A History of Indian Literature v3.c35.s2.42

v3.c35.s2.42

“It should begin with a benediction, a homage or an indication of the subject-matter. The plot should be built either upon a legend, a romance or an historical fact, suggestive as to how the four ends of life are to be attained, depicting the adventures of a hero, overflowing with wisdom and nobility. Descriptions of the town, the sea, the mountain, the seasons, rising of the moon and the sun, sports in pleasure-gardens or in tanks, drink banquets, love-scenes, feasts, marriages, birth of a son, conferences, emissaries, war expeditions, battles and sieges by heroes etc. go to the making of what it is an epic. The plot should be so developed as to be permeated by one basic sentiment (rasa) along with its corresponding emotion (bhāva). It shall consist of a number of cantos (sargas), not too long, composed in properly rhythmical and suitable verses". Daṇḍin then proceeds to describe prose kāvya and its varieties and the mixture of both, to which class the drama and the campū belong. In this connection he touches on the subject of employment of the different languages and dialects in poetry, in the end dealing with the different kinds of style. He says that there is a number of styles, but that they do not differ much one from another. A sharp distinction exists only between the Vaidarbha and the Gauḍa styles¹. Cohesion, clarity, evenness, grace and tenderness are the characteristics of the Vaidarbha, while the Gauḍa inclines more towards obscurity and bombast, delighting in exaggerations and has special fascination for long compounds². Thus, for example, whilst a poet in the Vaidarbha style said—