Vada in Theory and Practice: Studies in Debates, Dialogues and Discussions in Indian Intellectual Discourses c10.s7.5

c10.s7.5

The theory of *alaṁkāra* presented a holistic purview of the aesthetic structures in literature. It posited a challenge before the Dhvanivādins who used the process of *vyañjnā* to develop an idealist and subjective view. There have been fierce debates between these that have continued till recent times. Modern theorists in Sanskrit rhetorics treat *alaṁkāra* as the quintessence in literature. The very prefix *alam* in the term *alaṁkāra* gives its ultimate nature indicating it as the *summum bonum* in art. *Alaṁkāra* is treated as a vital and dynamic concept encompassing the process of creativity which runs on the four levels — *bhūṣaṇa* (decoration or embellishment), *vāraṇa* (negation or elimination), *paryāpti* (sufficiency) and *śakti* (capability). These levels of creativity are correlated to the surface structure, deep structure and deeper structure in an art form. The attainment of *pūrṇatā* (completeness) through this process is *alaṁkāra*. In this completeness, each and every category in an art piece would compete with the other ones in an ascending order for creating excellence, encompassing the *lokas* or the three levels of human existence, i.e. *ādhibhautika* (empirical), *ādhidaivika* (psychic) and *ādhyātmika* (spiritual). These three levels of human existence can be further correlated with the three paths in human life — *karma* (action), *bhakti* (devotion) and *jñāna* (knowledge); and their applications in literature envisage interrelationships with three functions of the word (*abhidhā*, *lakṣaṇā* and *vyañjanā*). *Alaṁkāras* like *bhāvika* and *udātta* are embedded in the whole structure of a literary piece and involve a complete discourse of forms like drama or novel also.²⁶