________________
Definition and Scope of Poetry
31 Vāmana when he notes that, 'the word 'poetry here is used with both word and sense rendered beautiful by both 'guna' i.e. excellence and ‘alamkāra' i.e. - a figure of speech. Says he : "kavya sabdo'yam gunálamkara-samskrtayoh sabda'rth vartate, bhaktyā tu śabdā’rtha-mātra-vacano'tra gļhyate." (Vāmana, vịtti on Kävyálamkāra-sūtra-vrtti, (= KSV.) I. 1. i). This remark has to be carefully examined. For Vāmana, kavya is sabda and artha i.e. word and sense, that are rendered beautiful by guna and alamkāra. Without this beauty of poetic excellences or poetic figures of speech ‘kávya' i.e. poetry is primarily no poetry. You may call mere coming together of word and sense as poetry in a secondary sense of the term i.e. by 'bhakti-'secondary usage' only. Thus Vāmana also underlines th between kävya and mere 'sahitya'. 'Sahitya' or coming together of word and sense with beauty inherent in it only, makes for kāvya or poetry. So, for Vāmana also, kavya and 'kāvya-sobhā' do not seem to be separate entities but are always located in one and the same substratum. Poetry is poetry, only when we experience poetic beauty in it. Poetic beauty is thus an integral portion of the 'whole' called poetry. Thus Vāmana accepts the concepts of guna and alamkāra in poetry, which make for the beauty - i.e. "saundarya". Vāmana at KSV. I. i. 1 & 2, very clearly declares : "kāvyam grāhyam alamkārāt. saundaryam alamkāraḥ.” - i.e. poetry is to be recognised through its alamkāra or beauty, for poletic beauty is known as ‘alamkāra'. Going still deeper, Vāmana declares that this falamkāra' i.e. this source of beauty in poetry is caused by avoiding poetic blemishes and accepting poetic excellences and figures of speech : "sa dosa-guna-'lamkāra-hānā”dānābhyām. sa khalv alamkārah dosahānāt guņā'lamkārā”dānāc ca sampadyah kaveh” (Vāmana, I. ii. 3). This means, that the beauty in poetry (i.e. saundarya/alamkāra) has to be acquired by the poet by avoiding poetic blemishes (in poetry) and accepting poetic excellences and figures of speech. So, what Bhāmaha and Danhin termed as 'vakratā' and 'atiśaya' in poetry, that extra-ordinary element or 'saundarya' is termed as 'alamkāra' - the term used here in its wider connotation - by Vāmana. In Bhāmaha, and more clearly in Danhin (Dandin II. 367) we saw the term 'alamkāra' used in a wider sense. This finds still clearer expression in Vāmana, and we say 'clearer because Vāmana uses the term alamkāra both in a wider and also in a technical sense of a figure of speech, side by side. So, whatever was opaque in both Bhāmaha and Danhin becomes crystal clear in Vāmana; that which was in a concealed form, so to say, is presented in an open, unveiled form in Vāmana, or that which was fluid or nebulous takes a solid appearance, or that which was, say, abstract, takes a concrete form in Vāmana. That which was perhaps presented by
Jain Education International
For Personal & Private Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
