Studies in the History of Sanskrit Poetics v2.c87.27

v2.c87.27

The work begins (ch. ii) by dividing literature (vāṅmaya) into śāstra (both human and revealed) on the one hand, and kāvya, on the other. It enumerates the different śāstras and defines their nature and form, including under the revealed śāstras the Vedas, the Upaniṣads, and the six aṅgas (the Yāyāvarīyas taking Alaṃkāra-śāstra as the seventh), and comprehending the Purāṇas, Itihāsa, Ānvikṣikī, the two Mīmāṃsās and the Smṛtis under human śāstras. It then mentions fourteen (or eighteen) vidyā-sthānas, bringing under it several technical and philosophical disciplines. The meanings of the terms sūtra, vṛtti, bhāṣya, samīkṣā, ṭīkā, pañjikā, kārikā and vārttika, which are the different forms or styles of the śāstras, are then explained, incidentally giving an etymological definition of sāhitya-vidyā¹⁵. Then, after a digression on the fable of the Kāvyapuruṣa, the author goes on to deal with the different kinds of pupils to whom a knowledge of the science can be imparted, viz., *buddhimān* and *āhārya-buddhi*, the latter of who may be again *anyathā-buddhi* and *durbuddhi*, and discusses in this connexion the force of *śakti* (genius), *pratibhā* (poetic imagination), *vyutpatti*, (culture) and *abhyāsa* (practice). The Yāyāvarīyas think that *śakti* is the only source of poetry and gives rise to *pratibhā* and *vyutpatti*; but others hold that the aid of concentration (*samādhi*) and practice (*abhyāsa*) is also required. The *pratibhā*¹⁶ may have a twofold aspect, according as it is creative (*kārayitrī*) or discriminative (*bhāvayitrī*). The creative faculty may be natural (*sahaja*), adventitious (*āhārya*) or acquired by instruction (*aupadeśika*), and poets are accordingly classified as *sārasvata*, *ābhāyasika* and *aupadeśika*. The discriminative faculty (*bhāvakatva*) is distinguished from the poetic (*kavitva*). The *bhāvaka* may be either ‘the discontented’ (*arocakinaḥ*, i.e., who possesses the faculty but requires to be guided), ‘those feeding on grass’ (*satṛṇabhyavahāriṇaḥ*, i.e., the vulgar person absolutely devoid of the faculty¹⁷), ‘the envious’ (*matsariṇaḥ*), and lastly, ‘the really discerning’ (*tattvābhiniveśinaḥ*) who is rare.