Studies in the History of Sanskrit Poetics v2.c80.79

v2.c80.79

The decline of the *alaṃkāra*-system was probably synchronous with and was indeed hastened by the rise of the rival rīti-doctrine. The first step towards this is indicated by the general trend of Daṇḍin's work. Daṇḍin who stands, as it were, midway between the Alaṃkāra and the Rīti schools, admits, no doubt, the great importance of poetic figures (alaṃkāras) in a scheme of Poetics (ii 1); but he takes them, along with the guṇas, as constituting the essence of what he calls the mārga (or the rīti). As the characteristic of 'embellishing' poetic speech is possessed by both alaṃkāras and guṇas, both are, in his opinion, alaṃkāras in a wider sense, the guṇas being special embellishments of the vaidarbha mārga, while the alaṃkāras are common to both the vaidarbha and the gauḍa mārgas. Vāmana, who systematically established the rīti-theory, goes further and lays down that the guṇas are essential (nitya) excellences, while the alaṃkāras are not essential (anitya) but serve only to increase the beauty of a poem already brought out by the former.