Indian Poetics

PROF. VINOD JOSHI SIR'S

EXPERT LECTURES

Welcome Readers!

Dr.Vinod Joshi ,Gujarati poet and critic was invited to deliver a week long talk session; starting from 24th March to 2nd April , at the department of English M. K. Bhavnagar University.

Actually, I want to say that our Department is a hub of Guest Lecture.Yes, I know that Every Department as their necessity organized guest lectures but I want to say that Department of English - Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University is Exceptional. We are going to attend a series of lectures by well known Scholars and different faculties. So here I am going to share a brief experience of lectures delivered by Poet Vinod Joshi on #IndianPoetics.We were attending lecture physically at department but suddenly the cases increasing so we had started attending lecture online from home.In this session he had discuss about the six school of Indian Poetic like #rasa,#dhvani,#alankara,#vakrokti,#riti and #auchitya .

🔷 Prof.Vinod Joshi

(Click here to know more about Vinod Joshi Sir -a versatile Gujarati poet of the postmodern era and a popular critic.)

INDIAN POETICS

Indian Poetic theory is very old and the most interesting literary as well as philosophical and cultural discussion of Indian or better to say Sanskrit Literature. Sanskrit is regarded as ‘Dev-Vani’ (the language of gods), not all folk can possess the ability to understand and read Sanskrit literature. Earlier, great Sanskrit scholars had expertise in describing things that are usually hard to observe in nature. The prosperous tradition of Indian aesthetics is said to have begun from Bharat Muni in and around 1st century.

From Childhood we Know something. Very basic examples like things around us. We also have some foundational knowledge about that particular things. In our mind we have opinion for everything. Everyone had different and new opinion for things. Knowledge is at the center and it came from Circulation,Imagination Interaction,Co-operation.

So when we don't accept things as it is then starts Criticism and Criticism is the part of our day to day life. Same way when any Work of Art came to us is only text But what expand it is called Literary Criticism.

"कवि: करोति काव्यानि

रसं जानाति पंडित:"

Joshi sir said that there is one major difference between Indian Poetics and Western theory of criticism and that is...

"Western Criticism deals with the influence of the work of art and it's Ultimate Aim. While Indian Criticism deals with the process of work of art. In the world Criticism Indian Criticism is Unique."

As there is ‘Western Criticism’ and can be called ‘Poetics’ as a proper canon, similarly, in Sanskrit there is a particular canon of Sanskrit Criticism which is usually bannered as ‘Kavya Mimamsa’ and which acts like an umbrella for various schools developed by scholarly thinkers. The various schools or theories in Indian Aestheics are-

Bharata is the first among all critics who pioneered in Indian aesthetics. Some of the noteworthy critics of Sanskrit literature are-

⏹The Six Schools and the pioneers–

Rasa - Bharat
Alamkara - Bhamaha
Riti - Vamana
Dhvani - Anandvardhan
Vakrokti - Kuntaka
Auchitya - Kemendra

(1)School of Rasa

Vinod Joshi sir discussed about the most prominent pioneer of Indian Poetics- Bharat Muni and his NatyaShastra and its sixth chapter called Rasa.Sir discussed with us in detail about the literal meaning of Rasa and Bhav .Rasa is present in every work of literature.

What is RASA?

“A blending of various Bhavas arise certain emotion, accomplice by thrill and a sense of joy is Rasa.” In the sixth chapter of Natyashashtra he explains NATYARASA and RASA as the soul of poetry.

विभावानुभावव्याभिचारी संयोगात रसनिष्पत्ति ।

He has mentioned nine Rasas in Natysastra with its colour and god.The nine prominent Rasas originate from their respective Sthaýibhav.

Sthaýibhav	Rasa
રતિ	શૃંગાર રસ
શોક	કરુણ રસ
ઉત્સાહ	વિર રસ
ક્રોધ	રૌદ્ર રસ
હાસ	હાસ્ય રસ
ભય	ભયાનક રસ
જુગુપ્સા	બિભત્સ રસ
વિસ્મય	અદ્ભુત રસ
શમ/ નિર્વેદ	શાંત રસ

श्रृंगारकरूणवीररौद्रहास्यभयानका।

बीभत्साद्भूतशांतश्च नवनाट्येरसास्मृता।।

- भरतः नाट्यशास्त्र

- छंद अनुष्टुप

Furthermore, Sir emphasized on the viewpoints of four Commentators

Four Critics of RASA theory
Bhatta Lollata	Creationism
Shree Shankuka	Permissiveism
Bhatta Nayaka	Nepotism
Abhinavagupta	Expressionism

Worthy to note that RASA comes out only because of these four BHAVAS Vibhav, Anubhav, Sancharibhav, Sthayibhav.We can say that Natysastra is foundation of fine arts in India.

Sir gave an example of T.S.Eliot’s Murder in the Cathedrel, Film Mughal-E-Azam and Kalidasa’s Abhigyanshakuntalam and Malti madhav.

(2)School of Dhvani :

Then he discussed about School of Dhvani.Dhvani means The suggestive quality of poetic language. Another regards to this sense of poetry next school of thinkers, known as SCHOOL OF DVANI headed by Anandvardhan. He points that it is not the literal, simple or direct and referential meaning that poetry properly expresses, but it suggests indirect and emotive meaning. Hence, through the words of a poem must be given their due importance and the same with regard to the literal sense the denote, yet both the words and their direct meaning to express itself. The theory proposed in Dhvnyaloka by Anabdvardhana is known as the name of “Dhvani”. ‘Dhvnyaloka’ is itself a huge compendium of poetry and poetics.

👉ચકલીની ચાંચમાંથી સુરજ નીકળ્યો-સવાર પડી.

👉ઓઢું તો ઓઢું તારી ચૂંદડી.

👉 બાપે પેટે પાટા બાંધીને દીકરાને ભણાવ્યો.

Furthermore, Sir provided an excellent discussion on three echoes of words-

For example:

◾️અંધારું થયું અને અજવાળું ગયું-અભિધા

◾️મારું ઘર હાઈ કોર્ટ રોડ પર છે.-લક્ષણા

◾️સૂર્યાસ્ત થયો તેને જીવનમાં દુઃખ આવી ગયું અથવા મૃત્યુ થયું તેમ જોઈ શકાય-વ્યંજના

◾️You too brutus!

◼️એક બિલાડી જાડી - અભિધા

◼️તેણે પહેરી સાડી - લક્ષણા

◼️તળાવમાં તો મગર - વ્યંજના

Sir very precisely explained all the three #shabd_shakti and their components with detailed descriptions and interestingly live examples from surroundings.

Moreover, Sir emphasized that how #sphota is suggested in the form of words in a work of art.

शब्दार्थों सहितो काव्यम।

Vinod Sir explained with varied verses from Gujarati Literature. Anandvardhan has described the importance of Dhvani in his most resourceful work ‘Dhvaniyaloka’. Acharya Kuntaka describes ‘Dhvani’ as the major element of Literature. He described different types of Dhvani and he also believes that ‘Dhvani is the soul of Literature’ when he says –

ध्वनि: काव्यस्य आत्मा।

According to him, the types of Dhvani is

(3) School of Vakrokti

Sir discussed the theory of Vakrokti and its significance in Literature. It has much more resemblance to stylistics. Vakrokti is the theory of Language and the formation of words. It is the formation of two words-

‘Vakra’ + ‘Ukti’ = “Vakrokti’

"वेदग्ध्यभंगीभणिती इति वक्रोक्ती।"

Kuntaka is known as the orinator of this Sanskrit literary theory. Vakrokti is a theory of poetry which perceiveives poetry essentially in terms of the language of its expressions. Here Vakrokti turns into beauty.

"દર્પણશી આંખ તમે ફેરવી લીધી

ને મારો ચહેરો ઢોળાઈ ગયો ધૂળમાં..."

"તળાવને વાગેલો પથ્થર, તરંગ થઇ ને તળાવને પંપાળે"

"વરસાદડો તો પેલ્લુંક થી છે જ સાવ વાયડો,

ટીપે ટીપે ઈ મને દબડાવે, જાણેકે હું એનું બૈરું અને ઈ મારો ભાયડો"

"સાંવરિયો રે મારો સાંવરિયો

હુ ખોબો માંગુ ને દઇ ડે દરિયો".-રમેશ પારેખ

પરપોટો ઉંચકીને કેડ વળી ગઈ

હવે દરિયો લાવુ તૌ કેમ લાવુ!-વિનોદ જોશી

Example :-

There is an example of the famous play " Mudrarakshasa " by " Vishakhadatta " discussed a very sharply Vakrokti speech by Shiva , when one day in the morning he comes a home with Ganga on his head to the utter concentration of Parvati. He is caught on the wrong foot by the jealousy. As a wife Parvati asks him questions and Shiva gives replies very meaningfully.

Parvati :- Who is this blesses damsel on your crest ?

Shiva :- Shashikala ( Crescent of moon or lady's name )

Parvati :- Ohh !!!!! is that the name of the lady ???

Shiva :- surely !!! How is it you have forgotten her name?

Parvati :- My query is about the lady and not the moon.

Shiva :- Let then Vijaya , the lady in attendence reply and not the moon.

Six types of Vakrokti:

(4)School of Alamkara

Bhamaha is considered as a founder of this school. Udbhatta, Dandi, Rudrata, Jayadeva all these are the followers of this school. This school believes that there is rasa(emotion), riti ( a special style of writing) in the kavya (poetry) but the alamkara is dominating feature of it.

When the alamkara is depends on the word it means if we change the word it does not appear then it becomes shabd-alamkara and when it depends on the meaning it is called as arth-alamkara. Generally we are also very well known about idea of Amkara theory and sometime suddenly identify to Alamakar and which were used to in contrast.

Examples:

💠દમયંતિનુ મુખ ચંદ્ર જેવું છે.

💠T.S.Eliot's 'The waste Land'

There are rocks and rocks and no water any where.

💠Robert Frost's 'Miles to Go'.

(5) School of Riti

Acharya Vamana had given importance to Riti in his work “Ritivichar”

'रीतिरात्मा काव्यस्य ; विशिष्टापदरचना रीति: |'

While discussing this theory, Sir referred to Shakespeare's drama and his own . Sir also explained in detail on four major Styles of Writing-

🔷Vaidarbhi

🔷Pancali

🔷Gaudiya

🔷Lati

(6)School of Auchitya

Kshemendra’s discussions of the principle of Aucitya is from the point of view of both the writer and the reader and is articulated in its given cultural and philosophical context. Kshemendra made aucitya spine elements of literarinmess. He defines aucitya as the property of an expression being an exact and appropriate analogue of the expressed.

Sir also discussed that We can see this aucitya with the connection of The Old man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway and Myth of Sysiphus by Albert Camus.

I would like to say that the whole session was very fruitful and students were very contented to gain the knowledge from the distinguished poet Dr. Vinod Joshi. Special thanks to our head of the department, Dr. Dilip Barad for organizing such a great session.

Here i am sharing the video recordings of all the lectures .

Day 1