Studies in the History of Sanskrit Poetics v2.c83.81

v2.c83.81

The view indicated above regarding the nature of the *guṇas* necessarily dispenses with their endless multiplication and differentiation. Mammaṭa and his followers, taking the standpoint of the *Dhvanyāloka* in this respect, admit only three *guṇas*, viz., *mādhurya* (sweetness), *ojas* (energy) and *prasāda* (lucidity), out of the ten recognised since Bharata’s time. They shew elaborately that these ten are either included in the three mentioned above, or else constitute mere absence of defects, while some of them are even positive defects. In fact, these three *guṇas* are defined broadly enough to include most of the ten *guṇas* of Bharata, Daṇḍin and Vāmana. Thus, the *mādhurya*, found chiefly in the Erotic, the Pathetic and the Quietistic moods, is described generally as that excellence which pours delight (*āhlāda*) into the mind and makes it melt, as it were (*druti-kāraṇa*); the *ojas*, arising in the Heroic, the Furious and the Disgustful moods, is that property by which the mind is brilliantly expanded (*vistāra-kāraṇa*); while the *prasāda*, found in all poetic moods, causes them to pervade the mind (*vyāpti-kāraṇa*), like the fire pervading dry fuel, or water pervading a pure piece of cloth. As they are related to the main poetic mood in the composition and made suitable to its particular kind, the classification, as given here, naturally proceeds on a psychological basis having reference to their influence on the reader’s mind (so as to lead up to the particular mood), and supersedes the old differentiation resting on an adjustment of sound and sense. It will be also seen from the somewhat comprehensive definitions of the three guṇas that the śleṣa, samādhi and audārya of older writers may be included in ojas, and the artha-vyakti in prasāda; while saukumārya and kānti are essentially the opposites of the defects of harshness (pāruṣya) and vulgarity (grāmyatva) respectively, and samatā or uniformity of diction may sometimes be a positive defect.