Studies in the History of Sanskrit Poetics v1.c27.14

v1.c27.14

Besides his well-known *Sarasvati-kaṇṭhābharaṇa*, Bhoja appears also to have written a work called *Śṛṅgāra-prakāśa*¹, a MS of which has been recently acquired by the Government Oriental MSS Library, Madras². It is composed in 36 *prakāśas*, and is described as the largest known work in Sanskrit Poetics. The first eight chapters are devoted to the quasi-grammatical question relating to word and its sense as the means of expression, and the theory of *vṛtti*. The ninth and the tenth chapters describe the blemishes and excellences of expression (*doṣa* and *guṇa*); while the eleventh and twelfth chapters deal respectively with the *mahā-kāvya* and the drama. The next twenty-four chapters treat exclusively of the *rasas*, of which the *śṛṅgāra* or love is maintained to be the principal and essential, and the work derives its name from Bhoja’s theory that *śṛṅgāra* is the only one *rasa* admissible¹. As in the *Sarasvatī-ka°*, this work, in the manner of a cyclopaedic compilation, gives a large number of quotations to illustrate the rules and principles laid down. Śāradātanaya’s *Bhāvaprakāśa*, which deals with the same subject, constitutes really a summary of the important chapters of Bhoja.