Studies in the History of Sanskrit Poetics v1.c8.s1.1

v1.c8.s1.1

Besides referring to him as a commentator on Bharata, Abhinavagupta (*Locana* p. 27), as well as Jayaratha (p. 9), quotes under the name of Bhaṭṭa Nāyaka a verse *śabda-prādhānyam āśritya*, which Hemacandra (p. 4) gives as a quotation from a work, entitled *Hṛdaya-darpaṇa*, which is also cited without the name of the author by Mahimabhaṭṭa and his commentator. This makes it probable that some lost work of Bhaṭṭa Nāyaka’s probably bore that title, and also indicates the probable source of the quotation which occurs immediately before the verse in question in Abhinavagupta. It is, however, not clear whether this *Hṛdaya-darpaṇa* is in reality his lost commentary on Bharata. Mahimabhatta’s anonymous commentator tells us that this *Hṛdaya-darpaṇa*, like the *Vyakti-viveka*, was composed with the special object of demolishing the *dhvani*-theory formulated by Ānandavardhana¹; and this statement may explain why Abhinavagupta, the great champion of the *dhvani*-theory, takes so much pains to controvert Bhaṭṭa Nāyaka’s views in his *Locana* as well as in his *Abhinava-bhāratī*. This also adds a significance to the fact that Mahimabhatta, who had a similar object of combating the *dhvani*-theory, claims entire originality for his own treatment, boasting that he had never looked in the *Darpaṇa* at all². The citations from the *Hṛdaya-darpaṇa* also indicate