Studies in the History of Sanskrit Poetics v2.c83.46

v2.c83.46

ordination consists in the suggested sense being either of equal or inferior prominence. It has been classified elaborately, if not logically, on the hint furnished by the *Dhvanyāloka* itself, into eight varieties, according as the suggested sense is (1) ancillary, (2) hinted by tone or gesture, (3) subservient to the completion of the expressed sense, (4) of doubtful prominence, (5) of equal prominence, (6) obscure, (7) unconcealed, or (8) not charming. That poetry, which is without any suggested element, is reckoned as the third and the lowest kind, being merely ‘pictorial in word’ or ‘pictorial in sense’, and is called *citra* or Pictorial Poetry²². In it could be included all verse which, on account of sound or magnificence of pictorial representation, or some such mechanical means, flattered the ear and was considered worthy of admiration. Under it also comes the whole body of expressed poetic figures (*alaṃkāra-nibandho yaḥ sa citra-viṣayo mataḥ*, cited p. 221), which, containing no suggestive element, appeal by their turns of expression alone (*vaicitrya*) and which are characterised by Ānandavardhana as mere *vāg-vikalpa*. Ānandavardhana makes it clear that the *citra-kāvya* is not really fit to be called poetry, it is an imitation or copy thereof (*kāvyānukāraḥ*); for, strictly speaking, there can be no poetry in which there is no suggestion. It is admitted by him, however, to the category of poetry, because the poets, who are unfettered in their mode of expression, have, as a matter of fact, been found producing poetry of this kind, in which there is no intention of developing a suggested sense, but which is wholly taken up with the object of bringing about a strikingness of sound and sense.