Studies in the History of Sanskrit Poetics v2.c85.92

v2.c85.92

Jagannātha defines poetry as a word or linguistic composition which brings a charming idea into expression (*ramaṇīyārtha-pratipādakaḥ śabdaḥ*): a definition which reminds us of Daṇḍin’s well known description of *kāvya-śarīra* as *iṣṭārtha-vyavacchinnā padāvalī*, but which is further explained in this way. The charmingness belongs to an idea which causes unworldly or disinterested pleasure. This quality of disinterestedness is an essential characteristic, which is a fact of internal experience and which is an attribute of pleasure, being synonymous with *camatkāra* or strikingness. The cause of this pleasure is a conception or a species of representation, consisting of continued contemplation of something characterised by the pleasure itself. Thus, there is no disinterestedness in the pleasure conveyed by the apprehension of the sense of a sentence like ‘a son is born to you’ or ‘I shall give you money’; in such a sentence, therefore, there is no poetry. Hence poetry consists of words which express an idea that becomes the object of contemplation causing pleasure ³².