Studies in the History of Sanskrit Poetics v2.c85.59

v2.c85.59

But Avantisundarī thinks that this want of capability is not *pāka*. Since the varied expressions of great poets, with regard to one and the same object, all attain maturity, the *pāka* consists in the composition of word and sense proper to the development of *rasa*. So it is said: 'That is *vākya-pāka* to me by which the mode of stringing together word and sense, according to *guṇa*, *alaṃkāra*, *rīti* and *ukti*, is relished'. And again: 'There being the speaker, there being the word, there being the *rasa*, there is still not that by which the nectar of words flows'. Hence the *yāyāvarīyas* say: 'Since the *pāka*, which is capable of being communicated by *śabda* (word) through its inferribility from its effect, is in a high degree the province of Denotation (*ābhidhā*), still it is subject to usage of what is established by the sanction of the *sahr̥daya*." From this passage it would seem that Rājaśekhara admits that the *pāka* is conveyed chiefly through words; and taken as *sauśabdya* or *śabda-vyutpatti*, it comes primarily under the province of *abhidhā*; but it finds its scope only in the *artha* which is established by the taste of the *sahr̥daya*. In this connexion it is proper to note that the term *pāka*, like the word *rasa*, has a reference to its etymological meaning of physical taste, taste which has to a separate consideration of the suggestion of *rasa*. The third chapter, styled the *nāṭaka-prakaraṇa*, deals with the subject of *rūpaka* or dramatic composition, a theme generally omitted by most writers, taking up the *nāṭaka* as the most important variety and analysing its plot into five *saṃdhis*. Although based avowedly on Dhanañjaya’s *Daśarūpaka*, this chapter is one of the important later contributions to the subject of Dramaturgy, and a great interest attaches to its inclusion of a model drama illustrative of all its characteristics and eulogistic of the author’s patron Pratāparudra. Next comes the *rasa-prakaraṇa* dealing with the nature and theories of *rasa*. The next two chapters are