Post-Jagannatha Alankara-Sastra

The present work entitled Post-Jagannatha Alañkãraãstra brings out a study of the A1añkãraãstra works of the Post-Jagannatha period. It is divided into two parts. The first part gives an account of the authors and works of the period with a brief sketch of the contents of the works and discussion on the dates of the authors. The second part gives a topic-wise account of the contribution of the Post-Jagannatha period to A1añkãraãstra. Thus this work fills up a gap in the history of Alañkãrasãstra by bringing to limelight the development in the thinking of the authors and works of the Post-Jagannatha period of A1aikãraãstra. It is clearly shown in the work as to how the tradition of Alankãrasãstra has been continued by the authors and works of this period. It seems they have added their original points in working out the details of the concepts already established by earlier thinkers in the field. The special points made by the commentators on Kavyaprakãsa, Alankãra- sarvasva and Prataparudra- yasobhusana and points of controversy between Appayya- diksita and Jagannatha have held their sway on these authors and works, as they show more original flashes in supporting or refuting them.

Dr. Sivakumara Swamy born in 1938 in the erstwhile Chitradurga district of the Karnataka state. Obtained M.A. in Sanskrit from the Mysore University, M.A. in English from the Karnatak University, Ph.D. from the Bangalore University. He was the Professor & Head of the Sanskrit Department in the University of Bangalore. He widely travelled around the world & has been serving as a Member of various institutes of National Importance. Dr. Swamy, one of the eminent scholars in the fields of Alankarasatra & Veda has contributed many research papers, attended seminars and published 14 books on various topics related to Alañkãra, Veda, Darsana etc.

I have great pleasure to present this volume of Golden Jubilee of India’s Independence Series of Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan to our esteemed readers. The Volume verily represents the goodwill and cooperation, the Sansthan has all along been receiving from the distinguished scholars all over the country.

The Sansthan was established in October, 1970 as an autonomous apex body under the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Govt. of India with a view to promoting, preserving and propagating Sanskrit learning in all its aspects, with special reference to the in-depth shastraic learning. Apart from conducting the regular courses of studies at the constituent Vidyapeethas, it has been bringing out invaluable publications representing dissemination of knowledge contained in the various Shastras.

Thanks to the continued help, encouragement and support from the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Govt. of India that the Sansthan has grown in leaps and bounds and has been able to render its services to promotion of Sanskrit learning at national and international levels. Sansthan has decided to bring out 50 scholarly monographs by eminent Sanskrit Scholars of different fields as part of the academic programmes organised to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of India’s Independence.

The present volume entitled Post-Jagannatha Alañkãrasãstra brings out in detail the unexplored area of Sanskrit Poetics i.e the works of Alañkarasastra related to the Post-Jagannatha period (18-19th Century). It gives comprehensive picture of developments of Alankarasastra with special reference to the works, authors and their contributions during that period. The book is valuable contribution for the comprehensive study of the development of the Sanskrit Poetics.

We are highly grateful to Prof. M. Sivakumara Swamy former Head, Department of Sanskrit, Bangalore University for contributing this scholarly volume for the Golden Jubilee of India’s Independence Series being published by Sansthan.

The services rendered by my colleagues specially by Dr. Savita Pathak, Dr. Viroopaksha V. Jaddipal and Dr. R.C. Hota deserve special appreciation who have been working day and night for planning and organising the various programmes connected with the Golden Jubilee Celebrations, particularly the publications of the Golden Jubilee Series. M/S Apex Books Publishers & Printers deserve our thanks for bringing out this monograph on time.

A critical study of the Alañkãra works of the Post-Jagannatha period (18th and 19th centuries) is presented in the present work. It may not be out of place to recollect the circumstance that led me to choose the subject for this monograph. A Seminar on Sanskrit poetics was held during 1972 under the auspices of the Post-Graduate Department of Sanskrit, Banglore University. Dr. V. Raghavan, who presided over the Seminar, made a suggestion that the study of the Alañkara works of the Post-Jagannatha period (18th and 19th centuries) would be very useful to the academic world since the majority of the works of these centuries were still in manuscripts. Inspired by this suggestion I made a preliminary study of the Alañkãra works of these centuries. The consultation of the manuscripts of the Alañkära works of this period deposited in Research Institutes and Manuscript’s Libraries and of the brief notices of some of these works in the Sanskrit Poetics by Dr. S.K. De and the History of Sanskrit Literature by Sri. M. Krishnamachariar, enabled me to discover the scope of the present study. During this study, I prepared the critical editions of Varadãrya’s Utpreksamanjari and Krsnavadhuta Pandita’s Sãrasvatalankarasutra belonging to this period. I also published some articles such as The problem of Prastutankuraa and The Problem of Prakrtaprakrta Slesa that were mainly inspired by the works of this period.

The study of the Alañkara works of the PostJagannatha period (18th and 19th centuries) has yielded useful results in giving a comprehensive picture of the developments of Alañkãrasastra in all its aspects enriched by the critical perspective and special points of the authors of the period. The results of this study have gone into the present work.

I am grateful to Prof. K.T. Pandurangi, my Guru and Head of the Department of Sanskrit, for his valuable guidance and kind encouragement at all the stages of this study. I gratefully acknowledge the guidance from Late Dr. V. Raghavan. I am thankful to Late Dr. G. Marulasiddaiah, Professor of Sanskrit, University of Mysore, for his valuable suggestion during the course of my study of the manuscripts at the Oriental Research Institute, Mysore. I am also thankful to Late Dr. K.Krishnamoorthy, Professor of Sanskrit, Karnatak University, Dharwar, whose suggestions in personal discussions and whose books and articles on Alañkarasastra have been of great help for this study. I am grateful to the Librarian, Adyar Library, Madras and the Curator, Government Oriental Manuscript’s Library, Madras for the facilities they provided me to study the manuscripts at their rich Libraries.

I am thankful to Dr. K.K. Mishra, Director, Rastriya Sanskrit Sansthan for having brought out this work under the Golden Jubliee of India’s Independence Series.

Alankarasastra has a fairly long and varied course of history covering an extensive literature of more than 1500 years. During the period between Yãska’s Nirukta, which gives the first theory of Upama with special reference to its Vedic form, and Bharata’s Natyasastra, which gives the first outline of poetics which Bharata gives is first framework of the discipline as it existed in the earliest known phase of its history. Bhämaha, Dandin, Vamana and Anandavardhana represent the second and most creative phase of its history. The phase reaches the highest peak of its glory with the formulation of the Dhvani theory by Anandavardhana. The poetic theories emphasising the paramount importance of Alankaras, Guna and Riti preceded the Dhvani theory, which in turn absorbed all the good points from them and reshuffled the older concepts of Alankãra, Guna, Riti, etc., in a new perspective with Dhvani as the central element of poetic charm (Atman). This was followed by the third and scholastic phase working out the details of the Dhvani theory and giving a scholarly basis to it. Abhinavagupta and Mammata are the great writers of this phase. Mammata, in particular, met the fresh challenges from the rival theories of Dhvani, viz., Vakrokti theory of Kuntaka and Anumãna theory of Mahimabhaa, and reaffirmed the soundness of the Dhvani theory. The Vakrokti and the Anumana theories receded to the background for want of followers. The Dhvani theory which was accepted by major writers after Mammata, is the only living and widely accepted theory of poetics in Sanskrit. Ruyyaka and Appayyadiksita, who deal mainly with Alañkaras, and Vidyãnãtha, Vivanãtha, Jagannãtha, etc., who deal with all the aspects of poetics, have accepted it and developed their special points within its comprehensive framework, This is the rich heritage which the Alañkära works of Post-Jagannatha Period (18th and 19th centuries) have inherited.

The studies of Alankarasastra from Bharata to Jagannatha in modern times, started with the two pioneering works, viz., Dr. P.V. Kane’s History of Sanskrit Poetics (1923) and Dr. S.K. De’s Sanskrit Poetics (1923). (These works were later revised and published in 1951 and 1960 respectively). These books led many scholars to the study of numerous works on Alankarasastra and to produce books and papers dealing with its several aspects, the most notable of which are Dr. V. Raghavan’s Some concepts of Alahkãrasãstra, The Number of Rasas, Srngaraprakasa, Dr. A.Shankaran’s Theories of Rasa and Dhvani, Dr. P.C. Lahiri’s Theories of Riti and Guna and Dr. K.Krishnamoorthy’s Dhvanyaloka translation and study) Dhvanyaloka and its critics. Prof. M.Hiriyanna’s articles now collected in Art Experience, Sanskrit Studies, etc., and the various articles of Dr. V.Raghavan such as Abhinava’s polimathy, Riti and Guia in Agnipurana, Writers quoted in Abhinavabhãrati, etc., have enriched the field of modern studies on Alañkarasastra from Bharata to Jagannatha. Dr. Kane and Dr. De approach the subject from the historical point the view and present a detailed account of the major works and authors from l3harata to Jagannatha. They have also given a brief account of the minor works on the subject belonging to several centuries. Dr. V. Raghavan’s Srngaraprakasa is a valuable contribution to Alañkãrasastra not only because it gives a detailed account of Srngaraprakasa, an encyclopedic work on poetics, but also because it gives the historical development of the various concepts of Alañkärasastra as a perspective background to the study of the concepts in this magnum opus of Bhoja. The other works mentioned above present the conceptual development of the different aspects of Alañkãrasastra.

As regards the works on poetics of 18th and 19th centuries, a passing reference to some of these works is made in the books and articles up to the present time. Dr. De has included a brief account of some of these in the chapter X of his Sanskrit Poetics Vol. I. Dr. Raghavan has given an account of some Alañkara works of this period in his introduction to Srngaramanjari of Akbarãsaha and Sahendravilasa and in his articles published in various Journals. Further a brief account of the works of this period is scattered in the works like the History of Sanskrit Literature by Prof. M. Krishnamachariar, The contribution of Andhra to Sanskrit Literature by Dr. P. Sriramamurthy and Andhra Samsthanamulu Sahityaseva. (Telugu) by Dr. T. Donappa.

The above account of the modern studies of Alañkarasastra, with no pretentions to be exhaustive, is apt to draw the attention of the scholars to the fact that more or less a thorough study is made of the Alañkãra works ranging from early times down to 17th century A.D., but a full and systematic study of the Alankãra works of the Post-Jagannatha period (18th and 19th centuries) is so far not undertaken to bring the study up-to-date. Hence, this study is undertaken as an attempt to highlight the contribution of Alañkara works and authors of 18th and 19th centuries, constituting the last but not the least phase of Sanskrit Alañkãrasãstra.

The broad outline of the Alañkãra literature of this period is given here to indicate the scope of this study. On the basis of the information collected from various sources and consultation of the manuscripts of the different oriental libraries, it is estimated that the number of works is more than 80. Among these, about 30 works are printed and the rest are in manuscripts. Some of these works in manuscripts are noticed in the histories and regional surveys mentioned above. The rest of the works and authors are brought to limelight through this study. About 25 works of this period are comprehensive treatises dealing with all topics of Alañkãras, Rasa, etc. Among these, again, works dealing with Alañkãras constitute the majority. Works dealing with Rasa come next in number. A few works deal with Sabdavrttis, Enigmatology, Citrakavya, Kavisamaya, etc. Among all these works put together, works of the Yasobhusana-type form the majority. Thus the works of this period deal with a wide range of topics in A1añkarasastra.

A critical study of these works with an assessment of the contribution of this period to Alañkãrasastra, is a profitable endeavour. As is evident in the subsequent study, the works and authors of this period have contributed some valuable points to the heritage of Alañkãrasästra. As they come so late as 18th or 19th century, they have nothing much to add to the fundamentals of Alañkärasãstra. Yet, the value of their contribution cannot be underestimated.