Studies in the History of Sanskrit Poetics v1.c69.4

v1.c69.4

But a new theory, however systematic or comprehensive, is never accepted without some opposition. Ānanda's system, no doubt, absorbed and overshadowed in course of time all the earlier systems; but in the interval between Ānandavardhana and Mammaṭa, while it was still striving for supremacy, we find a few vigorous but short-lived reactionary movements which refused to accept Ānandavardhana's new interpretation. Thus we have Kuntala who strove to make Bhāmaha's concept of *vakrókti* elaborate and comprehensive enough to include the new ideas, Bhaṭṭa Nāyaka who raised his voice on behalf of the *rasa*-systems against their acceptance, and Mahimabhaṭṭa who attempted to settle the new concept of *dhvani* with the technical process of logical inference. All these writers, however, do not deny the newly established doctrine of *dhvani*, but they try to explain it in terms of already recognised ideas. In spite of these non-conformist schools, however, whose feeble opposition languished for want of support even in the time of Mammaṭa, the system of Poetics, as finally outlined by Ānandavardhana and worked out in detail by Mammaṭa and his followers, was established without question in almost all writings from the 12th century downwards. Here and there we have some surviving exponents of some old tradition, like the Vāgbhaṭas or the followers of Bhoja, as well as specialised departments which stood apart like the school of *kaviśikṣā*-writers or the erotic *rasa*-writers; but in the main, the creative days of the science were over, and no new theory forthcoming, the system of Ānandavardhana, as represented by Mammaṭa, reigned supreme, even influencing, to an obvious extent, the writers who would pretend to stand apart.