Kavyanushasana Critical Study

Author(s): A N Upadhye
Publisher: A N Upadhye

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the Kavyaprakāśa of Mammața, the śrngaraprakāśa of Bhojarāja and the Sāhityadarpaņa of Viśvanātha. Indeed at the time of its composition, the śộngāraprakāśa must have been the only comprehensive work on Poetics and Dramaturgy, since, although the Kavyaprakāśa was an important work on Poetics, yet it did not cover the topics on Dramaturgy and consequently it did not satisfy the requirements of a comprehensive work dealing both with Poetics and Dramaturgy. Again, even as far as the subject of poetics is concerned, Mammața's Kavyaprakāśa followed a method of treatment which was a bit tough and its language and style were a little too terse and abstruse for a beginner. On the other hand, Bhojarāja's Srngaraprakāśa was much too large and bulky a treatise, and it followed a poetic tradition which was somewhat off-beat in tenor and treatment when compared to the Kashmirian tradition of Poetics.
The Kashmirian Tradition of Poetics
It is an acknowledged fact that Kashmir has produced a galaxy of brilliant authors on Indian Poetics and Aesthetics. It is no exaggeration to say that the subject of Sanskrit Poetics received a tremendous momentum from its early beginning and reached its zenith at the hands of the various Kashmirian authors. For, "Kashmir, from early times and particularly in this period, has been the land that furnished the material groundwork and gave the signal to start for investigations by writers all over the country."'4 The sincere and tireless efforts of Anandavardhana, Abhinavagupta and Mammața need a particular mention in this connection because with these authors, the theory of Dhvani, with its emphasis on the "Resadhvani", came to dominate the scene in Poetics not only in Kashmir but also elsewhere in the country; and the advent of the Dhvani-theory revolutionized the concepts of poetry and poetics. The Dhvani theory necessitated a reorganisation of all the other elements of poetry viz., Guņa, Dosa, Alamkāra, etc., since it posited Dhvani or Rasa as the most important principle of Literary Criticism.