Kavyanushasana Critical Study

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

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supply additional theoretical information and to attempt an in-depth discussion of several important terms, ideas and concepts related to the topic under discussion for the more advanced reader of the text. The Viveka as also the AlamkāraCūļāmaņi, contains a large number of interesting and instructive verses culled from the vast Sanskrit literature in order to illustrate and bring home to the reader the abstract concepts dealt with in the body of the text.
The Benedictory Verses
The first chapter opens with two verses which purport to be benedictory verses. Of these two verses, the first one briefly states that Acharya Hemachandra, after tendering his obeisance to the Supreme Soul, composes the (tretise calleid) Kāvyānuśāsana with a view to delight the learned (in the filed of Poetics). It appears that this opening verse of the Alamkāracūņāmaņi is merely an introductory verse in which the title of the treatise as well as the author's name are mentioned in all humility. The author, therefore, composes another benedictory verse (1.1) - a regular benedictory verse, a Mangalasloka which marks the commencement of the Kāvyānuśāsana proper in keeping with the time-honoured practice of ancient Sanskrit writers who usually begin their works with a salutation or benediction with a view to propitiating the appropriate diety and warding off obstacles in the path of the successful completion of the work undertaken. In the present verse (1.1), Hemachandra propitiates the Jaini speech, 2 viz. the Ardhamāgadhilanguage in which the religious literature of Jainism has found expre This propitiation of the speech of the Jina by Hemachandra is appropriate because, as the author himself points out, the speech of the Jina is the Samucitā lşadevata in the present context; firstly, since speech is the medium of poetry, it is intimately connected with the subject-matter of the present work which is a work on poetics and, secondly, as the author of this work, Āchārya Hemachandra, is a renowned Jain author
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