A History of Sanskrit Literature c25.s2.27

c25.s2.27

The doctrines of Daṇḍin found an echo and completion in those of Vāmana,² who is doubtless to be placed at the end of the eighth century.³ We have in him the emergence, however, of a new idea, that of the soul of poetry as opposed merely to the body. As later than both Daṇḍin and Bhāmaha he has a more developed idea of the nature of Kāvya; it is not merely words and meaning or sense, but there must be qualities and figures as well. But he also seeks to fit all the elements in Daṇḍin into a scheme, based on the doctrine of Rīti, a new word for style. The soul of poetry is style which is a specified arrangement of words, the term specified referring to distinction according to the qualities possessed which are the cause of charm in poetry, while the figures are ranged as things which add to the charm. He admits three kinds of Rīti, Vaidarbhī, Gauḍī, Pāñcālī, so styled because found among the local poets, but not due to local causes. The Vaidarbhī is perfect and has all the qualities. The Gauḍī is accorded the qualities of Kānti and Ojas, understood here in the sense of many compounds which are of great length, and high-sounding words, a statement illustrated by a famous stanza of Bhavabhūti. The Pāñcālī has sweetness and gentleness, Mādhurya and Saukumārya, like the style of Purāṇas. The Vaidarbhī is strongly insisted on, the other two disparaged, and a pure form of Vaidarbhī is expressly commended which uses no compounds, thus allowing full play to the qualities of sense. The qualities in Vāmana are now rearranged as qualities of sound and of sense, each having two aspects, with results far from satisfactory as regards clearness, and disadvantageous as departing from the normal use of the terms established in Daṇḍin. Under the quality beauty Vāmana includes the feature of implying sentiment, which Daṇḍin places in the figures Preyas, Rasavat, and Ūrjasvin, and perhaps in the quality Mādhurya, while the quality of perspicuity covers the Svabhāvokti of Daṇḍin. Under the qualities also room is found for the odd figure Bhāvika, whose awkward position in Daṇḍin's view has been noted.