Kavyadarsha

The Kavyadarsha (Sanskrit: काव्यादर्श, Kāvyādarśa) by Dandin is the earliest surviving systematic treatment of poetics in Sanskrit. This work is divided into 3 paricchedas (chapters) in most of the printed editions, except one, where the third chapter of the other editions is further divided into two. Most of the printed editions have 660 verses, except one, which has 663.^[1] In Kāvyādarśa, Daṇḍin argued that a poem's beauty derived from its use of rhetorical devices – of which he distinguished thirty-six types. He was the main proponent of gunaprasthana, the view that poetry needed qualities or virtues such as shlesha (punning), prasada (favour), samata (sameness), madhurya (beauty), arthavyakti (interpretation), and ojah (vigour). Poetry consisted in the presence of one of these qualities or a combination of them.

Influence

The Kavyadarsha was in ancient times translated into Kannada, Sinhala, Pali, Tamil, and Tibetan, and perhaps even influenced Chinese regulated verse. It was widely quoted by premodern scholars of Sanskrit, including Appayya Dīkṣita (1520–1592); it was included almost in its entirety in the poetic treatises by King Bhoja of Dhār (r. 1011–1055).^[2]

Editions

Daṇḍin's Kavyadarsha was first printed in 1863, and has often been re-edited since.^[3]

• Kāvyādarśa of Daṇḍin, with the commentary of Taruṇavācaspati and the anonymous Hṛdayaṅgama. Ed. M. Rangacharya. Madras: Brahmavadin Press, 1910.
• Kāvyādarśa of Daṇḍin, with the commentaries of Vādijaṅghāladeva and Taruṇavācaspati and an anonymous gloss. Ed. D. T. Tatacharya. Tirupati: Shrinivas Press, 1936.
• Kāvyādarśa [Kāvyalakṣaṇa] of Daṇḍin, with the commentary of Ratnaśrījñāna. Ed. Anantalal Thakur and Upendra Jha. Darbhanga: Mithila Institute of Post Graduate Studies, 1957.
• Kāvyādarśa of Daṇḍin, with commentaries by Ratnaśrījñāna, Jīvānanda Vidyāsāgara Bhaṭṭācārya, Raṅgācārya Reḍḍi, and Taruṇavācaspati. 4 vols. Delhi: NAG Publishers, 1999.
• Dharmendra Gupta (1973), kāvyādarśaḥ. ācāryadaṇḍiviracitaḥ. suvarṇaṇākhyayā saṃskṛtahindivyākhyāyā sametaḥ, Delhi: Meharcand Lacchmandas Review

References

• Yigal Bronner (2007), "This is no Lotus, it is a Face: Poetics as Grammar in Daṇḍin's Investigation of the Simile", in Sergio La Porta; David Shulman, The Poetics of Grammar and the Metaphysics of Sound and Sign, Brill, ISBN 978-90-04-15810-8
• Edwin Gerow, "Indian poetics" in History of Indian Literature ed. Jan Gonda
• S. K. De, History of Sanskrit Poetics
• P. V. Kane, History of Sanskrit Poetics

Notes

1. Kane, P. V. (1998) [1971]. History of Sanskrit Poetics. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass. pp. 88–102. ISBN 81-208-0274-8.
2. Yigal Bronner, 'A Question of Priority: Revisiting the Bhamaha-Daṇḍin Debate', The Journal of Indian Philosophy, 40 (2012), 67–118 (pp. 70–71). DOI 10.1007/s10781-011-9128-x.
3. Yigal Bronner, 'A Question of Priority: Revisiting the Bhamaha-Daṇḍin Debate', The Journal of Indian Philosophy, 40 (2012), 67–118 (p. 68 n. 1). DOI 10.1007/s10781-011-9128-x, citing D. Dimitrov, Mārgavibhāga: Die Unterscheidung der Stilarten; Kritische Ausgabe des ersten Kapitels von Daṇḍins Poetik Kāvyādarśa und der tibetischen Übertragung Sñan ṅag me loṅ nebst einer deutschen Übersetzung des Sansksrittextes (Marburg: Indica et Tibetica Verlag, 2002), pp. 3–6, 305–321.