Kavyamimamsa of Rajasekhara (Study)
by Debabrata Barai | 2014 | 105,667 words
This page relates ‘Kavisamaya (poetic convention)’ of the English study on the Kavyamimamsa of Rajasekhara: a poetical encyclopedia from the 9th century dealing with the ancient Indian science of poetics and rhetoric (also know as alankara-shastra). The Kavya-mimamsa is written in eighteen chapters representing an educational framework for the poet (kavi) and instructs him in the science of applied poetics for the sake of making literature and poetry (kavya).
Part 7 - Kavisamaya (poetic convention)
The topic of kavisamaya (poetic convention) is certainly unnoticed by the earlier Ālaṃkārikas of Yāyāvarīya Rājaśekhara. However Ācārya Vāmaṇa in the first chapter (prāyagika adhikaraṇa) of his Kāvyālaṃkārasūṭra-vṛtti described Kāvya-samaya as a grammatical point of view. But Yāyāvarīya Rājaśekhara in the first time in the history of Sanskrit poetics describes kavisamaya in the light of poetical theory. Rājaśekhara’s defines poetic convention as the things which poets describe in poetry even when it is neither accepted as such by the Śāstras, not in everyday life but it also merely sanctioned by the traditions.
“aśāstrīyamalaukikaṃ ca paramparāyātaṃ yamarthamupanivandhanti kavayaḥ sa kavisamayaḥ |”
-Kāvyamīmāṃsā of Rājaśekhara: Ch-XIV, Pp- 78
Then Rājaśekhara elaborately discusses three verities of kavisamaya (poetic conventions): i) the divine, ii) the Mundane and iii) the Sub-terrene.
“sa ca tridhā svargo bhaumaḥ pātālīyaśca | svargyapātālīyayorbhaumaḥ pradhānaḥ| sa hi mahāviṣayaḥ| sa ca caturddhā jātidravyaguṇaktiyārupārthatayā | tehapi pratyekaṃ tridhā, asato nibandhanāt, satohapyanibandhanāt, niyamataśca |”
-Kāvyamīmāṃsā of Rājaśekhara: Ch-XIV, Pp- 78-79
Again all the three may be divided into four sub verities:
- Genus,
- Matter,
- Quality and
- Action.
Each of them has three sub-groups:
- asatonibandhanam (describing things as existing even when they do not exist),
- satopianibandhanam (Ignoring facts, which not describing some things as existing even when they exist) and
- niyamataḥ (artificial restrictions or by the following the actual order of the world process)
So it is redounds to the credit of Yāyāvarīya Rājaśekhara that the first time in the history of Sanskrit poetics dealt systematically with the topic of kavisamaya (poetic convention). Where no other poetical work or any critics have not discusses about his matter. It is one of the Yāyāvarīya Rājaśekhara original contributions to the developmental Sanskrit poetics.