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A HISTORY OF INDIAN LITERATURE EDWIN GEROW INDIAN POETICS OTTO HARRASSOWITZ • WIESBADEN A HISTORY OF INDIAN LITERATURE EDITED BY JAN GONDA VOLUME V Fasc. 3 1977 OTTO HARRASSOWITZ • WIESBADEN EDWIN GEROW INDIAN POETICS 1977 OTTO HARRASSOWITZ • WIESBADEN A HISTORY OF INDIAN LITERATURE Contents of Vol. V Vol. V: Scientific and Technical Literature, Part II Fasc. 1: Fasc. 2: Fasc. 3: J. D.M. Derrett H . Scharfe E,. Gerow M . Hahn C. Vogel Dharmasastra and Juridical Literature Grammatical Literature Indian Poetics Metrik Lexicography CIP-Kurztitelaufnahme der Deutschen Bibliothek A history of Indian literature / ed. by Jan Gonda NE: Gonda , Jan [Hrsg.] Vol. 5. Scientific and technical literature : P. 2. Fasc. 3 -> Gerow , Edwin : Indian poetics Gerow, Edwin Indian poetics. (A history of Indian literature; Vol. 5, Scientific and technical literature; Fasc. 3) ISBN 3-447-01722-8 © Otto Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1977. Aile Rechte vorbehalten. Photograpbische und photomechanische Wiedergabe nur mit ausdrucklicher Genehmigung des Verlages. Gesamtherstellung: Friedrich Pustet, Begens~bviTg. Printed in Germany. Sigel: HIL. CONTENTS 1. Introduction 2. Pre-history of Indian poetics 3. The historicity of poetics 4. Bhamaha, Dandin and Bharata: Alamkarasastra 5. Vamana and Udbhata 6. Rudrata 7. Natyasastra: Rasa in dramatic criticism 8. Rasa and bhakti: the Dhvanyaloka 9. After the Dhvanyaloka 10. Rajasekhara 11. Kmitaka and Dhanamjaya 12. Abhinavagupta 13. Mahima, Bhoja, Rudrabhatta 14. Mammata 15. The post-Mammata period 16. The late theorists 217 220 223 226 233 238 245 250 258 280 262 264 268 271 274 283 Bibliography Index 289 297 Edwin Gerow INDIAN POETICS 1. Introduction Speculations on literature are a persistent theme of Indian literary history from its earliest beginnings. The Brahmanical literature may be seen as the exegesis of the Vedic samhitd, particularly the Rk, once the latter had been canonically fixed in the context of the sacrificial performance. The earliest wpanisads present themselves as 'secret' expositions of the purport of certain well-established ritual acts, as codified and rationalized in the brahmana texts. We know how remarkably seminal the wpanisads have been in provoking the most diverse interpretations by later Indian philosophers, who sought once again to "reveal" the sense of those texts in the context of novel religious and social phenomena. The early history of India, from this 'formal' point of view, often seems little else than a series of attempts to readjust a text that had become authoritative to a situation that no longer called for such fixed interpretation. Out of that impasse emerged a new authority, and so the process was repeated, renewed. The history of early India is, as often remarked, its literary history.1 And this is true also in the material sense that we are vouchsafed little original data beyond the texts themselves; but texts that are typically not concerned with and do not convey the factual data on which we build our histories. The texts are very revealing on the macrocosmic issues of form and purpose, but nearly silent on the microcosmic issues of occasion and authorship. So while we are dealing with a historical problem that disposes of few but literary resources, the literature is certainly one of the least adaptable to historical concerns. The tension is evident in any "History of Classical India" 1 iha sistdnusistdndm sistdndm api sarvatra / vdcdm eva prasddena lokaydtrd pravartate \\ Dandin, Kavyadarsa (KA.) 1,3. "Thanks to words alone the affairs of men progress, the words (of the) first learned, or (the) learned thereafter, or even (of) their appendices (students)." Even here the pun is inevitable.