367. ÆSTHETIC CURRENTS IN POETICS 405

ÆSTHETIC CURRENTS IN POETICS 405

i nexplicable. When the poeticians talk of the poetic qualities as belonging to the word and the meaning, they do so from the ordinary conventional point of view. Accor- ding to them, sweetness (Madhurya) etc. are the qualities of words and meanings, exactly as in common language sweetness is a quality of milk. When the later exponents of Rasa in the light of the monistic Saiva Philosophy say that the poetic qualities ( Gunas) belong to the æsthetic experience, they do so from the philosophical point of view. Undoubtedly, poetic sweetness is an experience and as such it cannot belong to the word or the meaning : but so is the sweetness of milk. Can anybody say that one who talks of sweetness of milk is talking absurdly ? Thus, the difference between the dramaturgists and the poeticians in regard to the relation of the poetic qualities is due to the difference in their points of view from which they talk. Both are right in their own respective ways.

VĀMANA'S CONCEPTION OF POETRY.

From the point of view of the chronology and from that of the evolution of the conception of poetry, Vamana comes next after Dandin. His conception of poetry presents a very great advance on that of Bhamaha. He is the first in the history of Sanskrit poetics to talk of the soul of poetry as distinct from the body. His conception of the body of poetry is identical with that of1 Bhamaha. But in presenting the Riti as the soul of poetry he2 maintains not only Vakrokti but Rasa also to be an essential element of poetry.

Rīti, according to him, is a peculiar style or mode of linguistic presentation. The peculiarity of it consists in the

. possession of the following qualities or distinctive features,

1. K.S. 5. 2. K.S., 14.