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Definition and Scope of Poetry
Kashmir tradition, represented by such great writers as Bhoja, Śāradātanaya and the rest with their monumental, works such as Saraswati-kanthābharaṇa, Śṛngāraprakāśa, Bhāvaprakāśana etc. We do not rate Agnipuraṇa as an older document and our impression is that it is closer to the Mālava tradition though not completely departing from the kashmir tradition. We will try to trace the graph of such literature on literary criticism in Sanskrit that spans over between fifteen hundred to two thousand years.
The chief trait of the efforts of indian literary critics who attempted to unveil the secrets of poetic beauty, to get closer to what it makes for poetry, to get into the root of it and to explain the whole thing clearly, is the sincerity of the enquiry. The critics are honest, true, forthright and without personal bias. The critics have not hasitated in accepting, to their advantage, the outcome of solid thinking by any predecessor, albeit with certain basic differences in approach and attitude. Application of the thinking of an earlier master in literary criticism and his thought process by a later critic, is a common trait. Even die-hard critics of an earlier master do not hasitate to draw quotations that may suit their purpose from the same critic. They accept the words of honourable antagonists with dignity and self-respect. This is honesty and culture, pure and simple. In doing so, they do not bring in individual differences on certain subtle points, and their criticism never speaks the language of personal prejudice. For example, take the concept of what is termed 'sādhāraṇīkaraṇa'; the normal english equivalent sought for this is 'generalization', which we do not accept; and instead we coin a new term such as, 'de-individualization'. Now this concept of 'sādhāraṇīkaraṇa' is normally associated with Bhaṭṭa Nayaka by modern scholars. Even here we beg to differ. We feel that the germs of this concept can be traced even in the N.S. of Bharata, when he uses terms such as, 'sadhāraṇa-guna-yoga'. Perhaps this concept also was floated by some critic not known to us and was even prior to Bharata. Precisely because of this perhaps Abhinavagupta tried to trace the origin of this concept in traditions of mīmāmsādarśana and even in what is called 'lokavyavahāra' or normal worldly business. Whatever it may be, but even Abhinavagupta, a staunch advocate of Anandavardhana's views, quotes with great admiration and respect from Bhatta Nayaka, an avowed opponent of dhvani, - a 'dhvani-dhamsin'. We can observe a similarity of approach in case of Bhoja also, an exponent of Mālava tradition, quoting with respect from Anandavardhana, though of course, it may be observed that the Malava-tradition does not oppose the Kashmir tradition tooth and nail. On the other hand Mahima an exponent of kävyānumiti or poetic inference and a die-hard critic of Anandavardhana's vyañjanā-dhvani
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