Yasastilaka and Indian Culture

Author(s): Krishnakant Handiqui
Publisher: Jain Sanskruti Samrakshak Sangh Solapur

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YAŠASTILAKA AND INDIAN CULTURE
dra, and Vāgbhata, the author of Kāvyānusāsana, and Kşemendra, in his Kavikanthābharana, who employs the term Paricaya for Vyutpatti, clearly enumerate the various branches of learning, with all or some of which the poet is expected to show his acquaintance. Considered from this standpoint, Somadeva's statement that his Kāvya is a repertory of all the Šāstras is corroborated to a large extent by an examination of the contents of the work, and there are few works in Kāvya literature which fulfil the conditions of Vyutpatti so completely as Somedeva's Yasastilaka.
The Vyutpatti of others', that is, of the readers of a poem refers to their instruction in the topics of the Sāstras, so that a Kāvya is viewed as a kind of introduction to the learned branches of study. Somadeva's view of this aspect of Vyutpatti may be correlated with the opinion of Bhāmaha, who says in his Kāvyālankāra (chap. V) that the Sāstras are, as a rule, difficult to understand and shunned by the untalented, who, however, enjoy them when mixed with the sweet potion of poetry, just as people take an unpalatable dose of medicine after tasting honey. In oti the sāstric pill is to be sugared with poetry for the benefit of those who are unable to swallow it as it is. The difficult topics of the Sāstras should be made interesting and popular through poetry, and this the poet can do by expounding or referring to them in the course of his Kāvya. Bhāmaha, accordingly, goes on to say that there is no topic—no word, no meaning, no principle of logic, and no art or science-which does not serve element in poetical composition, and the poet's burden is undoubtedly great." It will be thus seen that the idea that a Kāvya should be a medium of instruction for its readers was prevalent long before the tenth century, and this idea no doubt greatly influenced the scope and composition of Somadega's Yasastilaka.
Somadeva speaks of the great transmuting power of poetry. The true poets are those whose words make familiar things unfamiliar and unfamiliar things familiar.
aga at m ai avata: gaisgear di raga: getaran 1. 25. This somehow reminds us of certain lines of Wordsworth on the contemplation of Nature:
Familiar things and awful, the minute And grand, are destined here to meet...... 3
1 प्रायेण दुर्बोधतया शास्त्राद् बिभ्यत्यमेधसः। तदुपच्छन्दनायैष हेतुन्यायलवोच्चयः ॥ स्वादुकाव्यरसोन्मिश्रं शास्त्रमप्युप
युञ्जते । प्रथमालीढमधवः पिबन्ति कटु भेषजम् ॥
न स शब्दो न तद्वाच्यं न स न्यायो न सा कला । जायते यन्न काव्याङ्गमहो भारो महान् कवेः॥. 3 Herbert Read: Wordsworth, p 193. The lines occur in the first draft of a passage
intended as an alternative for some lines in Book VIII of the Prelude.