ratnapana on the Prataparudriya; Balamanorama Edition At the hands of Vamana, Alamkara gained greater proportions; it expanded and attained greater significance and beauty. It came to him from Dandin and when he turned that stone of Alankara handed to him, he found it flashing diverse hues. He realized that it meant Beauty. It had come to mean not only the small graces of the Sabdalankaras and the figures of speech called Arthalamkaras but also the absence of all flaws and the presence of all excellences, in fact the sum-total of the beauty of poetic utterance as such, distinguished from other utterances. To Vamana, Alamkara was Beauty, Saundarya. For the nonce, it seems as if Poetics has got a new and comprehensive name, Saundarya Sastra. The word 'Sundara', the Beautiful, baffles analysis. We have to resign to the magic of the poet's genius ultimately, to what Bhatta Nayaka and Kuntaka would call Kavivyapara. Sundara and Saundarya are words which Abhinavagupta uses very often in his descriptions of poetry in the Locana on the Dhvanyaloka. The synonym Caru (1) is also used by Anandavardhana. 1. sabdagatah carutvahetavah p. 5 Anandavardhana. kama- niya i and carutvahetu p. 8 anandavardhana. kavyasya hi lalito- citasannivesacarunah p. 13 anandavardhana vividhavisistavacya a 17 aa 1993 a: p. 27 Anandavardhana. 2. pratibha apurvavastunirmanaksama prajna | tasya viseso rasavesa- vaisadyasaundaryakavya nirmanaksamatvam | Abhinavagupta, Locana, p. 29. na hi tvaya ripavo hata iti yahaganalankrto'yam vakyarthah taha- gayam ; api tu sundaribhutah | Ibid. p. 72.

Beauty is the primary factor and in its absence neither Alankara nor Dhvani can have any claim to be called such or make for poetry. tathajatiyanamiti | carutvatisayavatam ityarthah | sulaksita iti yatkilaisam tadvinirmuktam rupam, na tat kavye'bhyarthaniyam | upama hi ' yatha gauh tatha gavayah ' iti | (rupakam ) ' gauh vahikah ' iti | slesah ' dvirvacane'ci ' iti tantratmakah | evamanyat | na caivamadi kavyopayogiti | Abhinavagupta, Locana, p. 210. This is said of Alankara by Abhinavagupta and the point is stressed by Bhoja also in his Sxngaraprakasa (Chap. XI, p. 371, Vol. II, Madras MS.), where he says that the statement dhumo'yamagneh cannot be considered any Alankara, because it is devoid of the primary characteristic common to all Alankaras (Alankara samanya- laksana), namely, Sobhu, which is Beauty. Such a significant interpretation, Bhoja gives to Dandin's description of Alankara, kavyasobhakaran dharman alankaran pracaksate | The point is further stressed in a well-known passage by Appayya Diksita in his Citra mimamsa. sarvo'pi hyalankarah kavisamayaprasiddhyanurodhena hrdyataya kavyasobha- kara eva alankaratam bhajate | atah ' gosadrsah gavayah ' iti nopama . | p. 6. N. S. Edition The same condition of the necessity of beauty applies to Dhvani also. It is not enough if one tries to point out in a case the existence of some technical Dhvani. Even Dhvani has to be beautiful. gunalankaraucitya sundara sabdarthasarirasya sati dhvananatmani atmani kavyarupatavyavaharah | Locana, p. 17.

Commenting on Anandavardhana's vividhavisistavacyavacakaracana prapancacarunah kavyasya Abhinavagupta says: etc., (p. 27, Dhvanyaloka of Anandavardhana) tena sarvatrapi na dhvananasadbhave'pi tatha vyavaharah etc., Locana, p. 28. Therefore the poetic beauty is the real soul of poetic expression. Abhinavagupta accepts that Beauty is the essence, the soul of the art. yaccoktam -' carutvapratitistarhi kavyasya atma syat ' iti, tadangikurma eva | nasti khalvayam vivada iti | p. 33, Locana. It is this Beauty that is otherwise called Camatkara on which word Visvesvara, the author of the Camatkaracandrika, takes his stand. The words Vicchitti, Vaicitrya, and even the word Vakrata finally mean only Beauty. It is the same, the beautiful in poetry, that is meant by the Ramaniya in Jagannatha's definition of poetry. From this point of view, it seems that there was good chance for a new name for Poetics, namely Saundarya Sastra, but it did not come up. The name Saundarya Sastra would correspond to the western name Aesthetics. In the western literature on the subject, the words, the Beautiful and the Sublime, are met with. There are the works such as that of Longinus on the Sublime. One whole chapter, in his work, 'What is Art ?', is devoted by Tolstoy to an examination of the works on Beauty. But the study of Beauty and Sublimity, Aesthetics or Saundarya Sastra, does not strictly mean Poetics but embraces the critical appreciation of all Fine Arts, including sculpture, painting and music.

In Uddyota I and elsewhere, Anandavardhana refers to writers on Poetics as Kavya-laksana-karins, for, those who wrote on poetry did so with the idea of defining Poetry. (Dhvanyaloka of Anandavardhana pp. 8, 10, etc.) And Kavya-laksana can also be taken as a general appellation applied to Poetics in the days of the reign of Alankara and even earlier. Bhamaha, who opens his work with the words- kavyalankara ityesa yathabuddhi vidhiyate | closes it thus with the name Kavya-laksana: avagamya svadhiya ca kavyalaksma | Dandin proposes in 1. 2 of his work to write Kavyalaksana: yathasamarthyamasmabhih kriyate kavyalaksanam | All these names, Kavya-laksana, Alamkara and Sahitya, are however later names. Before Bhamaha and before the names Alamkara and the much less definite Kavya-laksana came into vogue, what was the name of the subject of Sanskrit Poetics? It is the list of the sixty-four arts-Catussasti Kalahgiven by Vatsyayana in his Kamasutras that gives out the first glimmer in this connection. After mentioning 'the composing of poetry'-Kavya kriya-and two of the subjects helpful to that purpose namely, Lexicon (Abhidhana kosa) and Prosody (Chandojnana), Vatsyayana gives a subject called KRIYA-KALPA. (I. iii. 16, p. 32.) What does this Kriyakalpa mean? Coming close upon composing of poetry, Lexicon and Prosody, it is very likely that Kriya-kalpa

is a subject related to literature and poetry. A reference to the Jayamangala upon this reveals to us that Kriya-kalpa means Poetics or Alankara Sastra. iti kavyakarana- vidhih, kavyalankara ityarthah | tritayamapi (i.e. Abhidhana, Chandas and Alankara) kavyakriyanga, parakavyavabodhartha ca | p. 39. To explain, Kriya-kalpa must be expanded into Kavya-kriyakalpa, a practical treatise showing the way to compose poems. The name Kriya-kalpa consists of the two words-Kriya meaning kavya-kriya and Kalpa meaning vidhi. Kriya-kalpa is the correct word. Sridhara's commentary on the Bhagavata reads it wrongly as Kriya-vikalpa and that wrong form is given in the list of sixty-four kalas in the Sabdakalpadruma and the Vacaspatya, both of which reproduce from Sridhara. Relying on this reading, Mr. P. K. Acharya, in an article on Fine Arts in the Indian Historical Quarterly, (Vol. V, p. 206), says that Kriyavikalpa is the art of "derivation and conjugation of verbs in various ways" and that "it refers to grammar and poetics as Yasodhara says"! If the reading Kriya-vikalpa is taken as correct and is interpreted as verbs and their derivation and conjugation, where does Poetics come in? And nobody says that it refers to grammar. The Lalita vistara's list of Kalas mentions this Kriyakalpa. See p. 156, Lefmann's Edition Dandin says in his Kavyadarsa, I. 9 : vacam vicitramarganam arai fafaaumini faqazy: faunfafay | nibabandhuh kriyavidhim Here he refers to his predecessors who wrote Kriya-vidhi. Vidhi simply means kalpa and here there is an indirect

reference to the name Kriya-kalpa, which Vatsyayana has acquainted us with. Tarunavacaspati explains Dandin's Kriyavidhi as Racana-prakara and the Hrdayamgama, as Kriyavidhana which mean the same as the Kavya-karana-vidhi of the Jayamangala. In a list of the sixty-four Kalas attributed to Bhamaha and quoted on p. 29 of Tippabhupala's Kamadhenu on Vamana's K. A. S. and Vr., which list closely agrees with that of Vatsyayana, we have in the place of Kriya-kalpa, the word Kavya-laksana. This again proves that Kriya-kalpa is the correct word and that it is an old name for the Alankara Sastra. Lastly, we find Kriya-kalpa mentioned in the Uttarakanda of the Ramayana, along with many other arts and branches of knowledge. Though much of the present Uttarakanda may be later accretion, it may be that the cantos on the banishment of Sita and the recitation of the epic by her two sons are genuine or at least older parts of the epic. Their superior literary merit easily separates and marks them off. In canto 94, (verses 4 to 10), Valmiki describes the assembling of Rama and other men of learning in Rama's court to hear the two boys recite the epic of Valmiki. Among the learned men who gathered on that occasion are mentioned qfugal:, naigamah, pauranikah, sabdavidah ( Grammarians), svaralaksanajnah, gandharvah kalamatravibhagajnah (all the three referring to musicians), padaksarasa- masajnah, chandasi parinisthitah (those well versed in Grammar and Prosody) and then we find the line- kriyakalpavidascaiva tatha kavyavido janan | SI. 7. When Grammar and Prosody have been mentioned, surely Poetics is the only subject waiting to be mentioned and who

else than one who is learned in Poetics deserves a seat in a gathering assembled to hear a poem ? Thus, from Dandin in a way, and from Vatsyayana and the Ramayana in a clear manner, we come to know that, in its early stages, the Alankara Sastra was called KRIYA-KALPA.' 'The semantics of the word "Kriya" is interesting to study in this connection. It means among many things a literary composition " and Apte's Dictionary gives here apt quotations from Kalidasa himself. zuya qaifurafea: fanfqni anfsaraEY | Vik. I, 2. arfoqracy thurai ag¶17: ! Malavikagnimitra. Kriya thus means Kavya and Kriya kalpa is Kavya kalpa. It is remarkable how the English language also has the synonym of Kriya, "Work", used in the sense of a literary composition ". in South Indian music vocabulary means a music- " ("Krti composition).