351. CHAPTER VII

CHAPTER VII

ÆSTHETIC CURRENTS IN POETICS.

In the preceding chapters we have dealt with the problem of æsthetics from the point of view of Bharata and his commentators. They studied this problem with the sole reference to the dramatic art and regarded all other arts as subsidiary to the dramatic. Thus poetry was, according to them, only a hand-maid to drama.

There are, however, schools of poetics, which maintain that poetry has an independent status. The conception of poetry, according to each school, is different. But the difference generally refers to the question :- "What is the soul or essence of poetty ?" If we survey the history of poetics, we find the conception of poetry slowly evolving, till in the final stage, Rasa, which was established to be the soul of drama by Bharata and his followers, is accepted to be the soul of poetry also. In this chapter we shall trace the evolution of the conception of the soul or essence of poetry from Bhamaha, the first Alankārika, whom we know from his work, to Udbhata. The Poeticians differed from the Dramaturgists not only in regard to the essence of poetry but also in respect of the experience that it arouses. Although the early available works on poetics, Bhamaha's Kavyalankāra for instance, are so fragmentary that it is difficult to state definitely on their basis, the poetician's conception of æsthetic experience : yet there are vague indications such as the use of different expressions for the experience which is admitted to arise from poetry. Bhamaha, for instance, uses the word Priti for this experience and not