History of Sanskrit Poetics c6.50

c6.50

On this subject of ‘the making of the Sanskrit poet’ vide Dr. Thomas in Bhandarkar Commemoration vol. pp. 375-376 and Prof. Kalicharan Shastri on ‘Requisites of a poet’ in Journal of Dept. of Letters, Cal. Un., vol. XXVI pp. 1-31. A true poet's work cannot be described in nobler or more sublime language than what the ध्वन्यालोक¹ says about it, viz. that the poet is a Creator in the boundless world of poetry, that the Universe appears to assume that form which he is pleased to give to it, that whatever *rasa* (either love or pathos or heroism) he puts into his poem the world becomes immersed therein and that if he himself becomes devoid of *rasa* then all follow suit. The Vyaktiviveka also employs equally sublime language about the poet's *pratibhā*, which, he says, is the intellect of the poet that has become absorbed in selecting words and sense appropriate to the *rasa* he wants to evolve, that (प्रज्ञा) rises after touching for a moment the Real Essence (viz. the Highest Spirit) and that *pratibhā* is the third eye of the Divine (Śiva), whereby the poet perceives the shape of things, past, present and future.