Studies in the History of Sanskrit Poetics v2.c81.s1.55

v2.c81.s1.55

Vāmana, therefore, teaches that the *guṇas* are essential in poetry, as they go to make up the *rīti*, which is the ‘soul’ of poetry. The objection of the author of the *Ekāvalī* (p. 51) that to conceive the *guṇas*, on the one hand, as the principal element and therefore as something fit to be adorned (*upaskārya*) and to call them, on the other hand, properties that adorn poetry (*upaskāraka*) involve contradiction in terms, raises only a scholastic quibble which does not bear serious examination. The *guṇas* are, no doubt, spoken of as *śabdārthayor dharmāḥ*, but this, as the commentator points out, is a loose or popular use of the term; for, strictly speaking, they are concerned directly with *rīti* (*guṇa vastuto rīti-niṣṭhā api, upacārāc chabda-dharmā ityuktam* p. 69, ed. Benares), which is described as *guṇātmā*. To the objection that these entities have no absolute existence, Vāmana replies that their existence is vouched by their cognition as such by men of taste (*samvedanatvāt* III. 1. 26, on which comm. *sahṛdaya-samvedanasya viṣayatvāt*), and that these excellences are not found in all cases of recitation but depend upon the presence or absence of certain well-defined characteristics (III. 2. 28 and *vṛtti*).