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10
KALPALATAVIVEKA ON BHAMAHA'S KAVYALAMKARA
(Chapter V. vv 5-10)
These six verses of Bhamaha have baffled modern scholars, Pandits and commentators as regards their true import. A perusal of the English translation and Notes by P. V. Naganatha Sastry and the Sanskrit commentary Udydna of D.T. Tatacharya would subsantitate the above statement. Naganatha Sastry's attempt at a lucid exposition of Bhamaha's text is no doubt admirable and the Udyāna commentary of Tatacharya goes a long way towards a better and more correct understanding and exposition of Bhamaha's difficult text. What Dr. P.V. Kane, however, wrote regarding the editions of Bhamaha's work holds good even today. He says: "Unfortunately all these printed editions are unsatisfactory. The mss material is meagre and the editions do not explain many knotty points, nor do they bring together all the various readings in Bhamaha's text as quoted in many works and the explanations of his verses by numerous writers from the days of Udbhata, the Dhvanyaloka and Locana onwards. A scholarly edition of Bhamaha's work is a great desideratum." In the present paper I confine myself to Bhamaha's apology for his treatment. of logic in his work on poetics and to a discussion and interpretation of the six kärikäs from his Nydya-nirnaya (V. 5-10) dealing with the two pramaṇas-pratyakşa and anumana-with special reference to Kalpalataviveka, which was unfortunately not available to the pioneering scholars and Pandits who have taken great pains to interpret Bhamaha's work.
One expects that a work on poetics should confine itself to an exposition and elucidation of the principles of literary criticism. Barring a few exceptions the works. on Sanskrit poetics do not dwell upon an exposition of even the ten types of drama, which are regarded as the best among literary compositions or natya, in general, which is described as the most charming among kavyas. It would therefore seem extraordinary that an ancient Alamkarika like Bhamaha should have thought fit to treat of Logic and Grammar in his treatise. One would have expected of Bhamaha to treat of the faults like Pratijna-hina, Hetuhina and Drṣṭanta-hina at the end of the Chapter IV wherein the rest of the doșas listed together are treated of. He has gone out of the way in treating of the Buddhist logic and its refutation and of logic in relation to poetry in a separate independent chapter. Anticipating such criticism Bhamaha offers an apology in the first four opening verses:
1. Kävyalamkara of Bhamaha, Edited with English Translation and Notes by P. V. Naganatha Sastry, Tanjore Second Edition, by Motilal Banarasidas, Delhi, Varanasi, Patana, 1970. 2. Bhamaha's Kävyälaṁkära with Udyana Vritti, by D. T. Tatacharya Tiruvadi, 1934.
3. The Sahityadarpana of Viśvanatha Paricchedas I, II, X Arthalankaras with Exhaustive Notes and the History of Sanskrit Poetics, by P. V. Kane, Third edition, 1951.
4. Kalpalataviveka by an anonymous author. ed. by M. L. Nagar and Harishankar Sastry, with an English Introduction by Prof. P. R. Vora, L. D. Institute of Indology, Ahmedabad 9, 1968.
