Sahrdayaloka Part 01

SR No.: 006908
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Tapasvi Nandi
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad
Publication Year: 2005
Total Pages: 602
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 14 MB

Page 47

22
SAHRDAYĀLOKA damsel, becomes a source of beauty, in the same way, in a particular context, even a poetic blemish acquires beauty (Bhāmaha, I. 54). A further discussion on this will be taken up when we examine Bhāmaha's concept of poetic blemishes. But at I. 55 he observes that like a black palāśa flower, placed at the right juncture, adds to the general beauty of a garland, a poetically faulty expression only, read in its special context, serves as a source of charm in poetry. Like a gardener, arranging flowers of different hues at right places in a garland, weaves a beautiful garland, so also a poet selects such words which assume beauty when arranged in style in poetry. (Bhāmaha, I. 59) Bhāmaha says (I. 59) :
"etad grāhyam surabhi kusumam, grāmyam etan nidheyam dhatte sobhām viracitam idam sthānam asyaitad asya mālākāro racayati yathā sādhu vijñaya mālām
yojyam kāvyeşv avahitadhiyā tādvad evábhidhānam 11" Thus beauty of an expression or a particular word, read at exactly this or that place in poetry has a poetic appeal for Bhāmaha. This can be called beauty in arrangement - or 'viniveśa-gata-saundarya'. This concept of Bhāmaha prepares the road leading to Kuntaka's 'bandha-saundarya' - beauty of poetic composition, or style on one hand, and also for the concept of propriety - aucitya - i.e. decorum as advocated by Kşemendra on the other.
As observed earlier, Bhāmaha has also given thought to the element of aesthetic rapture caused due to the delineation of feelings and emotions by the poet. He holds that the epic-poem - 'mahākāvya' has to be endowed with different sentiments (Bhāmaha, I. 21). Though this is considered with reference to an epic poem, it can very well go with poetry in general also. Bhāmaha seems to favour this idea of application of sentiments to poetry in general, of any form or size, when he advocates certain figures of speech based on feelings and emotions, such as rasavat, preyas, ūrjasvi, and samāhita, the four emotion-based alamkāras and then also 'bhāvika' which he says is a 'quality of (the whole composition)'- "prabandhavisaya-guna". Now, we see that, used in this sense, the terms 'alamkāra' and 'guna' acquire a wider dimension which is something else than the normal narrower connotation of a figure of speech or a particular poetic embellishment seen in a particular style or going with this or that sentiment.
Thus for Bhāmaha poetry or kāvya is expected to be 'sa-rasa' i.e. endowed with flavour or excellence of feelings and emotions. All this has to be free from poetic blemishes, adorned with figures of speech and beautified by vakrokti or poetic use of language and content. We will consider Bhāmaha's handling of the emotive stuff