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THE POETIC EXCELLENCES OR THE GUNAS
Hemachandra has defined poetry as Word and Sense possessed of Guņas or poetic excellences, and clearly laid down that the excellences are the causes of the heightening of the Rasa and hence primarily they are the attributes of the Rasa or Sentiment, and it is only figuratively or indirectly that they are said to belong to the words and the senses as these latter help the suggestion of the Rasa. He also has demonstrated by the method of positive and negative concomittance that Guņas and Doșas reside in the Rasa only and not in Words or Senses. Hemachandra's Stand on the Guņas
While dealing with Doşa, Guņa, Alamkāra and other poetic elements, Hemachandra clearly takes his stand on the Literary theory which regards Rasa or Rasadhvani as the soul of poetry. For, once you acknowledge the supreme importance of Rasa in poetry, you find it relatively simple to show the precise position of other poetical concepts such as Guņa, Doșa, Vịtti, Riti, Sanghatana, etc., in a poem. It was Ānandavardhana, who, in his Dhvanyāloka, for the first time, interpreted the different concepts of Doşa, Guņa, Alamkāra, etc., in their relation to Rasa. And, so far as the concept of Guņa is concerned, he recognised only three Guņas - Madhurya, Ojas and Prasāda, as against some ten Gunas or Literary excellences of his predecessors (Dhv. Āl 11.6, 11.8, etc.).
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