Handbook of Classical Sanskrit Rhetoric /34

xxii
 
A Handbook of Classical Sanskrit Rhetoric
 
tions 4 figures, 10 gunṇas and 10 doșás but does not prescribe any
ṣās but does not prescribe any
theory about them.
 

 
2. Vişnṣṇudharmottara Purāṇa : In the voluminous Purāṇa litera-

ture (complete in 18 Purāṇas and 18 upapurāṇas), this text is one of
the most famous and popular works and basically an encyclopedia

the most famous and popular works and basically an encyclopedia
of Indological studies on the ancient as well as mediaeval culture

and civilisation of the people of this land. Like all other works of

Purāṇa literature it is also traiditonally ascribed to Vyāsa, the leg-

endary author of the Mahābhārata, but practically this Purāṇa, like

a few other Purāṇa texts, is a compendium of different branches of

knowledge cultivated in ancient Indian tradition. The original text,

according to the scholars, was probably written by some unknown

poet and pundit of the Vaiṣṇava sect of the pañcarātra school of

Vaiṣṇavism during 4th-5th century AD and afterwards various new

topics of scholary interest were added by numerous scholars in dif-

ferent centuries. The present text is divided into 3 parts with 355

chapters and has heavily borrowed from the noted works like the

Rāmāyaṇa, Mahābhārata, Nāṭyaśāstra, Purāṇas, Smrtis of Manu,

Yajňavalkya, Parāśara and Bṛhaspati.
 

 
Its III part is a compilation of different subjects relating to

Sanskrit literature, art, music, vocabulary, poetics, Sanskrit and

Prākṛta vernacular languages etc. While dealing with alamkāras it
ṃkāras it
enumerates 21 varieties of prahelikā (ie riddle), 12 varieties of

rūpaka as well as 15 other figures. But the list of figures of speech
appears to be incomplete since some other important alamkāras

appears to be incomplete since some other important alaṃkāras
which became already prominent have been left out. As the text is

encyclopedic in character, detailed treatment of the topics is lack-

ing here.
 

 
3. Bhaṭṭikāvya : It is an epic in 22 cantos and is known by the

name of its author Bhaṭṭi who is taken as identical with Bhartṛhari,

the famous poet and grammarian. The poem is based on the entire

theme of Vālmīki's Rāmāyaṇa. Among the post-Kalidasan epic

poems Bhaṭṭikāvya is specially treated as a sśastra-kāvya or udāharaṇa-

kāvya since it is written with the sole object of teaching different

branches of knowledge related to literature such as rhetoric and
 
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UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN