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 65

40
SAHṚDAYALOKA
body and soul can never be thought of separately. Thus for him both word and sense together go to form poetry. Abhinavagupta in his Locana over this, goes to add "kārikābhāgagatam 'kavya'śabdam vyākartum aha- "kāvyasya hi iti". i.e. in order to explain the term 'kavya' i.e. poetry in the kārikā (viz. Dhv. I. 2), Anandavardhana observes... etc. Abhinavagupta, on behalf of Anandavardhana goes to add, "lalita-padena guṇā'lamkārā'nugraham aha, ucita-śabdena rasavisayam aucityam bhavati iti darśayan rasa-dhvaner jīvitatvam sūcayati." i.e. by the term 'lalita' or 'graceful' is meant the beauty caused by excellences and figures of speech (i.e. by sources of beauty), and by the term 'ucita' or 'proper' is meant only propriety concerning aesthetic pleasure-rasa suggesting this, the author (i.e. Anandavardhana) points out to the fact that 'rasa-dhvani' suggestion of 'rasa' is the soul (of poetry)."
The idea is that here as soul rests in body so does meaning as soul, rest in poetry. All meaning is not to be understood as the 'soul' or ātman of poetry. It may also be observed that here the term 'atman' is also used not in the normal sense but only in a metaphorical sense meaning the "most essential" element in poetry. For it was, as observed earlier, very clear to any literary critic in India and also equally to Anandavardhana that poetry is an abstract art and has nothing to do with the idea of body or soul. The simile drives clear only one point viz. that charming sense - "sahṛdayas'lāghya - artha" is all that is required to make poetry what it is. Now all this naturally terminates in aesthetic pleasure, or artexperience or rasa'nubhuti is a distant cry. Thus, we can observe, for the present that for Anandvardhana word and sense taken together, and graced by excellences and figures-, the sources of poetic beauty - make for the definition and concept of poetry. Abhinavagupta's insistence on 'rasa-dhvani' need not contradict this observation, for everything in poetry that helps create poetic beauty, leads to rasadhvani i.e. suggestion of aesthetic pleasure - In fact all art, including the poetic art is meant to cause art-experience which is not a physical experience, but a ‘mānasa-bodha' a mental perception and hence is 'suggested' only. i.e. it is of the form of 'dhvani' or suggestion only. By 'rasa-dhvani' is also meant the suggestion of emotive stuff which results from any poetic milieu. It may also be observed that Anandavardhana has in a way, steadied the metaphorical usage promoted by Vamana regarding the 'body' and 'soul' of poetry. It is out of context, as seen in case of Visvanatha to read contradiction between one observation that calls both 'word and sense' as 'body' of poetry, and another observation which notes that the charming sense as appreciated by the men of taste is the 'soul' of poetry, and then