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Sri Ramaranjan Mukherji' assumes that Sahityavidyavadhu is the 'principle of literary criticism'. But the assumption is arbitrary for the text gives no such hint. Sahityavidyāvadhū adopts various styles of dressing, dancing and singing to attract Kavyapuruşa and gradually he is attracted. They are married and bidden to settle in the minds of the poets. Various Pravṛttis and Vṛttis are said to be the ways of dressing and dancing and singing as propagated by SahityavidyavadhЛ and various Rītis are the ways of speech adopted by Kavyapurușa.2
VAISHALI INSTITUTE RESEARCH BULLETIN NO. 2
It is wrong to assume that Sahityavidyavadhu is the principle of literary criticism for Rajasekhara did not think that the latter could play the role of enamouring poetry with various graces and could settle together with it in the mind of the poet. He demarcates the creative and the critical faculties. The latter, far from being coaxing, is rather relentless to the former. Again Pravṛtti and Vrtti as the attributes of Sahityavidyavadhu present another hurdle. It is therefore more probable that she has been conceived as the representative of whatever is graceful and charming in the whole domain of letters Sahityavidya-and in its Upavidyas the sixtyfour Kalas which have been said to be the sap of poetry. And for this matter, she is the representative of whatever is graceful and charming in life itself. It is in this role that she enthrals Kavyapuruṣa and manages to retain him in this world of the mortals.
Pravṛttis, Vṛttis and Ritis
Rajasekhara's aim in taking the Kavyapurușa and Sahityavidyavadhu round the country, is to indicate the places of origin and peculiarities of different Pravṛttis, Vṛttis and Rītis. Kavyapurușa followed by Sahityavidyavadhu, went, respectively to the East, to Pañcāla, to Avanti and to the South. Different styles of dressing and demeanour, including styles of dancing and singing adopted and propagated by Sahityavidyāvadhu in these regions came to be known as Pravṛttis and Vṛttis respectively. Pravṛtti of the East is Audramagadhi and the Vṛtti is Bharati; of Pañcala the Pravṛtti is Pañcalamadhyama and the Vṛtti is Satvati; of the South the Pravṛtti is
1. Literary Criticism in Ancient India by Sri Ramāranjan Mukherji, Ch. I. The Idea of Poetry (Introduction).
Kavyam, ch. III.
कारयित्री and भावयित्री प्रतिभा ।
2.
3.
Ibid. ch. IV.
4.
Ibid. ch. IV.
5. The same becomes Arabhați when mixed with craft'आविद्धगतिमत्त्वात्सा चारभटी' Kavyam Ch. III.
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