Studies in the History of Sanskrit Poetics v2.c81.s1.91

v2.c81.s1.91

recognised as consisting in a particular disposition of words, letters or syllables, which favours the development of *rasa*, and stands in the same relation to it as (in the usual figurative conceit) the conformation of the ‘body’ to the ‘soul’ (*pada-saṃghaṭanā rītir aṅga-saṃsthā-viśeṣavat | upakartṛ rasādīnām*, Viśvanātha ix 1). It follows from this that the respective functions assigned to *guṇas* and *alaṃkāras* are not in relation to the *rīti* but to *rasa*, which is one of the fundamental elements of poetry with the later schools. We have already noted that after Ānandavardhana, the *guṇas* are taken as inseparable attributes and causes of excellence (*aṅgino rasasya utkarṣa-hetavaḥ acala-sthitayaḥ guṇāḥ*, Mammaṭa viii 1) of the *rasa* or the principal poetic mood in the composition (and not, as Vāmana thinks, of the *rīti*). The poetic figures, on the other hand, are only attributes of *śabda* and *artha*³³, which constitute the ‘body’ of poetry, and therefore heighten the poetic mood or *rasa* in an indirect way (*ibid*, viii 2). Vāmana’s ideas about ‘poetic charm’ are also taken as axiomatic, but they appear in later theories in a somewhat different form as the *vicchitti*, or *vaicitrya*, or *kavi-prauḍhókti* underlying all figurative expression.