Kavirahasya, “The Secret of Poets”: Rājaśekhara’s View on Poetry
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12797/CIS.15.2013.15.09Keywords:
Rājaśekhara, Kāvyamīmāṃsā, Kavirahasya, alaṅkāraśāstra, kāvya, Sanskrit poetics, Kauṭilya, Vatsyāyana, Arthaśāstra, Kāmasūtra, śāstraAbstract
In the tenth century AD, a Sanskrit poet Rājaśekhara composed a peculiar text, the Kāvyamīmāṃsā, “Investigation in Poetry”. In this work he proposed a new, fresh approach to literature: kāvya as a sphere of life rather than mere theory of figuration, alaṅkāraśāstra. This paper will concentrate on the Kavirahasya, the first chapter of the Kāvyamīmāṃsā, describing a poet and his place in the world of literature.
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