Handbook of Classical Sanskrit Rhetoric /43

Introduction
 
xxxi
 
25-26. Rasagangaādhara (or The Master of Aesthetics) : The last of

the best renowned works on Sanskrit poetics is Jagannaātha's

Rasagangaādhara. The author, a Tailanga brahmin of Andhra family,

was honoured with the title Pandṇḍitarāja or the best of the pundits by
his patron S
his patron Ṣaha Jahaān, the Mughal emperor. Jagannātha, a prolific

writer, critic, scholar and logician, is the author of the following

works
 
--
 
Rasagangaādhara and Citramimamīmāṃsā-khaṇḍana (on poetics), 5

laharī kāvyas (poems on love and devotion), AĀsafavilāsa and

Prāṇābharaṇa (biographies of feudatory kings Asaf Khan and

Prāṇanārāyaṇa respectively), Jagadābharaṇa (a poem in praise of

Dara Sikoha, son of ShahṢaha Jahaān), Bhāminiī-vilāsa (in four chapters
 
poems on different moods and sentiments of human psychol
-
- poems on different moods and sentiments of human psychol-
ogy) and Prauḍha-manoramaā-kucha-mardiniī (a treatise on Sanskrit

grammar).
 

 
He is very proud of his own critical apparatus and scholasticism

and also boasts that all the verses given as examples in his treat-

ment on Sanskrit poetics are his own compositions, and not bor-

rowed from others. In his two works on literary criticism, he refers
to the opin
to the opinions of his predecessors, specially Appayya Dikṣita,

and severly criticises and refutes their views and then establishes

his own. His treatment is very logical and analytical, his diction

pedantic and style elegant. He is never a blind supporter of his

predecessors but submits their views in a very methodical way with
his own analytical approach and afterwards either accepts the

his own analytical approach and afterwards either accepts the
essence of their theories or rejects them bluntly for the establish-

ment of his own novel ideas.
 
Digitized by
 

 
His Citra-mimamīmāṃsā-khaṇḍana deals with figures of speech, but

abruptly ends and remains incomplete. The title of the work
clearly indicates that it is written with the purpose of refuting the

clearly indicates that it is written with the purpose of refuting the
views of Appayya Dikṣita's work entitled Citra-mimamīmāṃsā. His

Rasagangādhara, a voluminous work of high merit, gives a critical

and comparative study of the entire field of Sanskrit poetics. Here

70 alamṃkāras are defined, explained and illustrated. Jagannatha
ātha
gives an accurate representation of the views of different schools of
 
Google
 
Original from
 
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN