Indian Poetics

 

           Hello everyone,this blog is response to Dilip Barad Sir's thinking activity. In this blog i will discuss about Alankara,rasa,riti,  vakrokti and auchitya school.

Question 1:- Write a brief note on Alankara,Rasa,Riti, Vakrokti and Auchitya school 

 Introduction

       It is customary to begin the history of Indian Poetics with Natyashastra. Out of its thirty six chapters, two chapters deal with Rasa-bhava and Alankara-guna. By and large the text relates to dramaturgy in its practical applications. The aspects of Poetics that appear in text are not directly related to Kavya. In Natyshastra the nature of poetry as outlined in it is incidental to the discussion on Drama and it does not have an independent status. Bharat’s Natysastra is the earliest known treatise on Poetics and dramaturgy. His Natyasastra mentions four Alankaras (poetic figure), ten Gunas (excellences), ten Dosas (defects) and thirty six Laksanas (characteristic) of poetic composition (shodhganga).

        

           In Indian poetics, scholars had different viewpoints, and they also formed different school of thoughts.The chief schools are:

•  Alankara (poetic figure)
•  Rasa (aesthetic pleasure)
• Riti (Style)
•  Guna (attribute)
• Dhvani (suggestion)
•  Vakrokti (obiliquity)
• Auchitya (propriety)

    Let’s have a brief look on the Alankaraschool, Dhvani school, Riti school, Vakrokti school and Auchitya school.

1) Alankara School 

               Alankara refers to “the figures of speech”- The word alankara stands for a thing of beauty. The rhetoricians deal with the alankaras in detail and the poet use them profusely in their works. Alankara has an ancient origin. The alankara is the earliest and most sustained school which studies literary language and assumes that the focus of literariness is in the figure of speech in the mode of expression in the grammatical accuracy and pleasantness of sound. This does not mean that meaning is ignored. In fact structural taxonomies of different figures of speech are models of how meaning is cognized and how it is to be extracted from the text. 

          Bhamaha is the first alankarapoetician. In Kavyalankara he described 35 figures of speech. Many other critics also continue this tradition and they were Dandi, udbhata, Rudrata and Vamana. Rhetoricians like Anadavardhana, Mammata and Visvanatha have directly stated the connections of alankaras with rasa. They all were the Sanskrit Critics. Alankara is used for beautifying the language. Many critics also said that we can use figure of speech but it must be used in limited way otherwise it may happen that the work of art will lose its charm.

             The categories of Alankara have been classified by different poetician into different kind. Rudrata divides it into two types those based on phonetic form its called sabdalankara and those who based on meaning its called Arthalamkara. Bhoja also divided it into seven parts,

• Sadrasya 
•  Virodha 
•  Srnkhalabadha 
•  TarkaNyaya 
• Lokanyaya 
• Kavyanyaya and 
• Gudharthapratiti. 

Mamata also divided alamkara into seven types:

•  Upama 
• Rupaka  
• AprastutaPrasnsa 
• Dipaka 
• Vyatiraeka 
• Virodha and 
• Samuccaya.

2) Dhvani school

           Dhvani school of poetry was originated by Anandavardhana. He wrote “Dhvanyaloka” in the middle of the 19thcentury which brought focus on the potential power of the word in Kavya.Anandvardhana in Dhvanyalokam takes up three main types of implicit sese: Vastudhvani, Alankaradhvani and Rasa dhvani.

           Next only to the rasa theory in importance, the dhvani theory of anandavardhana considers suggestion, the indirectly evoked meaning as the characteristic property of literary discourse, the determinant that separates it from other rational discourses. Dhvani becomes an embracing principle that explains the structure and function of the other major elements of literature- the aesthetic effect (rasa), the figural mode and devices (alankara), the stylistic values (riti) and excellences and defects (guna-dosa).

           In Dhvayyaloka, Ana presented a structural analysis of indirect literary meaning. He has classified different kinds of suggestion and defined them by identifying the nature of suggestion in each. According to V. S. SeturamnDhavani means "That kind of poetry, where in the meaning renders itself secondary or the word renders its meaning secondary and suggests the implied meaning is designated by the learned as 'Dhavani' or 'suggestive poetry'.

3) Riti School

              Riti is the theory of language of literature. The word Riti was first used by Bharata'sNatyasastra' itself under the republic of vrtti. But it was Vamana who first developed it into a theory of VisistaPadaracanariti'. In the very simple words formation of or arrangement of marked constructions is riti.

             Two other words are used for riti are Marga and Vrtti. Later, around ninth century AD Anandavardhana distinguished this styles on the basis of the use of particular kinds of compounds. The Gunas have their potential being in this permanent source which Vamana regarded as the Atman of the Kavya and called it Riti. Hence the thesis "Riti is the Soul of a Kavya." 'RitiroatmaaKaavyasyaSareerasyeva'. Riti is to the Kavya what Atman is to the Sarira. It is necessary here to study the etymology of the terms Atman and Riti in order to realise the significance of Vamana's conception of the Soul of a Kavya. The word Atman is believed to have been derived from the root 'At meaning to move constantly or from the root Anmeaning to live, or perhaps from both.

            The term Riti is derived from the root 'Ri' meaning to move. The identity of Riti with Atman | becomes complete when we take Dandin's metaphor of Gunas as Pranas. Just as the Atman is the Karana Sarira of a person, Riti is the Karana Sarira of a Kavya. The natural beauty or Sobha of a Kavya depends on the Gunas of its Soul which is Riti.

4) Vakrokti School 

                In the whole range of Sanskrit poetics, the term Vakrokti took altogether a new significance and the highest position as the all-pervading poetic concept in Kuntaka'sVakroktijivita. Presenting the major schools of Sanskrit poetics, the book gives general definition of vakrokti and its multi- dimensional implications. Vakrokti means the hidden meaning of the work of art. The writer outs the message in the hidden way that at the first glance we will not be able to find the meaning of the poem or the sentence or any creative work of art. It is also a theory of language of literature. It claims that the characteristic property of literary language is its markedness'. Kuntaka made- Vakrokti a full-fledged theory of literariness.Vakrokti literally means deviant or marked expression. kuntaka's theory of vakrokti and makes its critical analysis in relation to various literary concepts-alankara, rasavadalankara, marga and rasa.

5) Auchitya School

                      

           We can say that Kshemendra is the founder of Auchitya School. The other nearest meaning of this word is Perfect' or we can also say that 'Complete'. It is true that the nature functions itself but only we human beings tried to make perfect or tried to add perfection in all most all the things.

           In literature, Auchitya plays a vital role. If Auchitya is missing in the work of art then that work of art will not be able to create that much effect. And for that it is compulsory that the meaning or we can say that the words used by the author must be conventional. The theory of property or appropriateness claims that in all aspect of literary composition. There is the possibility of a perfect the most appropriate choice of subject of ideas, of words, of devices as such, it has affinities with Longinus's theory of the sublime.