A History of Indian Literature v3.c35.s2.48

v3.c35.s2.48

In the description of these different types of style (rīti) the writer stresses that alaṃkāras or "the embellishments" are all in all in poetry. And the fact that Daṇḍin hardly devotes one-sixth of his work to the "body" of poetry, the rest being occupied. only with a discussion about the "embellishments," clearly shows what significance is attached to the latter in Indian poetics. The alaṃkāras, defined as the "attributes, that lend glitter (beauty) to poetry", have been analysed exhaustively and elaborately. Which done, i.e. only after that, the writer proceeds with "embellishments of the sense" (arthālaṃkāras) and "embellishments of the sound" (śabdālaṃkāras). To the first category belong natural description, the simile and the metaphor. According to Daṇḍin, there are thirty-two kinds of simile (upamā). He illustrates, e.g., how one could express in twenty-five different ways the beauty of a lotus-face. One can say—