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18
SAHṚDAYALOKA
by other 'alamkara'. If some scholars feel that by 'rupakā"di alamkara' Bhāmaha refers only to the narrow connotation of alamkara as 'figures of speech' only, then also they cannot escape Bhamaha's observation at (I. 36), viz. - "vakrábhidheyaśabdoktiḥ iṣṭā vācām alamkṛtiḥ" i.e. the poetic expression of beautiful meaning and beautiful word, i.e. beauty concerning form and content, word and sense in general in poetry, is the real source of beauty in a poet's composition. Bhāmaha, we will go to observe further, takes this 'alamkāratva' i.e. the state of being the source of beauty of any given alamkara, as "conveying of something extra-ordinary - ‘atiśaya' -”, i.e. ‘vakrokti' or expression of beauty, or 'atiśayokti', an expression of something special, something out of this work-a-day world, something extraordinary; "alaukika".
With this introduction, Bhamaha embarks upon the actual definition of at I. 16, when he observes :
poetry
'sabdarthau sahitau kavyam'
Poetry is word and sense taken together. Not that Bhamaha did not know that in any use of meaningful language, i.e. even in our day to day wordly parlance, or literature of any kind, i.e. dealing with scriptures or any writing covering legal, commercial or any drafting whatsoever, we come accoss of this 'togetherness', 'saha-bhāva' of word and sense. We will go to see how Bhoja has enumerated all types of possible 'sahabhāva' i.e. 'sahitya' or coming together of word and sense. But all this, 'sahitya' is not what we call 'belles lettres'. And Bhamaha knew this very well and yet there was a purpose behind this which we will go to reveal in due course. Ordinary writing is termed by Bhamaha as 'varta' i.e. 'bare statement' elsewhere, while questioning its capacity to poetry. Bhamaha accepts only a special coming together of word and sense as poetry, i.e. only when it is 'sálamkara' and 'adoṣa' i.e. blessed with some source of charm and is free from poetic blemish. We will go to see that if in Mammata, reference to ‘alamkara' in the definition of poetry is with some reservation, in Hemacandra it is forthright and clear, and all this is to be read as the stamp of Bhamaha. Thus Bhamaha and later Kuntaka have prepared a 'pakka' concrete road for the presence of 'alamkara' in poetry; 'alamkara' both in the general sense of source of beauty as well as in the sense of figures of speech, both of word and sense.
So, it becomes clear that for Bhamaha, literature, i.e. poetic literature, poetry, is presented in a language which is poetic i.e. beautiful, i.e. something special as compared to the language of ordinary communication, or language of this or that śāstra i.e. discipline, including what we call 'scriptures'. While discussing alamkāras
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