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Appointment with Kalidasa
aspects of love which can be treated by poets with beauty and relish. But Anandavardhna himself points out that a truly inspired writing of a really great poet can make all the difference:
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Mahakavinām api uttamadevara-visaya-prasiddha-sambhoga-sṛngaradi anaucityam sakti-tiraskytatvat grämyatvena na pratibhasate/Yatha Kumarasambhave Devi-sambhogavarṇanam/2
Anandvardhana is speaking about the two kinds of defects that may creep in literary writing. The defects of the poet himself, his lack of adequate ability and constructive skill, making the composition defective; and the defects which are due to the writer's lack of innate creative power sakti or pratibha. The defects of construction, language etc. are often shrouded by a poet's genuine creative power; the defects of the latter, pratibha, alone expose the common worth of a writer. Kalidasa's description of the sexual love of Śiva-Parvati does not descend to vulgarity due to his extra-ordinary creative ability and genius. What in the hands of lesser poets would have turned into indecent and vulgar amour has been illumined into beauty and joy by the poetic genious of Kalidasa. The literary principle on the basis of which Anandavardhana makes this distinction between art and vulgar exhibitionism is aucitya or art-propriety. And in his treatment of rasa theory Anandavardhana states that there is no greater defect than impropriety causing break in aesthetic relish (rasa-bhanga) while appreciating literary art.3 Love (rari) may be a favourite theme with the poets. But sexual union is not an exclusive aspect of love. Poetic imagination can conceive many forms through which love could be expressed. They could be cultured and decent; and they would have the appropriate impact on a reader's mind and give him aesthetic pleasure. A writer deserves to pay attention to this kind of propriety in art. But sometimes even great poets are carried away by their power or in their enthusiasm they write something which is not quite proper. When this happens, Anandavardhana thinks, it is defective art:
Na ca sambhoga-krigarasya surata-lakṣaṇaḥ eva ekaḥ prakaraḥ, yavad anye api prabhedaḥ paraspara-prema-darśanadayaḥ sambhavani, te kasmod uttama-prakṛtivişayena varṇyante? yat tu evamvidhe vişaye mahākavīnām api asamiksyakarita lakaye drayate sa dosa eva
The principle of propriety in regard to the type of character described (prakṛt) and the theme or subject of the composition (visaya) which Anandavardhana insists on will be quite acceptable. At the same time it is necessary to accept, on the level of art, his advocacy of the extra-ordinary creative power (sakti or pratibha) of a poet which puts a different complexion on a literary presentation. And it means that if a poet's theme, the type of principal character he has chosen to be depicted, and the expected art-form of his composition were not naturally favourable to Śrigara, the erotic descriptions would prove to be ticklish and excessive and offend aesthetic taste and
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