Studies in the History of Sanskrit Poetics v2.c80.12

v2.c80.12

⁴ See above footnote 3. Śabdārthau sahitau kāvyam, Bhāmaha i 16, from which, as Kuntala indicates, the name sāhitya was probably given to poetry. The earliest use probably of this term sāhitya in Poetics occurs in Mukula (pp. 21 and 22) and in his pupil Pratīhārendurāja, while Rājaśekhara expressly uses the term sāhitya-vidyā. The orthodox etymology of the term, which derives it from the above definition of poetry, as the union of word and sense, is thus put by Rājaśekhara : śabdārthayor yathāvat saha-bhāvena vidyā sāhitya-vidyā, an interpretation with which Kuntala agrees. This sāhitya or alliance of word and sense is admitted as a fundamental postulate from a very early time, and with proper modifications, by all schools and authors. Cf Daṇḍin i 10, Vāmana i. 1. 1 (vṛtti), Rudraṭa ii 1. Ānandavardahna admits as unquestioned śabdārthau tāvat kāvyam, upon which Abhinava comments tāvat-grahaṇena kasyāpyatra na vipratipattir iti darśayati. The view is alluded to by Māgha in ii 86b, and apparently by Kālidāsa in the first verse of Raghu.