A History of Rupaka In the Alankara-Sastra (an Old and Rare Book)

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Dr. Bhattacharya begins his study of Rupaka with a neat and useful Introduction in which he tries to unearth the necessary existence of a formative stage of the Classical Sanskrit literature before the beginning of the Christian. Then he delves deeper to trace also the history of the growth of the Alarmkara- sastra. He critically examines the Vedic period, the Epic period and later the post-Epic formative period of the Alamkara- sastra as revealed in the work of Patanjali, whose definition of samanya has been later on adopted by Ruyyaka, Mallinatha and Kumara- svamin, and in the kavyas of Asvaghosa, the Girnar inscription of Rudradaman, the Natya- sastra of Bharata, etc.,- works that help us in forming an idea of the topics of poetics and dramaturgy. It is suggested that the Alamkara- sastra had its beginning in the Natya- sastra as subservient to the vacikabhinaya. Here I may make a polite suggestion that an independent stream of thought concerning the Alamkara- sastra, some useful part of which was utilized by Bharata, cannot be totally ruled out. We have Raja- sekhara giving a mythical account of how different authors got themselves engaged in preparing different treatises on individual topics concerning the Alamkara-sastra. We could afford to be charitable in this respect and keep ourselves open to the possibility of some alamkara works independent of Bharata and even prior to him.

The author proceeds to explain how the foundation of this sastra was mainly laid by the alamkaras, giving as many as four arguments in his favour. He concludes that the spirit of classicism is an alankara-consciousness which Patanjali (circa second century B. C.) and Bharata (circa second century A. D.).

Then with Ch. II onwards he proceeds to place an account of the development of rupaka in all the aspects in which it appears in the different works on Sanskrit Poetics. It is carefully suggested that metaphor as 'transference' of the psycho-analysts and its place in our lives and behaviours are outside the province of his discussion. Ch. II deals with the term rupaka and its significance. He suggests that the name 'rupaka' is connotative and various derivations are offered by the alankarikas with ansye to its connotation. After going through these derivations he comes to the significance of the term which seems to be used in two senses, viz., 'sva-rupa' (or sva-bhava) and 'dharma'. 'Svarupa' means the entity (vastu-satta-dharmin) and 'dharma' is the property residing in an object.