Studies in the History of Sanskrit Poetics v1.c6.15

v1.c6.15

dictum¹ on the genesis of *rasa*, put in the concise form of a *sūtra*, to the elucidation of which, after the manner of a *bhāṣya* or *vṛtti*, the rest of the chapter (written in prose with verse-quotations) is apparently devoted. It should also be noticed that a preliminary explanation is added at commencement of the chapter to reconcile this curious portion of the text with the rest of the work. Bharata, we are told, being requested by the sages, explains the characteristics of a *saṃgraha*, *kārikā*, and *nirukta*, and incidentally gives an illustration of a *sūtra-grantha* by putting a part of the text in that form. This discussion of the nature of a *saṃgraha*, *kārikā*, *nirukta* and *sūtra* would not have been relevant to the subject in hand but for this flimsy explanation, which, however, affords a device, far-fetched as it is, to introduce into the *kārikā*-text some vestiges of the older *sūtra*-form. It is not maintained that a *sūtra-text* is necessarily older than a text in the *kārikā*-form; for in our *sūtra-text* itself there are quotations in the *vṛtti* of *anubaddha* or *anuvaṃśya ślokas*, betokening the existence of earlier teachings on the subject, and disproving at the same time the orthodox belief that Bharata was the earliest teacher of the *nāṭya-veda*. But if the tradition that Bharata's original work was composed in the *sūtra*-form be accepted, then this portion of the existing version may be presumed to have been a survival of the original form.