Studies in the History of Sanskrit Poetics v2.c85.90

v2.c85.90

to be done but the writing of smaller and simpler manuals adapted to general comprehension. The declining age of most of the schools witnessed a host of such manuals and manuals of manuals, but this was the period when the declining age of the Post-dhvani school, as represented by Mammaṭa, went through the same process. Even this was not enough. Out of the debris of these schools there grew up a spirit of eclecticism, of which we have already an early indication in the works of Bhoja and the Vāgbhaṭas after the decline of the older Rasa, Alaṃkāra and Rīti schools; and we meet with hand-books which depend upon no system but which are apparently written for the enlightenment of the lay understanding. The different systems of Sanskrit Poetics may now be supposed to have well-nigh run their course and attained their natural termination.