Studies in the History of Sanskrit Poetics v2.c81.s1.56

v2.c81.s1.56

Like Daṇḍin, Vāmana enumerates the *guṇas* as ten, which appears to have been the standard number from Bharata's time, but he really doubles the number by clearly differentiating between the *śabda-guṇas* and the *artha-guṇas*, and regarding each *guṇa* as belonging respectively to *śabda* and *artha*. In other words, each *guṇa* is looked at from two different points of view, and the distinction thus proposed between verbal and ideal excellences comes in, as technically put, according as the word or the idea is the denoter (*vācaka*) or the denoted (*vācya*). This sharp distinction, no doubt, clears away some of the vagueness surrounding Bharata's and Daṇḍin's definitions of individual *guṇas*; and Vāmana, though widely differing from his predecessors in the peculiar connotation he attaches to some of them, is careful in distinguishing the allied *guṇas* from one another. In most essentials, Vāmana undoubtedly continues and expands Daṇḍin's somewhat unsystematic scheme, but his definitions bear in some cases an altogether different complexion, and justify us in presuming that Vāmana develops his ideas from elsewhere, as he himself often supports his analysis by verses quoted from unknown sources (e. g., under III. 1. 9, 25 ; 2. 15 etc.).