339. EARLY BEGINNINGS OF POETICES 341

EARLY BEGINNINGS OF POETICES 341

had been defined, rules had been laid down for the guidance of poets and various classes of composition such as ur and आाख्यायिका had distinctive forms. Works dealing with Poetics are extant that were composed about the time of (or a little later than) Bana (such as those of दयडी and भामह). 4. The name of the sastra. The earlier works on Poetics are generally designated Kāvyālankāra, e.g. the works of भामह, वामन and रुद्रट. These works were so called probably because alankāras played the most prominent part in the treat- ment of poetics in them (following the maxim प्राधान्येन व्यपदेशा भवन्ति). वामन in his काव्या. सू. tells us that the word अलक्कार is used in two senses, viz. (I) a thing of beauty and (II) a figure of speech (अलङक्रियते अनेन). According to him it follows that a work on Poetics is called काव्यालक्कार because it points out and explains the things of beauty in a kāuya, which make us prize the latter 'काव्यं ग्राहमलक्कारात्। सौन्दर्यमलक्वारः। काव्या. सू. I. 1. 1-2 (वृत्ति-अलङ्कृतिलक्गारः। करव्युत्पत्या पुनरलक्कारशब्दोयमुपमादिषु वतते।). The कामधेनु remarks : योयमलक्गारः काव्यग्रहरहेतुत्वेन उपन्यस्यते तद्व्युत्पादकत्वा- च्छास्नमपि अलक्कारनाम्ना व्यपदिश्यत इति शास्त्रस्यालक्कारत्वेन प्रसिद्धि: प्रतिष्ठिता स्यादिति सूचयितुमयं विन्यास: कृतः काव्यं ग्राह्मलक्कारादिति. This is more or less scholastic. Even in those early works that are not desig- nated as अलक्कार, figures of speech loom very large as in the काव्या- aa of Dandin, three fourths of which is taken up by the expla- nation and elucidation of figures of sperch (of sabda and artha). The काव्यादर्श says 'यथासम्थ्यमस्माभिः क्रियते काव्यलक्षयम् ।" (I.2). The aव. (pp.11 and 13) speaks of writers on Poetics as काव्यलक्षण- विधायिन: Though in I. 1 भामह calls his work काव्यालक्कार, at the end (VI. 64) he says 'अवलोक्य मतानि सत्कवीनामवगम्य स्वधिया च काव्यलक्ष्म ।.' The s्वo also (in I. 3) speaks of काव्यलक्मविधायिभि: (as having explained Upama and other figures of expressed sense). An- other name for Poetics is sahitya. This word seems to have been used in early works in three different but allied senses, though in modern times it is generally employed for Poetics. In the verse साहित्यसक्गीतकलाविदीन: the word साहित्य appears to have been used in the sense of काव्य. In the verse साहित्यपाथोनिधिमन्थनोत्थं कर्णामृतं रक्षत हे कवीन्द्रा: (बिहण's विक्रमाककदवचरित I.11), it will be notic- ed that साहित्य means 'litcrature in general' and kauya is said to arise like nectar from the ocean of साहित्य (i.e. काव्य is the quintessence of साहित्य). प्रतीहारेन्दुराज eulogising his teacher मुकुल and his proficiency in the मीमांसा and other sastras speaks of