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Twentynine Arthalamkāras or Embellishments Based on
Sense
After defining and illustrating Sabdalaṁkāras in Chapter Five, Hemachandra takes up the treatment of twentynine Arthalaṁkāras or figures of sense in Chapter Six. These figures are called Arthalaṁkāras because their beauty (Vicchitti or Vaicitrya) depends on the Artha or the sense of the Kavya.
Rationale of Treatment
Hemachandra enumerates the twentynine individual poetic figures of sense in the Viveka commentary. These are Upamā, Utprekṣā, Rūpaka, Nidarśanā, Dipaka, Anyokti, Paryāyokta, Atiśayokti, Akṣepa, Virodha, Sahokti, Samāsokti, Jati, Vyājastuti, Ślesa,Vyatireka, Arthantaranyasa, Sasandeha, Apahnuti, Parivrtti, Anumana, Smrti, Bhranti, Visama, Sama, Samuccaya, Parisankhya, Kāraṇamala and Samkara. While defining, discussing and illustrating these Arthalaṁkāras in the sixth chapter, Hemachandra's special attention is directed towards reducing the number of these figures from about sixty of his predecessors like Mammata and others who also based their aesthetics on the Rasa-dhvani theory of literature. It was a remarkable thing to do for any theorist at a time when the tendency was to invent new figures and thus swell the rank of the total number of the Alamkaras. It is natural, therefore, that students of Sanskrit Poetics should want to know the rationale of Hemachandra's treatment in this chapter not only in regard to the reduction of the number of figures accepted for treatment but also in respect of the theoretical viewpoint or influence behind this reduction.
Hemachandra's Critical Outlook
Now, for one thing, in the course of his treatment and criticism of the various poetic figures, Hemachandra himself advances plausible arguments for the inclusion or exclusion of several figures and shows how certain figures, though looking apparently different from each other, have a common
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