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Vyañjanā'
623 after reading more and more from our learned friend Dr. N. P. Unni, our faith concerning Bhāsa's authorship of all the thirteen Trivendrum plays has disappeared, but we have quoted here some passages from plays concerning which our faith has not completely evaporated
As noted earlier, we have traced the earlier occurrences of the words connected with vyañjanā-dhvani-theory in the vedic literature. We do not claim that the vedic poets had a conscious recognition of this theory in their minds. But we do find germs of this theory in their use of certain terms. This is enough to trace something. We also tried to link ancient grammatical and philosophical thinking with this theory and the findings were more positive and encouraging. Now we turn to ancient classical literature as represented in the works of earlier poets such as Bhāsa, Aśuaghosa and Kalidāsa. Perhaps we will tred on more solid grounds in our efforts to trace the origin of the thought-current of vyañjanā-dhvani. That Kālidāsa clearly mentions in his Vikramorvasiya, a Bharata who staged a play with eight rasas and instructed the divine damsels in its performance, clearly suggests that even before Kālidāsa there was literature concerning literary aesthetics. He observes : “muninā bharatena yah prayogah, bhavatīsv asta rasāśrayo niyuktah...” etc. This
not necessarily mean that Kālidāsa refers to whatever is available as 'nātyaśāstra' of Bharata, to-day. It may or it may not be. But one thing is certain that literature and literary or art-criticism influence each other in turn and make. for advancement in either. So, our effort to find traces of vyañjan.-dhvani theory in the works of the earlier poets is thus certainly justified. It may be noted that as for Bharata's Nātya-śāstra as now available, and its connection with vyañjanāvāda, we will have a separate detailed discussion at a suitable place later, when we wil discuss the origin and development of the concept of “rasa”. For the present we will keep off from Bharata's Nātya-śāstra as is available to us in its present form.
That criticism follows literature does not require proof. That practice precedes theory and is in turn guided by theory is well proved in the history of literature and art, world over. So, before we proceed with Bharata or Bhāmaha, let us take note of the usage of vyañjanā, rasa, etc. in earlier classical literature, be it, please note, either conscious or even unconscious. For the present we begin with Bhāsa, who is mentioned by Kālidāsa, and here too with some of his so called plays that are included in the thirteen Trivendrum plays.
Bhāsa - In the so called thirteen Trivendrum plays ascribed to Bhāsa, we come across words like, 'vyaktam', 'vyaktih', 'su-vyaktam', 'vyaktīkrtam', etc. in the sense of 'clearly manifested'. We also come across terms such as, 'sūcayati',
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