4 Schools of Poetry
R. Thiagarajan
1.Introduction
Attempts were made at different periods during the development of poetics to determine what constitutes the essence of poetry and to devise means to achieve it. The excellence of a poem or drama was looked at from various angles and the results achieved are also varied. The results, thus arrived at, formed the basis for the starting of a school of theory on poetics and dramas, There arose eight schools of poetics called the schools of Riti, Rasa, Alankara, Dhvani, Vokrokti, Guna, Anumana and Aucitya.
2. The Riti school (School of Style or Manner)
Riti is the manner of writing. Though three ritis were originally recognized, they ultimately rose to six. The names given to them such as Vaidarbhi, Gaudi or Magadhi suggest that they were prevalent in particular regions. Dandin (c. 700 A. D) and Vamana (c. 800 A, D.) were the chief exponents of this school.
Riti is the soul of Poetry
All the poeticians, preceding Vamana (eighth-ninth century), were concerned with the body of the kavya which is constituted by a series of words conveying the desired sense. The idea of riti, in a poetical composition, originated even before Bhamaha. But, it came to be better understood in Dandin’s work, and was declared by Vamana as“Ritiraatma kavyasya” in his Kavyalamkarasutravrtti as the soul of poetry. Vamana has defined riti as (vishishtapada-racana ) (composition of special words or special composition of words). The Riti school holds that the style or manner contributes to the excellence of a literary composition, At first two styles viz Vaidarbhi and Gaudi were recognised. Later other styles were evolved.
‘The Vaidarbhi which gave importance to polish and grace represented the style par excellence. The place of origin of this style was Vidarbha and hence its name,
The other style Gaudi took its origin in Bengal and was characterised by high exaggeration, force and bombast. “While the Vaidarbhi laid more stress on sense, the Gaudi was more fond of sound. These two styles were in existence before 600 A. D.
Vamana opines that the first one vaidarbhi possesses all the ten gunas ( qualities) viz cohesion (Slesha,) lucidity (prasada) evenness (samata) sweetness (madhurya), tenderness (sukumarata)). explicitness of meaning (udaratva), floridity (ojas). grace (Kanti) and transference (Samadhi).
The second one Gaudi copiously contains the gunas, ojas and kanti. After 800 A D more styles came into being and were placed in between the Vaidarbhi and Gaudi styles. They were the Panchali, Lati and Avanti called after the names of the regions where they rose up. Thus, the gunas are the essential elements of the ritis concerned. For the first time, in Vamana’s work, we find the twofold division of gunas, viz.,sabdaguna and arthaguna.
Like the followers of the Alamkara school, Vamana too admits Alamkara as the essence of kavya. But, he does not use the term Alamkara in the earlier and narrower sense of figure of speech, but in the broader sense of charm (saundaryam alamkarah ).
Failure of Riti School
The “Riti” theory failed to achieve wide popularity. Anandavardhana subjected it to trenchant criticism. Mammata has sought to refute the main thesis of Vamana. The inherent weakness of the riti doctrine lies in the fact that it busied itself with only the form or external element of kavya. It could not get into its core viz Rasa and Dhvani .
3. The Rasa school ( School of Sentiments)
Rasa is mood or sentiment, a generalized resultant emotion in the spectator of a drama or reader of a work. Nine Rasas, often called ‘Navarasas,’ have been advocated by the writers on prosody and dramatics. Bharata was the earliest exponent of the Rasa school followed by Udbhaṭa and others.
Rasa – the soul of poetry .
The Rasa school holds that the soul of a literary composition lies in its sentiment (Rasa). ‘Sentiment is a condition in the mind of the spectator of a drama, or, the hearer or reader of a poem produced by the emotions of the characters, and the emotions. Bhavas are excited by factors which may either be the object of the emotion, as the loved one is in the case of love, or serve to heighten it, as does the spring season. These factors are respectively called Alambanavibhava and uddipanavibhava. The result of the workings of these factors is manifested in the form of fainting, fatigue, tremor, and others. All these produce a dominant emotion (sthayi bhava) which, in its final stage of growth, acquires the name sentiment.
4. Alankara school ( School of embellishment ) .
Alankara is literary embellishment. It may be of sabdalankara (word or sound ) or Artha (sense). The alankaras rose from 38 and went on increasing from time to time and exceeded two hundred at the hands of later writers. Bhamaha and Dandin were the main propagators of this school.The Alankara school took into account the factors which beautify a composition. They were aware of the significance of sentiment in a composition but subordinated it to the figure of speech.
The period of origin of Alankara school is unknown. Bhamaha the strongest exponent of this school for the first time, declared – kavyam grahyamalankarat; i.e., a poetical composition is acceptable (or delightful to the connoisseur) by reason of embellishment. Of all the extant treatises on poetics, the earliest one is the Kavyalamkara of Bhamaha. It was commented upon by Udbhata, an eminent theoretician of this school. Bhamaha recognises separate figures of word (sabdalankara) and sense (Arthalankara) which constitute kavya. He is of the opinion that the indispensable element of all alankaras is vakrokti the speciality or charm of expression.
5. Vakrokti School
Vakrokti is equivocation. The word vakrokti means utterance which differs from the ordinary mode of speech.. It is a mode of expression such that the listener conceives a different meaning from what is intended by the speaker or writer. The figures of speech are said to gain perfection by the use of the vakroti mode of utterance. According to Kuntaka’s (eighth-ninth century) Vakrokti-jivita, a literary ‘composition has vakrokti as the very life of a kavya .
This Vakrokti strongly appealed to later writers that they recognised it as a distinct figure of speech. Kuntaka holds that vakrokti contains a kind of atishaya (surpassing element) which is an unavoidable factor of the vicitra marga (wonderful style) which consists in vakrokti-vaicitrya. Dandin also subscribes to this view when he maintains that all alamkaras are based on atitshayokti (hyperbole). Atisayokti is good for other alamkaras too; embellishment is not possible without the quality of producing atisaya. The dhvaniexponent, Anandavardhana, too, admits that atisayokti is included in all alamkaras. According to Abhinavagupta and Mammata, Atishayokti exists like the life-breath. The Vakrokti school is only an offshoot of the Alankara school. Bhamaha and Kuntaka (11th cent. A. D.) were the chief advocates of this school.
6. The Dhvani school ( School of Suggestion )
Dhvani is suggestion. The theory of dhvani was introduced by Anandavardhana-The Dhvani school attaches importance to the suggested sense of words. This doctrine is based on the analysis of words and their meaning. ‘Words have three kinds of denotation viz primary. secondary and suggested. They are respectively called abhidha, lakshana and vyanjana.The secondary denotation is resorted to where the primary meaning does not indicate any sense. For example the passage ‘a residence of herdsmen on the Ganga’ could not mean’ on the stream of the Ganga’ but on the banks of the Ganga’ where it is possible for the residence of the herdsmen to exist.
The suggested denotation is found to be useful in the case of certain words which when uttered indicate some other sense not directly denoted by them. In other words, what is expressed brings to the mind, in addition to its sense, something that is not expressed. In this respect, this doctrine is closely connected and was influenced by the doctrine of ‘sphota’ of the grammarians.
The upholders of this doctrine of Dhvani or Vyanjana as it is called, declare suggestion as the soul of the poem. A literary piece without suggestion is to be deemed as dead. What is suggested may be sentiment or figure of speech and it cannot be expressed by means of words. The experience of it comes, with in the province of personal observation and as such cannot be had by all. It is limited to those, who had similar experiences in the previous births and therefore could have a taste of them when they are repeated. Such experiences, when they are to be had through the actors on the stages, are treated by these men of taste not as belonging to the actors or themselves but as universal. The men of taste have supreme bliss through these experiences which they derive from the stage or from reading a poem.
The advocates of this school have classified the literary compositions into three classes according to the importance given to suggestion in them.
The three classes are the Dhvani kavya in which suggestion is given prominence, Gunibhuta vyangya in which it has a subordinate place and citra in which it is totally absent. ‘When sentiment is to be suggested, long compounds ought not to be used even in prose.
7. Guna school
Guna or quality may concern either the Sabda (word) or the Artha (meaning). It is very similar to the Riti school. Originally enumerated as three, it gradually rose to ten. However this school got merged into the Alankara school. Vamana and Dandin were the chief exponents of this Guna school. Sri Sankuka and Mahimabhatta were of the opinion that the sabdalankaras and arthalankaras alone do not embellish a kavya.; another requisite is guna. The guna-based style, emphasised by Dandin, is Riti extolled by Vamana.
Dandin does not use the word Riti, but uses its synonyms, marga and vartman. His emphasis on guna, to which the alamkara theorists were indifferent, marks his speciality in comparison with them. He holds that the marga imparts grace to a composition; this idea shows him as a supporter of the riti school. .
8.Anumana School
Mahimabhatta is the aggressive representative of the Anumana school and the reputed author of the Vyaktiviveka. Mahimabhatta is a powerful logician; and he attempted to show that the principle of suggestion enunciated by Anandavardhana is only a variety of inference. Philosophers. have recognised only two significative capacities in words-Abhidha and Lakshana-and what is this novel capacity called Vyanjana? This question is put forward to explain the peculiar process, other than Abhidha and Lakshana of words through which the true import of the poetical sentence is arrived at. Mahimabhatta contends that this process is nothing but logical thinking.. This is a peculiar variety of immediate inference called Kavyanumiti, where the ideas strike the trained critic at once, without his going through the cold process of reasoning or by express reference through poetry, contribute to that aesthetic pleasure.These ideas that are inferred should culminate in the development of some Rasa, otherwise they are not delectable and are mere puzzles. The function of the poet is only to represent the Vibhavas, Anubhavas, etc., that invariably lead to the manifestation of Rasa- the soul of poetry. Mahimabhatta’s conception of the realisation of Rasa is probably inspired by that of Sri Sankuka quoted in the Abhinavabharati and it is almost identical with it.
According to Mahimabhatta Vibhavas. Anubhavas, etc., are the artificial causes, effects and accessories for the kindling up of some imaginary or unreal emotions like love, etc., and when these are inferred and experienced by the reader through his complete imaginative sympathy with what is described in poetry they become delectable and are called Rasas.
Failure of Anumana theory
Mahima regarded that Rasas are inferred ; and by thus reducing the process of the realisation of aesthetic pleasure to one of cold reasoning, he took away much of that inexpressible charm from poetry; And later critics attacked him for this drawback in his theory which, like Kuntaka’s, died away for want of adherents.
- Aucitya School
Aucitya – Aucitya means propriety. This school was propounded by Kṣemendra. And that of aucitya, which stressed on propriety as the main factor contributing to the excellence of the work and advocated by Ksemendra .who took the hint for his theory from earlier writers.
Kshemendra, a Kashmirian poet wrote Aucityavicaracarca, in 1050 A.D. Kshemendra was a pupil of Abhinava. In his Aucityavicaracarca Kshemendra puts forward a novel theory that’ Aucitya ‘ or appropriateness is the soul of poetry.
By Aucitya kshemendra means a certain poetic harmony or fitness of things.( ucitasya yo bhavah tad aucityam pracakshate.) The necessity for Aucitya in the development of Rasas has already been pointed out by Anandavardhana who held that the absence of Aucitya is the one impediment to the realisation of aesthetic pleasure ( Aucityadrite naanyad rasabhangasya kaaranam).
Kshemendra reversed that opinion and said that the presence of Rasas contributes to Aucitya or poetic harmony. He extended this principle not only to the Alankaras and Gunas but also’ to many other elements of poetic expression like word, sentence, poem, verb, case, gender, number, etc. Kshemendra’s conception of Aucitya is very comprehensive, and he clearly shows how all the different principles expounded by earlier writers could be brought under poetic harmony; and his exposition and illustration of the various kinds of Aucitya-are very intelligent and telling. Kshemendra accepts the classification of Rasas recognised by Dhvanikara and commentator Abhinava, into nine including Shanta. The theory of Dhvani is also tacitly admitted while the two rival methods Vakrokti and Anumana are left out of consideration.
Web links
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natya_Shastra
- www.shadjamadhyam.com/rasa_theory_with_reference_to_bharatas_nat.
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuntaka
- https://archive.org/details/kavyalankara
- www.hindupedia.com/en/Alaṅkāra-śāstra
- https://www.questia.com/library/…/sanskrit-poetics-as-a-study-of-aesthetic
- www.britannica.com/topic/Natyashastra
- 164.100.133.129:81/econtent/Uploads/INDIAN_AESTHETICS.pdf
ayushnanda.com/history-indian-aesthetics-brief-notes - https://www.h-net.org/announce/show.cgi?ID=205620
- https://archive.org/details/NatyaShastraOfBharataMuniVolume1