Vada in Theory and Practice: Studies in Debates, Dialogues and Discussions in Indian Intellectual Discourses c5.s4.2

c5.s4.2

Rājaśekhara has described the assembly hall, arrangements for seats, etc. in it for holding *kāvyakāra-parīkṣās* (examination of poets) and *śāstrakāra-parīkṣās* (examination of scholars). The assembly hall should have sixteen pillars, for doors and eight *mattavāraṇīs*, with one platform with the royal seat for the king (he is supposed to preside in all the *parīkṣās*). The poets, scholars of diverse knowledge systems, artists, etc. are assigned places in the assembly hall. This assembly hall served the purpose for holding all sorts of *vādas* — *vādas* for judging the quality of a new poet or the acquisitions of an emerging scholar. Even when speaking as an *ācārya* of Alaṃkāraśāstra (literary theory) and making recommendations to a poet-king, Rājaśekhara wants the *śāstrakāra-parīkṣās* to be held in between the poets meets, as “wine alone does not taste good, it required some snacks to be combined with”.²⁷