Studies in the History of Sanskrit Poetics v2.c82.s1.19

v2.c82.s1.19

Although Vāmana improves upon Daṇḍin's system in other respects, he does not seem to have gone further in the treatment of *rasa*. His idea of making all poetic figures an aspect of metaphorical expression precludes him from defining the figure *rasavat* in the same way as Bhāmaha and Daṇḍin do, but he attempts to include the *rasa* in one of the essential (*nitya*) characteristics of poetry, viz., in the *artha-guṇa* *kānti*, which he defines as an 'excellence of sense' in which the *rasas* should be conspicuously present (*dīpta-rasatvam kāntiḥ*, III. 2. 15). The suggestion for this inclusion of the *rasas* in one of the excellences was probably found in Bharata's definition of the *kānti-guṇa*, or more directly in Bharata's peculiar definition of the *udāra-guṇa*; but it is clear that this certainly marks an improvement upon the treatment of Daṇḍin and Bhāmaha, who include the *rasa* in some of the non-essential figures.