2023-03-29 18:09:48 by ambuda-bot
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THE ADEQUACY OF THE "ĀLAMKĀRIKA" POETIC
73
The arthālamkāras are the forms of that intelligible richness, from the
apparently mundane svabhāvokti, or jäti, which eschewing all figuration
per se, attempts to encompass the totality of an event, or a movement,
or an individual's characteristic moment:
The hawk on high circles slowly many times
Until he holds himself exactly poised.
Then, sighting with his downcast eye
a joint of meat cooking in the Chandala's yard,
he cages the extended breadth of his moving wings
closely for the sharp descent,
and seizes the meat half-cooked
right from the household pot.182
to the elegant upamās of Kālidāsa:
You will find her voice subdued, my wife and second life
While I'm away; a single cakravāka dove, longing for its mate.
Her heart so yearns, as these heavy lonesome days go by
That she's become, it seems, a wild lotus struck with frost.163
and the pure delight of the complex half-punned imagery of Mayura:
Deep in the blooms of the lotus; upon salient sharp-honed peaks
Alike falling; uniform at birth of day and at the evening hour of rest-
May the sun's effulgent rays protect you!
(Like travellers) arrived in chorus on the courtyards of three worlds,
Bestowing torrid merit, born of constant journey's toil.14
The poetry of the classical period was possessed of its own poetic, in
which the major practical issues of that genre were explored fully and
subtly. It cannot be denied that the great achievement of Sanskrit poetry
lies in its word pictures: the meticulously complete vignettes of the stanza
addressed to the mind in contemplative repose. What it attempted to do
was limited by that form as well as fulfilled by it. In the poetic of the
stanza we do not find discussions of issues which are not, or are only
peripherally, pertinent to the form, such as are posed by poetic works
whose principle of unity is much more broadly defined. Instead, we
find preoccupation with imagery, verbal and sensible, connotative and
denotative; an awareness of the possibilities of imagery constituted the
craft of the poet. Other poetics will, of course, emphasize the ability of
the poet to work in grander media; it would be difficult to describe the
roman fleuve in the categories of the alamkāraśāstra. The materials
18 Vidyakara, Subhāṣitaratnakoşa (trans. Ingalls), 1150.
163
Meghadūta 2.20 (my translation).
104
Süryaśataka 3 (my translation).
73
The arthālamkāras are the forms of that intelligible richness, from the
apparently mundane svabhāvokti, or jäti, which eschewing all figuration
per se, attempts to encompass the totality of an event, or a movement,
or an individual's characteristic moment:
The hawk on high circles slowly many times
Until he holds himself exactly poised.
Then, sighting with his downcast eye
a joint of meat cooking in the Chandala's yard,
he cages the extended breadth of his moving wings
closely for the sharp descent,
and seizes the meat half-cooked
right from the household pot.182
to the elegant upamās of Kālidāsa:
You will find her voice subdued, my wife and second life
While I'm away; a single cakravāka dove, longing for its mate.
Her heart so yearns, as these heavy lonesome days go by
That she's become, it seems, a wild lotus struck with frost.163
and the pure delight of the complex half-punned imagery of Mayura:
Deep in the blooms of the lotus; upon salient sharp-honed peaks
Alike falling; uniform at birth of day and at the evening hour of rest-
May the sun's effulgent rays protect you!
(Like travellers) arrived in chorus on the courtyards of three worlds,
Bestowing torrid merit, born of constant journey's toil.14
The poetry of the classical period was possessed of its own poetic, in
which the major practical issues of that genre were explored fully and
subtly. It cannot be denied that the great achievement of Sanskrit poetry
lies in its word pictures: the meticulously complete vignettes of the stanza
addressed to the mind in contemplative repose. What it attempted to do
was limited by that form as well as fulfilled by it. In the poetic of the
stanza we do not find discussions of issues which are not, or are only
peripherally, pertinent to the form, such as are posed by poetic works
whose principle of unity is much more broadly defined. Instead, we
find preoccupation with imagery, verbal and sensible, connotative and
denotative; an awareness of the possibilities of imagery constituted the
craft of the poet. Other poetics will, of course, emphasize the ability of
the poet to work in grander media; it would be difficult to describe the
roman fleuve in the categories of the alamkāraśāstra. The materials
18 Vidyakara, Subhāṣitaratnakoşa (trans. Ingalls), 1150.
163
Meghadūta 2.20 (my translation).
104
Süryaśataka 3 (my translation).