Studies in the Geography of Ancient and Medieval India c9.s3.2

c9.s3.2

Daṇḍin draws a distinction between the Gauḍa or eastern and the Vaidarbha or southern styles. Among the characteristics of the former is the love of long compounds not only in prose, in which they were also used by the southerners, but also in poetry. The easterners also favoured alliteration and harsh sound effects, recondite etymologizing phraseology and strength often resulting in bombast and affectation. Jacobi believed that Sanskrit poetry in the east had developed the evil effects of old age before the art became current in the western and southern parts of India. But it should be noticed that in Bharata’s *Nāṭyaśāstra*, which is a few centuries earlier than the *Kāvyādarśa*, the qualities which Daṇḍin ascribes to the Vaidarbha style is assigned to the Kāvya style in general. Keith is no doubt right when he says, “This is a strong suggestion that at the time of the *Nāṭyaśāstra* there had not developed the characteristics of the Gauḍa style and that they emerged gradually with the development of poetry at the courts of princes of Bengal.”¹ These ‘princes of Bengal’ appear to have been no other than the kings of Gauḍa who flourished in the sixth century and the earlier part of the seventh, to whom reference has been made above. But the fact that the Gauḍa style came to be ascribed to the whole of Eastern India may suggest that poets at other East Indian courts were imitating those at the Gauḍa court. This led ultimately to the application of the name Gauḍa to East India generally.