Studies in the History of Sanskrit Poetics v2.c87.1

v2.c87.1

The small group of writers who deal with the theme of *kavi-śikṣā* ("education" of the poet) does not, strictly speaking, come directly under general Poetics, but deserves notice, partly from the reputation and authority enjoyed by some of these authors but chiefly because it displays a peculiar tendency which emphasises one aspect of Poetics as a discipline, namely, its practical object which developed side by side with the theoretical consideration of general principles. These treatises do not deal with the conventional topics of Poetics, with its theories, dogmas and definitions, but they are meant chiefly as manuals to guide the poet in his profession, their primary object being *kavi-śikṣā* or instruction of the aspiring poet in the devices of the craft. It is difficult, in the absence of data, to determine the origin of this school, but the attitude adopted is significant, being almost co-extensive with what may be supposed to have been the original standpoint of Poetics itself as a more or less mechanical ‘Ars Poetica’ ¹. The ancient as well as the modern writers on general Poetics, no doubt, touch occasionally upon the question of the practical training of the poet ²; and it is not improbable that this, in course of time, formed the object of a separate study and multiplied these convenient hand-books, of which necessarily we possess comparatively late specimens.