Studies in the History of Sanskrit Poetics v2.c81.s1.53

v2.c81.s1.53

of poetic individuality, as it is generally understood by Western criticism, but it is merely the outward presentation of its beauty called forth by a harmonious combination of more or less fixed literary ‘excellences’. Of course, the excellences are supposed to be discernible in the sense or import, as much as in the verbal arrangement, but this subjective content is not equivalent to the indefinable element of individuality which constitutes the charm of a good style. If we accept the nomenclature of a modern analyst of style¹, we may say that the Sanskrit authors admit what he would call the ‘mind’-in-style, as a subject of technical formulation, but not the ‘soul’-in-style, which is elusive and which they leave to individual writers to evolve in their own way.