Studies in the History of Sanskrit Poetics v2.c80.37

v2.c80.37

Bhāmaha then proceeds to define and discuss, with illustrations, the poetic figures or *alaṃkāras*, to which he devotes two long chapters (ii 4-95, iii 1-56), consisting of nearly one hundred and fifty verses. Then come (ch. iv) the *doṣas* or demerits of composition (some of which are already dealt with in i 37-56), and the whole subject is wound up with two chapters (v-vi) on the logical¹⁶ and grammatical¹⁷ correctness of poetry respectively. Now leaving aside these two requirements and the *doṣas*, all of which are in a sense negative requirements, the only thing of the highest importance in poetry, in Bhāmaha's view, is apparently the *alaṃkāra* or the poetic figure, which takes up the bulk of his treatment. Bhāmaha attempts to classify poetic expression into fixed rhetorical categories, and from this point of view his work possesses the general appearance of a technical manual, comprising a collection of definitions with illustrations and empirical canons for the benefit of the artist desirous of externalising his ideas. But in the course of his enquiry, it probably struck him that a philosophical or scientific classification of expressions is not possible; for, although every single expressive fact may be grouped together generically, the continuous variation of the individual content results in an irreducible variety of expressive facts. He attempts, therefore, to arrive at a synthesis by holding that there may be modes or grades of expression, of which the best mode is that which involves *vakrokti*¹⁸, by which a certain peculiarity or charm of expression is posited as the essential principle of all *alaṃkāras*¹⁹.