History of Sanskrit Poetics c6.34.1

c6.34.1

4. The name of the śāstra. The earlier works on Poetics are generally designated Kāvyālaṅkāra, e.g. the works of भामह, वामन and रुद्रट. These works were so called probably because alaṅkāras played the most prominent part in the treatment of poetics in them (following the maxim प्राधान्येन व्यपदेशा भवन्ति). वामन in his काव्या. सू. tells us that the word अलङ्कार is used in two senses, viz. (I) a thing of beauty and (II) a figure of speech (अलङ्क्रियते अनेन). According to him it follows that a work on Poetics is called काव्यालङ्कार because it points out and explains the things of beauty in a kāvya, which make us prize the latter ‘काव्यं ग्राह्यमलङ्कारात् । सौन्दर्यमलङ्कारः । काव्या. सू. I. 1. 1-2 (वृत्ति—अलङ्कृतिलङ्कारः । करणव्युत्पत्त्या पुनरलङ्कारशब्दोपमादिषु वर्तते ।). The कामधेनु remarks : योयमलङ्कारः काव्यग्रहणहेतुत्वेन उपन्यस्यते तद्व्युत्पादकत्वा- च्छास्त्रमपि अलङ्कारनाम्ना व्यपदिश्यत इति शास्त्रस्यालङ्कारत्वेन प्रसिद्धिः प्रतिष्ठिता स्यादिति सूचयितुमयं विन्यासः कृतः काव्यं ग्राह्यमलङ्कारादिति. This is more or less scholastic. Even in those early works that are not designated as अलङ्कार, figures of speech loom very large as in the काव्यादर्श of Daṇḍin, three fourths of which is taken up by the explanation and elucidation of figures of speech (of śabda and artha). The काव्यादर्श says ‘यथास्मध्यमस्माभिः क्रियते काव्यलक्षणम् ॥” (I. 2)... The ध्व. (pp. 11 and 13) speaks of writers on Poetics as काव्यलक्षण- विधायिनः. Though in I.