Studies in the History of Sanskrit Poetics v2.c81.s1.49

v2.c81.s1.49

The enquiry as to what is the ‘soul’ or essence of poetry is for the first time definitely posed and systematically worked out by Vāmana; his predecessors, to whom the ‘body’ of poetry is more important, never having troubled themselves with this question. Vāmana lays down in clear terms: *rītir ātmā kāvyasya*, ‘the *rīti* is the soul of poetry’ (I. 2. 6); and working out this figurative description he points out (*vṛtti* on I. 1. 1) that the word (*śabda*) and its sense (*artha*) constitute the ‘body’, of which the soul is the *rīti*. He defines the *rīti* as *viśiṣṭa-pada-racanā* or particular arrangement of words. This particularity (*vaiśiṣṭya*) of arrangement, again rests upon certain definite combination of the different *guṇas* or fixed excellences of composition. For instance, of the three kinds of *rīti* proposed by Vāmana, the *vaidarbhī* unites all the ten *guṇas*, the *gauḍī* abounds in *ojas* and *kānti*, the *pāñcālī* is endowed with *mādhurya* and *saukumārya*. This is how Vāmana the subject, the *rīti* and its subdivisions, the subsidiary aids and divisions of poetry. II. *doṣa darśana*: treating of the defects or flaws of composition. III. *guṇa-vivecana*: considering the *guṇas* or excellences of composition. IV. *ālaṃkārika*: devoted to the definition and illustration of poetic figures. V. *prāyogika*: setting forth the poetic conventions and propriety of poetic usages, and *śabda śuddhi*: (corresponding to the last chapter of Bhāmaha’s work), explaining grammatical solecism.