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MEANING AND EXPRESSION IN POETRY
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V. Idiosyncrasy
For a smooth poet-reader relationship the method of synthesising different semantic units into a composite texture should be commonly acceptable between them. If the poet tilts it too much towards his personal likes and dislikes poetry suffers. The jester in KM in his description of the vernal beauty' says that his favourites are the Sindhuvara shrubs that bear blossoms like cooked rice of a good variety and also the multitude of Vicakila flowers that resemble churned curd of baffalo's milk. Here the process of bridging the gap is idiosyncratic: dove-tailing the flowers with food materials cannot appeal to all those people who do not suffer from an excessive weakness for food as the jester does. So the process is not commonly acceptable and therefore poetry is a failure. It is condemned by Vica kşaņā as 'niyakantarattaņajoggamos which is just a figurative term for idiosyncratic, Elaborating her point she says that the jester's poem, though having pretty words is condemnable for idiosyncratic Artha: it is therefore like a string of pearls upon a flabby breasted woman, like a bodice upon a pot-bellied woman, like the collyrium mark in case of an one-eyed woman; it is not beautiful.8 Here his Artha suffers from the idiosyncratic synthesis of Sindhuvara and Vicakila flowers on one hand and rice and curd on the other. Synthesis is idiosyncratic for it is too much tilted towards the peculiar personal likes of the jester. The latter in his turn calls Vicakşpa Udaravagaña', who is generous in her words or whose words please most people. The jester ironically suggests that with her words she would not only please her own individual lover, but also many lovers. The phrase is a befitting antonym to 'niyakantarattaņajoggam'--that which is capable of pleasing one's own beloved-it implies that a great poet's appeal is not limited to any coterie-it is universal4.
In genuine poetry, which proceeds from an inner urge to express, meaning, sound effects, rhythm, metre and figures all form a cohesive 1. 9747 999FT AÐ gefa
जे सिन्धुवार विडवा मह वल्लहा ते । जे गालिअस्स महिषी दहिणो सरिच्छा ते किं च मुद्धविअइल्लपसूण पुंजा ॥
KM (1-18) 2. ‘Literally, that which pleases one's own beloved.' . KM I ahead of verse 18. 4. 777 faa atafe fata, a cafe UATRATI सहज बयर बिसराइ रिपु, जो सुनि करहिं बखान ।
- afaith art. 14 5. faqen
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