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________________ HEMACANDRA : AN ASSESSMENT A careful, critical and comparative study of Hemacandra's Karyanusasana shows that he has composed his Kavyanusasana incorporating the best and well known portions of the works of a number of his illustrious predecessors who wrote on Poetics (and Aesthetics) like Bharata, Anandavardhana, Rajasekhara, Abhinavagupta, Mahimbhatta Bhoja, Ksemendra and Mammata. He is an excellent judge of the whole range of scholarship on the subject, and knows the best authorities in the field. His work reveals that he is both a generalist and specialist rolled into one. This may sound paradoxical. In Sanskrit scholarship of the past as indeed in medical practice today we see a lot of significance being attached to the depth of knowledge of a specialist. In the field of poetics we find ancient authorities laying special emphasis on alamkara or vakrokti or riti or dhvani or rasa or aucitya. A poor student feels bewildered by their exclusive emphasis on their pet doctrines exactly as poor patient seeking opinion from the medical stalwart specialists today feels. In such a baffling situation to develop a right kind of understanding through proper perspective becomes almost impossible unless we go to the right guide and teacher. Hemacandra like his worthy predecessor Mammata is such an unfailing guide for most of the students on the subject. He is an ideal teacher with the right understanding of the whole of the field of knowledge of Poetics. He has the ability to place every thing in its own place and guide students on the correct path as our family physician, a reliable general practitioner does. With a view to meeting the needs of primary students of Sahityasastra he wrote a very lucid textbook called Alamkara-Cudamani comprising (i) the sutras : defining the various topics dealt with in it, (ii) the vritti : a prose commentary on the sutras explaining and sometimes supplimenting them, and (iii) the udaharanas : illustrations--these are stanzas mostly quoted either from the works of preceding writers on poetics or from those of renowned poets. And with a view to meeting the needs or requirements of advanced students, who aspire to attain mastery, of Sahityasastra he wrote a svopajna, his own Jain Education International For Private & Personal Use Only www.jainelibrary.org
| SR No. | 001868 |
| Book Title | Studies in Jain Literature |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | V M Kulkarni |
| Publisher | Shardaben Chimanbhai Educational Research Centre |
| Publication Year | 2001 |
| Total Pages | 114 |
| Language | English |
| Classification | Book_English, Literature, & Story |
| File Size | 14 MB |