A History of Sanskrit Literature c23.s2.1

c23.s2.1

It is easy to see the defects in Sanskrit poetry and still easier to exaggerate them. The difficulty of the language is added to by the elaboration given to it by poets who were writing always for highly cultured audiences and who had no chance of winning reputation and wealth by anything that was commonplace or simple. The long compounds which are affected by some poets even in verse and which are *de règle* in poetic prose are sometimes obscure; they are always a barrier to quick comprehension by all who are not deeply imbued with the spirit of the Kāvya literature. The elaborate alliterations and assonances which had to the Indian ear a definite aesthetic relation to the sense conveyed are less easy for us to appreciate, especially as the blending of sound and sense has been less eagerly pursued and much less successfully attained by western poets, so that we are apt to dismiss as pedantic the careful rules of the writers on poetics who came to divide styles largely on the basis of sound effects.