History of Sanskrit Poetics c6.95.1

c6.95.1

II The Rīti School. Vāmana is the foremost representative of this school. दण्डी also devotes considerable space to what are called rītis by others and most later writers on alaṅkāras have to say something about them. वामन in his own way made a distinction between guṇas and alaṅkāras (p. 376 above). Vāmana speaks of ten guṇas of word and the same ten guṇas of sense, viz. ओजः, प्रसाद, श्लेष, समता, समाधि, माधुर्य, सौकुमार्य, उदारता, अर्थव्यक्ति, कान्ति. दण्डी mentions ten guṇas under the same names, but makes no difference between guṇas of word and those of sense. The doctrine of guṇas was an ancient one. It was shown above that the inscription of रुद्रदमन (150 A. D.) refers to some guṇas such as माधुर्य, कान्ति, उदारता and कौटिल्य also spoke of certain गुणs. It may be noted that कौटिल्य in II. 9. mentions six गुणs of a royal writing (शासन) or order viz. अर्थक्रम, सम्बन्ध, परिपूर्णता, माधुर्य, औदार्य, स्पष्टता, while the नाट्यशास्त्र names ten which include माधुर्य and उदार or उदात्त. This shows that कौटिल्य is much earlier than रुद्रदमन and the नाट्यशास्त्र in the theory and practice of Poetics. That poets of certain regions cultivated certain poetic features is made clear in his हर्षचरित by Bāṇa who is earlier than any extant writer on poetics (except भरत). ‘श्लेषप्रायमुदीच्येषु प्रतीच्येष्वर्थमात्रकम् । उत्प्रेक्षा दाक्षिणात्येषु गौडेष्वाक्षरडम्बरः ॥ (हर्षचरित Intro. verse 7). Here we have two important words, दाक्षिणात्य and गौड.