Studies In Sanskrit Sahitya Shastra

Author(s): V M Kulkarni
Publisher: B L Institute of Indology

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Studies in
Rājasekharal are silent on this topic. Many theorists who succeed him-some of them are well known, others are less known-treat of this subject in their works. I propose here to deal with this subject of Sanskrit Rhetoricians on Poetic Conventions in its various aspects.
Rājasekhara devotes three chapters (XIV-XVI) of his Kāvyamimāṁsā to poetic conventions. These chapters may be summarised as follows :
Poetic conventions are the things which poets describe in poetry even when those things are neither accepted as such by the sciences (śāstras) nor .found in every-day life (alaukika) but are merly sanctioned by tradition (paramparāyāta). According to the Acārya, describing such things is a fault and deserves to be avoided. Rājasekhara holds that it cannot be called a fault in as much as it helps poets in writing poetry. He then gives the genesis of poetic conventions : "Learned people of the old made a profound study of the Vedas with their thousand schools (sākhās), the six Vedāngas and the various sciences (such as Nyāya, Vaišeşika, Sankhya, Yoga, etc.), wandered from country to country, island to island, observed many things and set them forth in thier works.3 Representing these things as they were observed by the ancients although they are no longer so on account of change of times and places, is termed poetic convention. This word 'Kavisamaya' was made current by people who did not know its source but heeded its use only. Now some of these things have been, right from the beginning, known as poetic conventions, but some others have been started by cunning poets out of a desire for mutual publicity (or competitive spirit) or for their own selfish ends."4
Poetic convention is threefold : Relating to (1) celestial things, (2) terrestrial and (3) infernal things. Of these, poetic conventions about terrestrial things are of greater importance for the simple reason that their province is far wider. This variety of terrestrial things (bhauma) has four sub-varieties depending upon (1) Jāti (Sāmānyaclass). (2) Dravya (substance or particular things), (3) Guņa (quality) and (4) Kriya (action). Every one of these four sub-varieties has its own three sub-divisions : 1 That Rajasekhara himself believed that he was the first Alamkārika to deal with the topic of poetic conventions would be clear from his statement :
सोऽयं कवीनां समयः काव्ये सुप्त इव स्थितः ।
# agafATEHI2119 fe falfaa: Ch. XVI. 2 GOS Ed. Baroda, 1934. 3 Cf. FER TO : 1 atagan qand
Tat aat: FIFT: HET GEHI विभिन्ना एकशतमध्वर्युशाखाः सहस्त्रवर्मा सामवेद एकविंशतिधा बाहूच्य नवधावणो वेदो वाकोवाक्यमितिहासः
पुराणं वैद्यकमित्येतावाञ् शब्दस्य प्रयोगविषयः ।—महाभाष्यम् , आह्निक I. 5 4 The original line reads : कश्चित्परस्परोपक्रमाथै स्वार्थाय धूत': प्रवर्तितः । The exact significance of
Pearl HT is not quite clear, The File possibly is to render oņe's poem more attractive by introducing novel ideas into it although they have had no basis in reality.