Studies In Sanskrit Sahitya Shastra

SR No.: 007023
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: V M Kulkarni
Publisher: B L Institute of Indology
Publication Year: 1983
Total Pages: 216
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 22 MB

Page 203

191
in the pot be the nature
and therefot while indifferet
breadth) could not have been of the measure of the globe of the earth as described in the Puräņas and Agamas." Further on, he records the view of Pālyakirti : "Whatever be the nature of a thing, its charm depends on the nature (and mood) of the particular speaker; and therefore one and the same thing may appear charming to one, tormenting to another while indifferent to a third one.34
He then quotes the opinion of his wife Avantisundari, who says : “There is no such thing as fixed nature of things, so far as poetry is concerned; for the poet's artistic mind conceives of things in all sorts of ways." She supports her view with a quotation : "the scientific nature of a thing does not matter much to the poet. He makes a thing good or bad by his imaginative faculty and poetic expression. Praising the moon he calls her 'the nectar-rayed' denouncing, a Doşākara85 (a mine of defcts and not the lord of the night). Rajasekhara agrees with both of them.
He deals with still another aspect of truth, namely, Kavisamaya (poetic conventions).34 His treatment is exhaustive and marked by originality. In one context he emphatically asserts :
TER , faar: 44111 (P. 99) In another context he declares : देशेषु पदार्थानां व्यत्यासो दृश्यते स्वरूपस्य ।
Ta 791 aefterfaqethe TATUA: 11 (P. 111)
To conclude : Sanskrit rhetoricians, especially Bhämaha and Rājasekhara ably meet the criticism against poetry on the score of its being false. They are fully aware of the distinction between scientific truth and poetic truth. They also know that the sciences are concerned with the former and poetry, with the latter. One cannot look for scientific truth in poetry unless it be a Sāstra-Kāvya. In the name of poetic truth they do not grant licence of scientific ignorance or inaccuracy of detail to the poets. Lastly, the very wide principle of Aucitya, 37 enunciated by the Sanskrit rhetoricians, embraces all the aspects of poetic truth such as, emotional and imaginative truth, poetic conventions and the law of probability. 34. Ch. IX, p. 46, II. 8-14. 35. Ch. IX, p. 46, II. 50-20. 36. For a treatment of the topic see my paper "Sanskrit Rhetoricians on Poetic Conventions,"
pp 19-27 supra. 37. For a lucid exposition of Aucitya see Dr. Raghavan's paper in "Some Concepts of tho Alamkāra
Šāstra, pp. 194-257