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First Class Poetry
Hemachandra amalgamates Rasa with Dhvani in the best tradition of Anandavardhana and Abhinavagupta and stresses that Rasādi is always suggested by Vibhāvādi. When these Rasādi, being principally suggested, occupy the predominant position in poetry, they constitute the soul of poetry - Kavyātmā. Such a Kavya is called First Class Poetry. Hemachandra's rationale of the classification of poetry into Uttama, Madhyama and Adhama remains identical with that of Mam mata, but he attempts this only after completely explaining the Rasaprinciple (11. 56 etc.). The Dynamics of the Aesthetic Process
"Greatness in Literature is not the product of style, or structure, or appropriateness of language. It is not even ensured' by a lofty concept. Rather it springs from the harmonious combination whereby diverse faculties unite to produce one common good."278 Hemachandra acknowledges that Rasadhvani provides the keynote of the aesthetic unity of the whole work 279 and subscribes to Bhatta Tauta's emphasis on prior vision and the subsequent objectification in the aesthetic process - the Kavikarma, For, the continued, unremitting activity of the poetic consciousness underlies all formal and technical excellence of a poem. It is the Kavivyāpāra that makes both sound and sense, expression and idea, subservient to itself, the basic reality in poetry. In Abhinavagupta's words' Creativity is "consciousness capable of original invention, its distinguishing characteristic being the capacity to create poetry, possessed of relishable feeling, clarity and beauty." Hence, Poetic Blemishes, Excellences and Embellishments have been treated of by Hemachandra in consonance with the standpoint of Rasadhavani alone. And the principle of Propriety 2 80 plays. an important role in the determination of the relative position of Dosa. Guna and Aiamkāra in Hemachandra's Poetics.
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