Tilakamanjari

Author(s): Dhanpal, Sudarshankumar Sharma
Publisher: Parimal Publications

Page 41

DHANAPĀLA AS A PROSE WRITER
pot and pruning knife. Labour and intent study joined with the strong propensity of nature would, no doubt, produce the best results”.
Loka, Vidyā and Prakīrṇam, the three angas of Kāvya according to Vāmana include Pratibhā in the last anga.
According to Dr. Krishnamurthy Vāmana says that the poet must bring to bear upon his composition a perfect concentration of mind. It is only then that he will be in a position to see through the life of things”. To achieve such a state of mind, the poet must first gain access to the atmosphere congenial to his aim. The suitable atmosphere can be procured only at certain times of the day in specific places. The place must be secluded and the time perfectly the fourth watch of the night.
According to Rudrata-Sakti, Vyutpatti and abhyāsa are the three prerequisites which entitle a person to the status of a poet. Sakti and Pratibhā according to him are synonymous, which is Sahajā and Utpādyā.
Dr. Krishnamurthy quotes the views of Bhattatauta whose Kāvyakuntaka though not extant, is quoted by Abhinavagupta in his Dhvanyāloka locana. The definition is
“Poetic imagination is that gift of mind of whose aid one can visualise myriad things anew. It is by virtue of this gift alone that one deserves the title of a “Poet”. Hence it goes without saying that poetry abounds for the most part in imaginative description, Bhattatauta gives a poet the status of a Rşi “(Nānțsih Kurute Kāvyam)” and “Rşayaḥ Krāntadarsinah”. A poet is first and foremost a seer. His alert genius penetrates all directions and he sees through the nature of every object. But mere vision is not enough. It must be co-ordinated by the creative faculty which enables the poet to translate into words the numberless things that his imagination pictures before his mind.'
Dr. Krishnamurthy further remarks
The correlation between the 'poet' and the 'seer' that Bhatta Tauta has instituted appears to be doubly significant.
The origin of the Vedic literature is no doubt shrouded in mystery. There is also no gainsaying the fact that many works belonging to that hoary antiquity are more voluminous though by no means luminous. Granting all this, it will have to be admitted that early Vedic poetry as preserved to us in the Rgvedic Samhitā, sprang from inspiration and enthusiasm. The Vedic bards must have been struck with sublime conceptions, with admiration and awe, by those great phenomena which, though repeated daily, can never be
1. Essays in Sanskrit Criticism. p. 180.