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Sanskrit Aesthetics
"(Creative) imagination is that form of intelligence which is able to create new things." He further adds "the speciality of a great poet's creative imaginstion consists in the ability to produce poetry that is en. dowed with beauty and clarity dus to the onrush of emotional thrill in the heart." Elsewhere he defines fakti in almost identical terms:
शक्तिः प्रतिभानं वर्णनीयवस्तुविषय नूतनोस्लेखशालिश्यम् ।
The most famous definition of pratibha occurs in the following passage quoted by Vidyacakravartin, in his Sampradayaprakasint:
स्मृतिर्व्यतीतविषया मतिरागामिगोचरा ।
बुद्धिस्तात्कालिकी प्रोक्ता प्रज्ञा त्रैकालिकी मता ॥ प्रज्ञा नयनबोल्लेख (पा. भे. तदनुप्राणना जीवद्वर्णनानिपुणः कविः ॥ तस्य कर्म स्मृतं काव्यम् ।
नवोन्मेष) शालिनी प्रतिभा मता ।
87
"Smrti is that which refers to an object of the past. Mati refers to something that is still in the future. Buddhi deals with that which is present and prajaa belongs to all the three times (past, present and future). Pratibhā is that (form of) intelligence which shines with ever new scintillations, that is, which presents ever fresh delineations or pictures of the matters to be described with 'ullekha' or ever fresh flashes of ideas (with 'unmeza")." Mahimabhatta describes the nature of pratibha in a striking manner:
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रसानुगुणशब्दार्थचिन्तास्तिमितचेतसः ।
क्षण स्वरूपस्पर्शोत्था प्रज्ञेव प्रतिभा कवेः ॥ सा हि चक्षुर्भगवतस्तृतीयमिति गीयते । येन साक्षात्करेत्येष भावांस्त्रैलोक्यवर्तिनः ॥
Vyaktiviveka II 117-118
"Pratibha is tha: intellectual function of the poet whose mind is concentrated (or fixed) on thinking about words and meanings that are appropriate to rasa (to be portrayed in the poem). It arises for a moment from the contact of the poet's mind with the essential nature (of his own Atman)".
"It is that which makes the things that exist in all the thres worlds seem as if they were right before one's very eyes, and hence it is known as the third eye of Siva."
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