Studies in the History of Sanskrit Poetics v2.c85.3

v2.c85.3

If we attempt to discriminate between these different schools of thought and roughly indicate the broad steps taken in the progress of the discipline, we can state generally that the Alaṃkāra system proposed to confine itself to a theory of embellishment (alaṃkāra) of expression consistently with what was probably the original tradition of the discipline; the Rasa system, starting with the consideration of the drama, was responsible for introducing into poetic theory the subjective element of rasa, represented in the feelings, moods and sentiments; the Rīti system laid stress on the objective beauty of representation realised by means of diction (rīti) and its constituent excellences (guṇas); while the Dhvani system, admitting the underlying truth of all these doctrines, elaborated a peculiar theory of suggestion in poetry (dhvani), including the suggestion of rasa, to which everything else was correlated. It will be seen from this that a relative emphasis was laid on the elements of alaṃkāra, rasa, rīti (including guṇa and doṣa) and dhvani by each of these systems; and although the soft hand of Indian dialectics drew lines of fantastic ideas, consisting of odd and abstruse schemes, it is on these essential points that the theories centred themselves, and the main currents flowed thereof in different directions. It was, however, realised in the end that all these gleams of thought must be gathered into a focus, and all these currents must be made to flow into one stream. The purely normative character of the discipline began to disappear, and it was understood that, however much importance was attached to the fact of externalisation, to the consideration of embellishment or diction, it was far outbalanced by the most necessary and important principle of higher poetry, viz., the art of suggestion, especially connected with the art of suggesting a peculiar mental condition of enjoyment, technically known as *rasa*, of which the charm lies in a disinterested and impersonal pleasure in the mind, the attitude proper to contemplation of the beautiful².