The Winding Ways of Poetry: Ratnaśrījñāna on Daṇḍin’s mārgas

Abstract

The Winding Ways of Poetry: Ratnaśrījñāna on Daṇḍin’s mārgas One of the earliest Sanskrit poeticians, Daṇḍin, dedicates an entire chapter of his Kāvyādarśa to the investigation of mārgas or the ‘ways’ of poetry. These are based on adaptable configurations of poetic qualities and faults and, although there seems to be an infinite number of ‘ways’, Daṇḍin characterises only two, Vaidarbha and Gauḍīya. In this paper, I show how the earliest known commentator of the Kāvyādarśa, Ratnaśrījñāna, uses philosophical discussions and archetypes to expand on Daṇḍin’s rather cursory engagement with the methodology of the ‘ways’ to create a truly śāstric schema.

Keywords

• mārga
• rīti
• Daṇḍin
• Kāvyādarśa
• Ratnaśrījñāna
• sādṛṣya