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KUMĀRASAMBHAVA AS CRITICALLY EXAMINED BY
SANSKRIT ĀLAMKĀRIKAS*
Arpita G. Patel When Abhinavaguptapada in his Locana observes: " R ro fornecer faced "he surely feels that both the poet and the critic make two sides of the same coin. It is very clear that literary creation and literary criticism follow each other in turn and also influence each other. Though, of course, literature precedes criticism but the latter is attached to the former like shadow and the sequence between the two remains unnoticeable. So, in this paper the celebrated creative classical epic Kumarasambhava (Ku.Sam) of Kālidāsa is taken up for a closer study as viewed by alamkārikas i.e. Indian classical critics. It may be noted that this paper attempts to record and study critically the views of the alamkārikas beginning with Vāmana, down to Hemacandra. More than one hundred references have been studied in this paper critically. In the Appendix given at the end of this paper, is given a comparative chart suggesting variants, wherever available as found in Cifference alaṁkārikas and also in some modern critical editions of the Ku. Sam., thus trying to help the cause of Kālidāsa-textcriticism.
The sequence of time in case of alamkārikas follows the same as suggested by Dr. Sushilkumar De. All the editions of both works of poetics and Ku. Sam. have been mentioned at the end showing references.
Let us consider the views of the alamkārikas beginning with Vāmana first, followed by Anandvardhana/Abhinavagupta, Rājasekhara, Kuntaka, Dhananjaya/ Dhanika, Mahimabhatta, Mammața and Hemacandra. I: Vāmana quotes from Ku. Sam. at four places, Anandavardhana at eleven, Rājasekhara at seven places, Kuntaka at sixteen-places, Dhananjaya/Dhanika at eighteen places, Mahimā at twenty-nine places, Mammața at eleven and Hemacandra at forty seven places. Different verses are taken up by these critics to illustrate different situations Ly way of literary criticism. Vāmana(1) in his Kāvyālamkārasūtra (Kā.Sū). quotes from the Ku. Sam. at the following places : (1) 34yRei. (Ku. Sam. 1/1), quoted at Kā.Sū. 3/1/11. * Presented at the Xth World Sanskrit Conference, Bangalore; 3rd Jan.-9th Jan.' 97.
