Studies in the History of Sanskrit Poetics v1.c5.49

v1.c5.49

From this period of time, we get more or less definite indications of the existence of doctrines of Poetics in the *kāvya*-literature itself. In the two earlier epics, no doubt, some of the more general terms of Alaṃkāra (like *upamā*, *kāvya*, *nāṭaka*, *kathā* and *ākhyāyikā*) are used, but no chronological conclusion is safe from the admittedly composite character of the present-day texts. But in the *Buddhacarita* of Aśvaghoṣa, as Cowell notes, we have the use of common poetic figures like *upamā*, *utprekṣā* or *rūpaka*, as well as of elaborate ones like *yathā-saṃkhya* and *aprastuta-praśaṃsā* in an ingenious way, which presumably betrays an acquaintance with the teachings of Poetics. The very first verse uses the word *upamā* in a some what technical sense, and we have also in iii 51 the use of the term *rasāntara* to indicate a counter-emotion which cancels an already prevailing one. Cowell, therefore, is justified in remarking that a peculiar interest attaches to such poems "from their importance in establishing Prof. Bühler's views as to the successful cultivation, in Northern India, of artificial poetry and rhetoric—*kāvya* and *alaṃkāra*—in the early centuries of our era." This remark applies with greater force to the works of Kālidāsa, which appear with all the polish and perfection imparted to them by a trained and careful artist. To the later theorists they supply an inexhaustible store-house of quotations for the illustration of different poetic figures, expressions and principles. This conscious employment of varied and elaborate poetic figures and general observance of poetic rules in these early *kāvya*-poets are not without their significance, and we may reasonably presume from them a general diffusion of the knowledge of Poetics in this age.