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THE POETIC UNIVERSE
Broadly speaking, the first chapter of the Kavyānuśāsana is concerned with the aim, the scope and the province of the science of poetry in consonance with the then latest theories of poetry. The author of the Kavyanusāsana; Acharya Hemachandra, therefore, picks and chooses such topics of the Sanskrit Sahityaśästra as are intimately connected with poets, poetry and poetics, and, after arranging them in a graded manner, sets about dealing with them in this chapter as systematically and comprehensively as possible. Thus he treats of the topics of,
(1) the "correct speech" and the "poetic speech",
(2) the purpose of poetry,
(3) the grounds of poetry,
(4) the training and equipment of a poet,
(5) the poetic conventions,
(6) the problems of originality and plagiarism,
(7) the definition of poetry,
(8) the constituents of poetry and their inter-relation and their relation with the soul of poetry,
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