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Introduction
 
ics and poets tried to pay special attention to alam
ics and poets tried to pay special attention to alaṃkāras and in suc-

cessive stages of development famous treatises on rhetoric contin-

ued to refine and modify upon the old figures. Thus the standard

number of about 42/43 figures (as treated by Daṇḍin and

Bhaāmaha whose works display a fullfledged development of this

discipline) reached up to the height of more than 100. But at the

same time eminent rhetoricians like Mammata, Udbhata and
ṭa and
Visvanaātha are found to be reluctant to accept many new figurs
<error>figurs</error><fix>figures</fix>
either by rejecting many of them or by including many uncommon

ones under the standard figures. Among all these scrutineers of
alam

alaṃ
kāras Udbhaṭa and Rudrața are very logical and systematic in

their treatment. It has been categorically stated by some critics that

figurative expression is the basic feature of the language of poetry,

and if we categorize each and every device of poet's expression
through a particular figure then alam

through a particular figure then alaṃ
kāras would be innumerable.
 

 
Dandṇḍin, one of the earliest rhetors of Sanskriit poetics, says
that alam

that alaṃ
kāras cannot be counted since they have been gradually

increasing day by day and it is impossible to count them in details.
A

Ā
nandvardhana also remarks that there are thousands of figures

which are the topics of discussion by the past and the present

scholars. Mahimabhaṭṭa also says that figures of speech are count-

less but a good poet successfully employs only a few.
 

 
Number of alamkāras defined and illustrated in standard

Sanskrit texts are given below:
 

Bharata: 4 (upamā, rūpaka, dīpaka and yamaka) Viṣṇudharmot-

tara: 18, Dandṇḍin : 42, Bhāmaha: 39 + 4 (Daṇḍin's hetu, sūkṣma and

leśa rejected), Bhaṭṭi : 30-31, Udbhaṭa: 41, Vāmana: 31, Rudraţā :

68, Bhoja : 31 old figures and 28 new, Mammațăṭā : 67, Ruyyaka : 79,

Visvanātha: 84, Appayya : 82 and Jagannaātha: 71, Jayadeva: 100,

Kuvalayānanda : 115.
 
x

 
Our surprise is almost embarrassing when we are gi
vii
 
Our surprise is almost embarrassing when we are given the
en the
total number of figures by Viśveśvara Pandit in his Alamkāra-kaus-

tubha:
 
Digitized by
 
citra alam

citra alaṃ
kāras: 1806
 
sabda alam

śabda alaṃ
kāras: 5421 (with main division), 104907 (with sub-

divisions)
 
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UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN