Studies in the History of Sanskrit Poetics v2.c86.78

v2.c86.78

The doctrine of the *Dhvanyāloka* that in a composition in which the sentiment is awakened, proprieties of various kinds (e.g. with reference to the speaker, the theme, the employment of the *vibhāvas* etc., the use of the *alaṃkāras* and other elements, pp. 134f, 144f ) should be observed, and that certain items of conflict (*virodha*) with the dominant sentiment should be avoided, gave rise to a theory of propriety, which is generally comprehended by later writers under the discussion of the *doṣas* of *rasa*. Thus, in later treatises, the *rasa-doṣas* occupy a separate and important place, in addition to the conventional doṣas of pada-, padārtha-, vākya-, vākyārtha-doṣas recognised since Vāmana’s time. It is Kṣemendra alone who emphasises the importance of the subject by making it the theme of his well known Aucitya-vicāra-carcā which will be noticed in its proper place. Mahimabhatta, in the second chapter of his work, considers the question of anaucitya in some detail. According to him, impropriety or incongruity has two aspects, according as it refers to śabda or to artha respectively. Then he speaks of propriety as external (bahiraṅga) or internal (antaraṅga), apparently as it is śabda-viṣaya or artha-viṣaya. The cases of internal propriety, which consists in the proper employment of the vibhāvas etc., have already been explained by previous writers (e.g. the Dhvanyāloka pp. 144f); Mahimabhatta, therefore, takes up the question of external propriety, which he thinks falls under five faults of composition, viz., vidheyā-vimarśa (non-discrimination of the predicate), prakrama-bheda (violation of uniformity in the expression), krama-bheda (syntactical irregularity), paunaruktya (tautology) and vācyāvacana (omission of what must be expressed), to the explanation and exemplification of which he devotes, amidst several digressions, the rest of the chapter. It is difficult to say why these faults of expression alone are singled out as defects resulting in a violation of rasa (rasa-bhaṅga). Later writers would include them under general defects, reserving the cases of virodha or opposition of rasas as specific instances of rasa-doṣas.