Studies in the History of Sanskrit Poetics v2.c87.41

v2.c87.41

This bare outline of the *Kāvya-mīmāṃsā*, so far as it is available and actually published, will make it clear that nearly the whole of its content falls, strictly speaking, outside the province of general Poetics, whose conventional topics have thus far been hardly touched upon. At the same time, some of the subjects dealt with by Rājaśekhara have been referred to, if not elaborately treated of, by even orthodox writers like Vāmana; and the unique evidence of the comparatively early work of Rājaśekhara on this topic, written ostensibly in conformity with some old tradition, will go to support the hypothesis that *sāhitya* or the art of poetry originally included in its comprehensive scope all such varied literary topics, until there was a gradual branching off of *kavi-śikṣā* as an allied but separate discipline, and a limiting of the *śāstra* itself to the discussion of more or less general principles. In themselves, however, these topics are extremely interesting and throw a great deal of light on some of the literary aspects of classical Sanskrit poetry and its practice. They are made all the more delightful reading by Rājaśekhara’s concise but easy and picturesque style, especially as it is enriched by judiciously selected and varied illustrations, very unlike the conventional illustrations one meets with in an ordinary text-book on Poetics.