Studies in the History of Sanskrit Poetics v2.c80.88

v2.c80.88

The simple basis of classifying the poetic figures, according as they appertain to the word or the idea, into *śabdālaṃkāra* and *arthālaṃkāra* (verbal and ideal figure) obtained throughout from Rudraṭa’s time, but some writers add figures which are both of the word and the idea (*śabdārthālaṃkāra*). The *Agnipurāṇa* appears to be the earliest known work to mention this third division, and the position is taken up by Bhoja in his *Sarasvatī-kaṇṭhābharaṇa*. A long controversy, however, has centred round the propriety of such a classification; and it has been held that although, generally speaking, all figures are both of *śabda* and *artha*, the *raison d’etre* of such divisions is the relative prominence given respectively to *śabda*, *artha* or both, on the dictum *yo’laṃkāro yad-āśritaḥ sa tad-alaṃkāraḥ*. But this relation of *āśraya* and *āśrayin* (i. e. inter-dependence)