A History of Sanskrit Literature c23.s1.9

c23.s1.9

Refinements on the doctrine of the sources of poetry yield little of value. Rājaçekhara² discusses the function of imagination (*pratibhā*) as creative or discriminative, a distinction which really deals with the distinction between the power to create and the power of appreciation. Kālidāsa is cited as discriminating between the two capacities. Rājaçekhara is also interesting for his picture of the poet, who is essentially to be a man of fashion and wealth. His house is to be well garnished, with rooms meet for each season, a shady garden with lakes, ponds, a pavilion, a bathing-place, a palanquin, swans, and Cakora birds. The poet must be pure in speech, mind, and body; he is to have short-clipped nails, be anointed, wear a splendid but not gaudy garment, chew betel after meals. His retinue must match his elegance; the menials shall speak Apabhraṅça, the maids Māgadhī, the ladies of the harem Sanskrit and Prākrit, his friends all languages; his writer should have the same capacity and be himself a poet. Some even might go so far as to insist on special rules of speech in the household, like the Magadhan Çiçunāga who prohibited the use of cerebrals save *ṇ*, sibilants and *kṣ* in his hearing, while Kuvinda of Çūrasena would not have harsh consonants used, Sātavāhana of Kuntala insisted on Prākrit only, Sāhasāṅka of Ujjain demanded Sanskrit from his court. The poet’s day is neatly divided; he is to rise early, pay devotion to Sarasvatī, goddess of learning, study sciences and their accessories, then give a period to composition, take his midday meal, thereafter engage in a discussion on his poem or poetry in general (*kāvyagoṣṭhī*), later examine his poem with some intelligent friends, in the evening repeat his worship of the goddess, and in the early part of the night write out his final version. All this, of course, is somewhat tainted with artificiality, but everywhere in Rājaçekhara, as in his distinction of poets according to the part played by science in their works, we are faced with the fact that poetry was essentially a learned pursuit, the product of much cultivation.