Studies in the History of Sanskrit Poetics v2.c83.84

v2.c83.84

This is, in brief, the outline of the new system which attempts to take into consideration all the known facts and dogmas and build a compact theory of poetry on their basis. But its chief merit consists in its elaboration of the most necessary and fundamental principle of all higher poesy, viz., the art of suggestion, which should lead the reader through diverse routes from that which is distinctly expressed to that which is left unexpressed. With the arrival at this point, one discovers the real significance of a poem and appreciates the taste or relish of the underlying poetic sentiment, which is in reality inexpressible. The ornamental fitting out of thought or word, as well as the literary excellences of structure or or style, everything contributes towards this end. In this connexion, we must not mistake this suggestion to be a form of quiet hinting, or of absolute silence, such as we find in some modern poetic mystics, or that particular train of thought which holds that all things have their being in the unexpressed and resolve themselves into the indeterminable. Sanskrit poetry does not aim at leaving the unexpressed to be darkly gathered, nor does the theory of Poetics regard it as indeterminate. The unexpressed is bound up by means of definite links with the expressed, without which it cannot exist; but it is wrapped up in such a manner as to make it possible only for the initiated in the poetic hieroglyphics to comprehend it in its subtlety. The unexpressed is not understood by those who know grammar and lexicon, but only by men of taste and literary instinct who know the essence of poetry. It is the province of the *sahṛdaya*, the connoisseur, who is expert in discerning through the intricate meshes of veiled word and sense into the aesthetic relish of deeper significance, in which the pleasure of the beautiful is mixed up with the pleasure arising from the fineness of the problem itself.