2023-02-27 22:42:16 by ambuda-bot
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INTRODUCTION
1. CONTRIBUTION OF KASHMIR TO SANSKRIT POETRY AND
POETICS
The poets and rhetoricians of Kashmir have made a great
contribution in the field of Sanskrit poetry and poetics. Endowed
with a wonderful creative ability, they have created all sorts of
kavyas, i.e. mahākavyas, khaṇḍa-kavyas, muktakakavyas, aitihā-
sikakavyas, nītikavyas, stutikāvyas etc. All the important schools
of Indian poetics, namely rasa, alankāra, rīti, vakrokti, dhvani
and aucitya took birth and flourished in Kashmir. Sanskrit poetry
loses much in quality and quantity if writings of Bhallata,
Kalhaṇa, Sambhu, Bilhaṇa, Jonarāja and Śrīvara are removed
from it. Similarly, nothing significant remains of ancient Indian
poetics without the works of rhetoricians like Bhämaha, Vāmana,
Udbhaṭa, Rudrata, Anandavardhana, Abhinavagupta, Mahima-
bhaṭṭa, Mammata and Kśemendra.
2. GENERAL CHARACTER OF MUKTAKA
"The ideal of literature as criticism of life is realized to the
greatest extent in the special category of Sanskrit literature called
the anyāpadeśaśataka. The anyāpadeśaśataka as a form of lite-
rature is a development from the anyāpadeśa in the vākya, that is
the alankara of aprastutapraśamsã or anyokti. We are not at pre-
sent able to fix the earliest writer who composed an anyapadeśa.
By the time of Anandavardhana (middle of the ninth century)
composing anyãpadeśa had become fashionable and we find
Ananda himself quoting some anyāpadeśas of others and one by
himself in his Dhvanyaloka. But the earliest collection of such
anyāpadeśa verses which has come to us is the sataka of poet
Bhallata, known as Bhallata Sataka. After Bhallața, the anya-
padeśaśataka became very popular and except in the case of a
few, the productions became mechanical."¹
1. Annals of Shri Venkateshvara Oriental Institute, Tirupati, Vol. I, 1940,
Part I. V. Rahavan, The Bhallata Sataka, p. 37 printed and published at
Tirumalai Tirupati Devasthanam Press, Madras.
CC-0 Shashi Shekhar Toshkhani Collection. Digitized by eGangotri
1. CONTRIBUTION OF KASHMIR TO SANSKRIT POETRY AND
POETICS
The poets and rhetoricians of Kashmir have made a great
contribution in the field of Sanskrit poetry and poetics. Endowed
with a wonderful creative ability, they have created all sorts of
kavyas, i.e. mahākavyas, khaṇḍa-kavyas, muktakakavyas, aitihā-
sikakavyas, nītikavyas, stutikāvyas etc. All the important schools
of Indian poetics, namely rasa, alankāra, rīti, vakrokti, dhvani
and aucitya took birth and flourished in Kashmir. Sanskrit poetry
loses much in quality and quantity if writings of Bhallata,
Kalhaṇa, Sambhu, Bilhaṇa, Jonarāja and Śrīvara are removed
from it. Similarly, nothing significant remains of ancient Indian
poetics without the works of rhetoricians like Bhämaha, Vāmana,
Udbhaṭa, Rudrata, Anandavardhana, Abhinavagupta, Mahima-
bhaṭṭa, Mammata and Kśemendra.
2. GENERAL CHARACTER OF MUKTAKA
"The ideal of literature as criticism of life is realized to the
greatest extent in the special category of Sanskrit literature called
the anyāpadeśaśataka. The anyāpadeśaśataka as a form of lite-
rature is a development from the anyāpadeśa in the vākya, that is
the alankara of aprastutapraśamsã or anyokti. We are not at pre-
sent able to fix the earliest writer who composed an anyapadeśa.
By the time of Anandavardhana (middle of the ninth century)
composing anyãpadeśa had become fashionable and we find
Ananda himself quoting some anyāpadeśas of others and one by
himself in his Dhvanyaloka. But the earliest collection of such
anyāpadeśa verses which has come to us is the sataka of poet
Bhallata, known as Bhallata Sataka. After Bhallața, the anya-
padeśaśataka became very popular and except in the case of a
few, the productions became mechanical."¹
1. Annals of Shri Venkateshvara Oriental Institute, Tirupati, Vol. I, 1940,
Part I. V. Rahavan, The Bhallata Sataka, p. 37 printed and published at
Tirumalai Tirupati Devasthanam Press, Madras.
CC-0 Shashi Shekhar Toshkhani Collection. Digitized by eGangotri