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Ašvaghoşa's Kāvyas : An Alankarika Appraisal
93
kavyas. Like his successors in the field, he has drawn upon the common stock of universal ideas already familiar to us from the Epics.
Thus Ašvaghosa is an anya-cchāyā-yoni-kāvya-karts like all other classical kavis, and the imbibing of his inspiration from the encyclopaedic stock of the national heritage should be looked upon as creative assimilation - - - and not plagiarism proper.
With these critical observation on the Epic influence on Ašvaghosa's kavi-Geist we might now pass on to the alankārika appraisal of his kāvyas.
In the literary evaluation of Ašvaghoşa's kāvya-texts we must judge him properly by the canons of literary criticism of his contemporaries, or at best by the older schools of connoisseurs. The sole dependence on the later standards of criticism would be marred by anachronism. To begin with, it is in the Natya-śāstra of Bharata (circa 2nd century A. D.) that we find the earliest known codification and simple classification of the principal topics (viz., alankāra, guņa, doșa, etc.) of the Alankāra-śāstra. This fact shows clearly that Sanskrit poetics was originally a part and parcel of the vācikābhinaya aspect of Sanskrit dramaturgy. After Bharata come Bhāmaha (ca. 7th century A. D.) and Dandin (ca. 7th century A.D.). It is against the background of Bharata, Bhāmaha and Daņdin that Aśva. ghosas's kāvyas have to be assessed.
According to the theory a kāvya should be catura-varga-phalaprada. In his mahā-kavya-lak saņa Bhāmaha lays stress on artha [bhüvasarthopadeśakịt.... Kāvyālankāra, 1/21 ab]. But Aśvaghoşa has nirvāna or mokṣa as the kāvya-prayojana. He refutes tri-varga-sāmya as a pūrvapaksa. He says:
kşays tri-vargo hi na cāpi tarpakaḥ || [Buddha-carita, 11/580]
Ašvaghoşa's style is on the whole simple and direct in its appeal to the common populace. Some examples inight be quoted in this context as follows:
Sundopasundāv asurau yadartham anyonya-vaira-prasștau vinaştau / sauhārda-viśleşakareșu teșu kāmeşu kasyātınavato ratiḥ syāt // [Buddha-carita, 11/2] dravati saparipakse nirjite Puşpa-ketau jayati jita-tamaske nīrajaske maharşau / yuvatir iva sahāsā dyauś cakāśe sacandrā surabhi ca jala-grabham puşpa-varşam papāta //
(Buddha carita, 13/7)
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