Studies in the History of Sanskrit Poetics v2.c85.5

v2.c85.5

This period ends with the ultimate standardisation of a more or less complete scheme of Poetics, outlined in the *Dhvanyāloka*, in which an attempt is made to bring into a definite focus the scattered ideas of previous speculation. The period which followed this and with which we are concerned in this and following chapters, is necessarily a stage of critical elaboration, the chief work of which consists in summarising and setting forth, in the concise form of text-books, the results of earlier speculations. The stage is marked by great scholastic acumen, if not by remarkable originality or creative genius, but it denotes also a progressive deterioration of the study itself. It covers the age of numberless commentaries, which may be characterised, like the scholia of European classical literature, as consisting mostly of "comments on comments of annotated annotations". They busy themselves with the explanation, expansion or restriction of the already established rules. We have also the rise of a number of popular writers and textbook-makers who wanted to simplify the science for general enlightenment, the lowest stage being reached when we come to manuals and school-books of comparatively recent times.