9 Dandin and Indian Poetics

Dr. Mrinmoy Pramanick

About the Chapter:

This module talks about an Indian alamkarik or the theorist of Indian poetics Dandin. This module focuses on different ideas proposed by Dandin in his seminal work Kavyadarsha. Dandin is one of the earliest theorist in this field. He came after Bharatmuni. But it is also debated whether another theorist Bhamaha, came before him or not. This debate also mentioned here. This module also talks about Dandin’s reception and his influence in poetry writing and theory of poetry or Kavya in different languages of the world.

Dandin has widely discussed about alamkara, guna, dosha, shabda and artha and their role ina Kavya. All these subjects have been discussed here very briefly. You will also find an brief introduction about Dandin’s Kavyadarsha.

Introduction

It is assumed that Dandin was born either in the last half of 6th century or at the beginning of 7th century. His father was Birdatta and mother was Gouri. His ancestors were from Anandapur of Gujarat. Later they started to live at the Kanchi of South India. He was very much devoted to the Pallava Raj and he was offered a high post in the Royal Court of Narasimha Verma.

Edwin Gerow argued that Dandin is the pioneer of Sanskrit literary theory. Though this argument is partially true but we have to acknowledge Dandin’s path breaking contribution in the Sanskrit poetics while he gave account of Alamkara and its various types. He is one among earliest theorists who talked about role and mystry of language in poetry. He rightly described the idea of multiplicity in the style of writings in Indian literature which is known as Marga Riti, regional verities of styles. He also talked about Gouda and Bidharva verities of literary diction. Dandin also proposes theory of epic poetry which is later furthered by Bhoja in 11th century. Sanskrit literature has observed several kinds of epic poetry.

Dandin, (late 6th and early 7th centuries, Kanchipuram) is an author in Sanskrit language and one of the major theorist in Indian poetics flourished in Sanskrit. He is remembered for his works like, the Dashakumaracharita1, translated in 2005 by Isabelle

Onians as What Ten Young Men Did, and the Kavyadarsha2 (“The Mirror of Poetry”). But before this, Dasakumaracharita was translated in 1927 as The Adventures of the Ten Princes. An orientalist and Sanskrit scholar Sheldon Pollock expressed his gratitude towards the work of Dandin. According to him, “Dandin’s… [Work] can safely be adjudged the most important work on literary theory and practice in Asian history, and, in world history, a close second to Aristotle’s Poetics”.3

Dandin’s Kavyadarsha

Dandin was expert in both the prose and verse. Here we discuss Dandin because of his contribution in Sanskrit poetics with his masterpiece work Kavyadarsha. His work was influenced by the Bhattikavya. In Kavyadarsa he talks about different poetic devices. He argued that the beauty of poetry depends on the use of different poetic devices. According to him there are thirty-six types of poetic devices. Those are like shlesa, prasada, samata, madhurya, arthavyakti, ojah etc. He is mostly discussed because of his doctrine Gunaprasthana.

The main content of Dandin’s Kavyadarsha as mentioned by V.V. Sastrulu in his translation, Kavyadarsha of Dandin is as follows:

1. Benediction and introductory remarks
2. Purposes and sources of poetry
3. Definition and Classification of Kavya
4. The poetic diction (marga) and their constituent excellences (guna)
5. Defects (dosa)
6. Poetic figures
7. Concluding remarks

Kavyadarsha6 is comprised of three chapters and Dandin discussed about Lakshmana of Kavya or characteristics of Kavya, and Dosha, Guna, and Alamkara of Kavya. Dandin said, “Kavyashobhakaraan Dharman Alamkaran Prachakshate”, which means, everything what makes a Kavya beautiful can be considered as Alamkara. According to him, Slesha, Prasada, Samata, etc. Guna and Upama, Rupaka, Yamaka etc. alamkara makes poetry beautiful and because of this all these Gunas and Alamkaras are considered as Alamkaras.

Vamana of 8th century argued that the Guna is the principal characteristic of the Kavya and Alamkaras are the secondary characteristic of Kavya. He argued in his seminal work  Kavyalamkarsutrabritti. According to him Riti is the soul of poetry and Guna is the soul of Riti. Vamana talked about Panchali riti and Dandin talked about Gouri and Baidarvi riti and later Rudrata added one more riti and that is Latiya riti. This is how the concept of riti has been developed in the Sanskrit poetics during course of the time.

Sarga Bandha or Epic Poetry

Epic poetry or Mahakavya is Sarga Bandha as described by Dandin. Epic poetry has to have different chapters which is Sarga in Sanskrit. It is full with Rasa and Bhava. The chapters are not much bigger but well organized and speaks stories in very adequate manner. The hero is great and generous person, and he is necessarily larger than life. Such kavya is assumed to be existed since several epochs or Kalpas. It begins with:

• Preface or
• Introduction or
• Dedication or
• Indication of the content or

Source of the content or story of this Sarga Bandha is adapted either from Itihasa or from stories of good of human kind. It deals with its particular goal and whole narrative goes to fulfill this goal or objective. According to Dandin, Sarga Bandha is four types based on the objective:

• Dharma
• Artha
• Kama
• Moksha

Marga – Riti

According to Dandin four types of languages were existing in his time; those are Sanskritam, Prakritam, Apabhramsa, and Misra. Sanskritam was the language of great sages, whereas Prakritam was the language of common people. The Prakritam was divided into many parts like Tadbhaba, Tatsama and Desi. Maharastra Prakritam was considered as best Prakritam. In poetry, languages like Abhira was known as Apabhramsa but in Grammar any language other than Sanskrit was considered as Apabhramsa. There were different genres already directed with the languages to be written in. and the classification is as follows:

• Sarga Bandha- Sanskritam
• Skandha- Prakritam
• Asara- Apabhramsa
• Nataka- Misra-Bhasha

But the prose-narrative genre Katha can be written in any language. Brihatkatha which is not written in Sanskrit, is one of the best Katha. If we observe Kalidasa’s nataka, we can find existence of different languages within a single text, as Sanskrit for the king, Prakrit for the queen, Apabhramsa for the common people etc.

Then he goes to discuss about Vidharbha and Goud path or style or riti of writing literature. Slesa or compact, Pasad or clarity, samata or evenness, madhuryam or sweetness, sukumarata or elegance, artha vyakti or expressiveness, udaratvam or excellence, ojas or vigour, and kanti and Samadhi or structure all these are characteristics of Vidharbha path. But according to Dandin, Swabhabokti, Upama, Rupaka these are common to both Vidharbha and Gouda path.

Alamkara or Figure of Speech

According to Dandin whatever characters makes the Kavya a piece of beauty are Alamkara. He says, “Kavyashobhakaran Dharman Alangkaran Prachakshate.”

Dandin gives an account of several Alamkaras, those are, realistic expression, simile, metaphor, light, repetition, objection, illustrative citation, differentiation, cause, terseness, hyperbole, conceit, reason, subtlety, minuteness, sequence, felicity, provoking sentiment, vigour, paraphrase, unison, sublimity, denial, paronomasia, speciality, equation, direct praise, concealed praise, conjunctive expression, exchanges, benediction, confusion and expressiveness.

Realistic expression is supreme among the alamkaras and it is also known as Jati or group description. Simile is similarity about two or more objects, if difference is implicit then it is called metaphor, if one sentence existing in one place can indicate jati, kriya, guna, dravya then it is called light or dipakam. Objection is Aksepa or statement of denial. Illustrative citation is Arthantara Nyasa which is, “In desiring a certain object, the citation of another object which is capable of conveying the same meaning as the original object must be considered arthantara-nyasa”(Devy 29). Differentiation is vyatirek, vibhabana is attributed cause, terseness in expression is samasokti, hyperbole is atisayokti, conceit is upreksa, reason is hetu, ‘if there is praise in the form of despair, it is considered to be Vyajastuti or concealed praise’ etc.

Kavya, according to Dandin, is—Ishtarthabyabachinna padabali; that is to say, he gives more prominence to the word-elements in poetry as compared with the sense-elements. This does not mean that the Gunas which are the sine qua non of poetry, and the Alamkaras which serve as decoration, must belong to the word-element, the bisheshya, exclusively; for, the bisheshans, the subordinate elements of the Body, have also their own decorations.

The distinct function of the Gunas and the Alamkaras is brought out by Dandin by calling the former the life-breaths and the latter the ornaments of poetry. The Gunas abide in poetry Samabaybritta while the Alamkaras sangjogbritta; there is between them a distinction in kind,—a distinction which later became one of degree.

The fundamental divisions of the Alamkaras have been variously stated in different texts. The simplest division into shabdagata and arthagata, even after the addition of a third class of ubhaygata, proved quite inadequate. It is however given by the agnipurana, and most elaborately by Bhoja. It was soon found necessary to introduce various sub-classifications based on the psychological principle involved in the process, or on some such underlying peculiarity. Similarity, identity, contrast; causation, word-grouping, lokavyavahara; Rasa, Rhetoric, Technicality: these were some of the principles of classification accepted.

Debate on Dandin and Bhamaha

Yigal Bronner in his “A Question of Priority: Revisiting the Bha¯maha-Dan:d:in Debate”8, tells, The debate that this article revisits is a century old. “It began in the early 1900s, when manuscripts of Bha¯maha’s treatise, hitherto thought to be lost, first came to light. As soon as scholars began to examine this text, its special relationship with the already-available work of Dandin became evident. An early trickle of attempts to fix the authors’ relative chronology actually antedated the publication of Bha¯maha’s work in 1909”. There much similarities between the texts. There were two groups of scholars in this debate. The scholars who argued for Dandin were P. V. Kane, Arthur Berriedale Keith, and K. B. Pathak and the scholars who argued for Bhamaha, were K. P. Trivedi, Hermann Jacobi, Johannes Nobel, and Sushil Kumar De.

Bhamaha like Dandin did not believe there is much difference between Guna and Alamkara. Bhamaha believed that Shabda and Artha has equal significance in Kavya. According to him, “Shabdarthasahitou Kavyam”, which means perfect unity of shabda or word and artha or meaning creates a true Kavya. He did not even paid much importance to the theory of riti. According to him a particular riti cannot make a kavya successful. Riti is not only condition of successful kavya.

Conclusion

Dandin was one of the pioneer theorist in Indian poetics. He is well received and critically acclaimed all over the world literary theory, aesthetics, linguistics and philosophy is practiced. His Kavyadarsha has been received in Nepal, Tibet and Mongolia for centuries. SH. Bira in his article, “Dandin’s Kavyadarsa: In Tibet and Mongolia” described about the history of reception of this text for last few centuries. Yigal Bronner also informed about this and he added further that Dandi’s Kavyadarsha has immense influence in formation of recent style poetry in China. Dandin was celebrated even his time and thereafter in Sanskrit academia. Rajshekhara (920 CE), another brilliant theorist of Sanskrit poetics said, “There are three fires, three gods, three Vedas, three qualities, and three works by Dandin. Everything that is great in this triple world comes in threes”9. Another anonymous note also was found praising Dandin’s contribution and that is, “Upon the birth of Va¯lmı¯ki the word ‘‘poet’’ was coined. With Vya¯sa it was first used in the dual. And ‘‘poets,’’ in the plural, first appeared along with Dandin”10. Dandin is one of the pioneer and major figure in Sanskrit poetics and later development of Sanskrit poetics is majorly dependent on Dandin’s work. Especially the later theories of alamkara, riti and guna are based on Dandin’s work.