Description

One of the fundamental problems of Sanskrit Poetics, as indeed of all Poetics, is the problem of the content and ex- pression of Poetry. From the beginning of the discipline this is recognised: and the parts of language. namely, the Sabda and Artha. word and sense, or technically, the Väcaka and Väcya, the expressor and the expressed, had already been distinguished by grammatical and philosophical speculation as the medium of linguistic expression. The essential element of all literature, as of all language, therefore, is said to consist of the material of word and sense; and the earliest definitions of Poetry naturally start in terms of Sabda and Artha. So long as Poetry is a kind of expression, conveyed through the medium of language.this is inevitable. Accordingly. Bhamaha defines Poetry as sabdārthau habitat kāvyam which is followed by Rudrața’s more general state ment sabdartha kāvyam; while Dandin describes the body of Poetry as igtärtha-vyavacchinnā padāvali, and Vamana speaks of visista-pada-racanā as its essence. Thus, the Sabda and Artha united together, and not in themselves, constitute Poetry; and all later writers,” more or less, accept this posi tion of the Sahitya or unity of Sabda and Artha as the starting point. The term Sahitya implies that Sabda and Artha are inseparable and go together. Kuntaka describes this Sahitya as Anyüna-anatiriktatva or Paraspara-spurdha but Kalidasa conveys it more beautifully by his well known comparison of poetry to Ardhanarisvara, in which Parvati is Vac or Sabda and Paramesvara is Artha.