Studies in the History of Sanskrit Poetics v1.c11.36

v1.c11.36

The treatment of *alaṃkāras* in Bhaṭṭi may, therefore, be presumed to supply one of the missing links in the history of rhetorical speculations anterior to Bhāmaha. A remarkable coincidence of treatment, which probably started the theory of Bhaṭṭi's appropriation of Bhāmaha's teachings, is at once noticeable not only in the order, number and naming of the different poetic figures, but also in their respective characterisation; but a detailed examination will at the same time shew that beneath this general agreement there are enough discrepancies which will indicate that neither of them follows scrupulously the views of the other. The agreement apparently shows that the two authors were not chronologically distant from each other by such a considerable length of time as might betoken a material difference in the number, order or definition of the poetic figures; while the discrepancies may be reasonably explained as indicating that they did not probably draw from the same source.