Chapter 9 - The concept of Camatkara in Sanskrit poetics

AT first, works on Poetics approached from the stand-point of Alankara and were invariably named also Kavyalankara. Then, with the rise of Rasa and Dhvani, works on Poetics approached the subject from the 'Atman' of poetry, namely Rasa Dhvani. Then came Bhoja, whose work, the Srngara prakasa, among the many points which it emphasised, emphasised the concept of Sahitya also, which together with the brilliant exposition of that concept in Kuntaka's Vakrokti Jivita, gave rise to a new kind of aproach for a Poetics-treatise in the works called Sahitya mimamsa.' Another approach is that of Camatkara, the literary delight which comprehends all the poetical elements from Guna and Sabdalamkara to Rasa and Dhvani. It is clear that when we read poetry, we have a certain enjoyment; this enjoyment may be due in one place to a sound effect, to a striking idea in another, and to the emotional movement in still another; but it is all the same one relish. It is a striking coincidence that, like the concept of Rasa, the concept of Camatkara also came into the Alankara Sastra from the Paka sastra. Its early semantic history is indistinct and dictionaries record only the later meanings, the chief of 'One Sahitya mimamsa is the work of Ruyyaka mentioned in his Alamkara sarvasva, but this work has not yet come to light. MSS. of another Sahitya mimamsa are available in the Tanjore, Madras and Trivandrum MSS. Libraries; and this work has also been edited in a highly defective manner in the [Trivandrum Sanskrit Series] I have dealt with this work and the concept of Sahitya in a separate chapter in my thesis on the Srngara Prakasa.

which are astonishment' and ' poetic relish. In appears to me that originally the word Camatkara was an onomatopoeic word referring to the "clicking sound we make with our tongue when we taste something snappy, and in the course of its semantic enlargements, Camatkara came to mean a sudden fillip relating to any feeling of a pleasurable type. Narayana, an ancestor of the author of the Sahitya darpana, interpreted Camatkara as an expansion of the heart, Citta vistara, and held all kinds of Rasa-realisation to be of the nature of this Camatkara or Citta vistara, of which the best example was the Adbhuta rasa. But as a general and all comprehensive name for literary relish, the word Camatkara occurs even in the Dhvanyaloka (p. 144, N. S. edn.). In the same sense, the word occurs about fourteen times in the Locana of Abhinavagupta (pp. 37, 63, 65, 69, 72, 79, 113, 137 and 138). From the reference on p. 63 we understand that Bhatta Nayaka also used the word in the same sense. On p. 65, Abhinavagupta describes Rasa to be of the nature of Camatkara. Kuntaka uses the word in the same sense. The Agni purana equates the Caitanya of the Atman, Camatkara and Rasa. (Ch. 339, SI. 2). Abhinavagupta's pupil Ksemendra, whose brain went on many a refreshing and original line, made an approach to poetry through this Camatkara in one of his small but interesting works, the Kavikanthabharana. The third Sandhi of this work is called Camatkara kathana and here, Ksemendra analyses the points of Camatkara in a poem into ten. tatra dasavidhascamatkara h - avicaritaramaniyah, vicaritaramaniyah, samastasuktavyapi, suktaikadesadrsyah, sabdagatah, arthagatah, sabdarthagatah, alankaragatah, rasagatah, prakhyatavrttigatasca | | K. K. A. Kavyamala Gucchaka IV. p. 129

But the first regular Poetics-treatise to make the Camatkara approach is the Camatkara candrika of Visvesvara, protege of Simhabhupala (c. 1330 A.D.)'. This work opens with the statement that Camatkara is the Sahrdaya's delight on reading a poem and that the 'Alambanas' of this Camatkara in a poem are seven, viz., Guna, Riti, Vrtti, Paka, Sayya, Alankara and Rasa. camatkarastu vidusamananda parivahakrt | gunam ritim rasam vrttim pakam sayyamalankrtim | saptaitani camatkarakaranam bruvate budhah || India Office MS. No. 3966.* Visvesvara classifies poetry into three classes on the basis of the nature of the Camatkara. The three classes are Camatkari (Sabda citra), Camatkaritara (Artha citra and Gunibhuta vyangya) and Camatkaritama (Vyangyapradhana). In A.D. 1729, Hariprasada, son of Mathura misra Gangesa, wrote his Kavyaloka (Peterson's III Report, pp. 356-7) in seven chapters. He solved the problem of poetry in a straight and simple manner by taking his stand on Camatkara which he called the 'soul' (Atman) of poetry. visistasabdarupasya kavyasyatma camatkrtih | utpattibhumih pratibha managatropapaditam || This Visvesvara must be distinguished from the author of the same name of the Alamkara kaustubha who flourished in the beginning of the 18 th cent. The Camatkara candrika is not yet published, and on the basis of its MS. in the Madras Govt. Oriental Library, (R. 2679), I published a study of it in the Annals of the BORI, XVI, i-ii, pp. 131 ff. The introductory verses in the India Office MS. of the C. C. are not found in the Madras MS.

It is again on the basis of this Camatkara that Jagannatha gives his most comprehensive definition of poetry in his Rasa gangadhara. Camatkara, he says, is the supermundane, artistic delight brought about by the contemplation of Beauty, and poetry is such verbal expression as is the embodiment of an idea conveying such Beauty. ramaniyarthapradipadakah sabdah kavyam | ramaniyata ca lokottara- huladajanakajnanagocarata | lokottaratvam cahuladagatah camatkaraparaparyayah anubhavasaksiko jativisesah ||