Jain Journal 1968 04

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 69

A CRITIQUE OF HEMACANDRA'S
KAVYANUSASANA
BISHNUPADA BHATTACHARJEE
The Kavyānusāsana, a work on Sanskrit poetics, by Hemacandra, the great Jaina teacher of encyclopaedic learning, cannot claim our attention on the score of originality, to any great amount either in matter or in manner It is chiefly a compilation, a handbook comprehending within its scope all the important topics falling within the purview of poetics. MM Kane gives his verdict in the following words "The Kavyānušāsana is a mere compilation and exhibits hardly any orginahty It borrows wholesale from the Kävyamimänsā of Rajasekhara, the Kävyaprakāša, the Dhvanyaloka and the Locana" (HAL, P XIV) Yet we should be chary to commit ourselves wholly to that pronouncement The science of poetics has had a very long and varied development from the time of Bharata, who may be considered as the earliest known author in the field From Bharata to Abhinavagupta-It is a far cry The period ranging between these two limits might be justly called the creative epoch during which new theories were being formulated, new schools founded, new alamkāras discovered and defined It was a period of experiment and research, when the teachers were able to think free and express their thoughts in a way that evinced their masterly grasp of the problems and issues involved The power of reasoning was as yet unshackled and free to move at its pleasure Even after Abhinavagupta that tradition of free thinking had not altogether ceased For we have Mahimabhatta's Vyaktiviveka--a product of deep erudition and meticulous reasoning and Kuntaka's Vakroktijivita--which, though from the point of view of precision leaves much room for perfection, is an attempt to evaluate works of poetic art from altogether new angles of inquiry and according to new standards of criticism But the writers who appeared at the close of the epoch were much less of creators than systematisers Mammata's Kāvyaprakāta is the first and foremost attempt at systematising the then existing categories of poetics within a short compass Mammata also cannot reasonably claim any originality
1 Vide the concluding verse of the Kavyaprakasa . ityeşa margo viduşam bibhinno'pyabhinnarüpah pratibhāsate yat na tad vicitram yadamutra samyag vinirmitā samghatanaiva hetuh..on which Manikyacandra,