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SAHŞDAYĀLOKA promote the delineation of rasas - i.e. 'rasa-virodhi' factors, and also treatment of rasas of an opposite character such as śộngāra and karuna, vīra and bhayānaka etc., as a big composition is likely to serve a number of rasas in given situations. A. tends to suggest that the arrangement of words and meanings conducive to rasa - “rasanuguņa-śabdárthayojanā”, is the prime task of a poet. This shows that for Ā. ʻrasa-dhvani' was the be-all and end-all of good poetry. So, when Abhinavagupta brings rasa-dhvani into greater prominance, he does not do it, as some modern scholars want us to believe, on his own. Abhinavagupta does not thrust his rasa-theory on Ā.'s dhvani theory. But, on the other hand the message, to take rasa-dhvani as the real 'ātmā' of poetry is writ large in Ā.'s treatment throughout the whole of the Dhy. We have also looked into A.'s sabda vyāpāra-vicāra earlier wherein he treats vyañjanā as the supreme power of word. After treating the nature and scope of rasa-dhvani in very great detail as we will go to observe here, A. turns to the other two types of poetry viz. the gunībhūtavyangya-kāvya and the citra-kāvya. We will end this chapter with a full treatment of all these types by a number of writers on poetics, beginning with Ā. here and ending with Jagannātha later.
The highest common factor of the treatment of rasa in the ancients is that they have not discussed, or even mentioned, the famous rasa-sūtra of Bharata and have abstained from discussing the various views on rasa-realisation or “rasa-nispattiprakriyā”. Of course Dandin and others perhaps had a leaning towards the “utpattiupaciti-vāda”, as suggested by Abhinavagupta. But nothing beyond this can be read there. Ā. also does not engage himself in the "rasa-sūtra-mimāmsā”. But he projects 'rasa' as one type of his three-fold dhvani and this, he observes, is arrived at in poetry or literature through the agency of vyañjanā or suggestive power of a word. This ‘rasa-dhvani' is projected as the 'real soul of poetry by A., and Abhinavagupta takes it further for a clearer exposition. It has to be noted again and again, that Abhinavagupta has never over-stepped while discussing rasa-dhvani and he absolutely toes Ā.'s line in doing whatever he does.
We know that .. took 'dhvani' as the 'soul of poetry and classified it in a threefold scheme of vastu-dhvani, alamkāra-dhvani and rasā"di-dhvani. However, the fact stands that out of the three types, only rasa-dhvani occupies the central place as "dhvaner ātmā". This is very much meant by A., for the Locanakāra, given an opportunity, has always tried to make things very clear. For example, on vrtti, Dhv. I. i, "ānandah manasi labhatām pratisthām...” Abhinavagupta observes : "ananda iti. rasa-carvanā"tmanah prādhānyam darśayan rasadhvaner eva sarvatra
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