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Classification of Poetry
907 The last verse - "gopi-pater... syāt" seems o reproduce Bhoja's idea of gosthi. In this, the exploits of child krishna are narrated. The killing of demons such as yamalárjuna etc. is described.
But, Sā. has something else also. We do not know the source of this thoughtcurrent. Śā. holds that in gosthi there is imaginary story or theme. Śộngāra is of low class. There are five to six heroines who are beautiful and graceful. They are adorned by rustic males who are nine or ten in number. This is bereft of garbha and vimarsa junctures. No lofty words are used. The soft kaisiki vrtti predominates here. It is not having other rasas (except low type of śộngāra). The banana tree cannot bear the dashing by a group of elemphants. This description of gosthi as a one-act imaginative piece, with love theme, with five or six beautiful heroines and nine or ten male characters of low status, is a sort of gathering justifying its name, and it abounds in vulgar talks. As suggested above, we cannot trace the origin of this thought current from any available earlier source.
Hemacandra accepts Bhoja's description of gosthi. We have seen that normally H. chooses to follow Abh., but when he deals with a variety not read in the A.bh., he accepts only Bhoja's authority. We discussed śā. prior to H. & ND., because his was a special case where Bhoja's tradition, as well as an unknown tradition were both accepted.
The ND. also accepts Bhoja's tradition and describes gosthi identically. Same is the case with Vāgbhata II. Thus, the jain ācāryas from Gujarat accept the lead of Bhoja in this respect.
The NLRK. as seen above quite often, follows Śā. in part. There is no following of Bhoja also as seen in the BP. The NLRK. (pp. 287, ibid) reads :
atha gosthi. ekánkā, kaiśiki-vrtti-yuktā, garbhávamarśa-samdhi-śūnyā ca. yathā-satyabhāmā.
The NLRK. gives an illustration. Thus 'gosthi was a living tradition till the times of NLRK. The S.D. of Viśvanātha has - (SD. VI. 274, 275).
“prākṣtair navabhiḥ pumbhir daśabhir vā’pyalamkrtā, nódāttavacană gosthi kaisikī-vrtti-śālini. hīnā garbha-vimarsābhyām pañca-sad-yosid anvitā
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