A History of Indian Literature v3.c35.s3.26

v3.c35.s3.26

It would be of importance for the history of ornate poetry if we could be able to determine precisely the antiquity of the alaṃkāraśāstra (science of rhetorics) and its relation to the kāvya style. But, unfortunately, it has to be admitted that we are neither able to fix the time of Bhāratīya-Nāṭyaśāstra nor do we know anything about the age of probably the oldest manual on poetics of Bhāmaha with some certainty. Yet, we have hardly any reason to think that poetics developed from a source other than the study of some model poetical pieces of the Mahābhārata or more particularly of the Rāmāyaṇa. Vālmīki certainly did not yet know about a manual of poetics; but, Aśvaghoṣa was perhaps familiar with the theory of the alaṃkāras². Further development of poetry took place no doubt under the influence of alaṃkāraśāstra. Bhāsa and Kālidāsa definitely knew the Nāṭyaśāstra of Bharata³.