Indian Philosophy?

Question 1

What does Aesthetics mean?

Answer 1

Aesthetic: from Greece
“of or pertaining to things perceptible by senses, things, materials as opposed to things thinkable or immaterial”
- A theory of the beautiful in general, whether in art or in nature

Question 2

What are three schools of Indian Aesthetics?

Answer 2

Three Schools

(i) Rasa-Brahm Vāda (poetry),
(ii) ii) Nāda-BrahmVāda (music) and
(iii) iii) Vāstu-BrahmVāda (architecture).

Question 3

What is Rasa?

Answer 3

Rasa- concentrates on emotion and expression

Question 4

About Natya Shastra?

Answer 4

Nātyaśāstra
Bharat Muni -8th Century BC to 5th Century BC

Natya is Nat (नाट) which means “act, represent”.
The word Shastra (शास्त्र) means “precept, rules, manual
Origin of drama- Vth veda
Sixth and seventh chapters Bhava and Rasa
text consists of 36 chapters with a cumulative total of 6000 poetic verses describing performance arts.
The subjects covered by the treatise include dramatic composition,
structure of a play and the construction of a stage to host it,
genres of acting, body movements,
make up and costumes,
role and goals of an art director,
the musical scales,
musical instruments and the integration of music with art performance.[

Question 5

What is the basic principle of Indian Aesthetics?

Answer 5

Basic principle of Indian Aesthetics
Drama- Kavya
It gave instructions to actors and dramatists to make their art perfect
Rasa: Aesthetic relish (aswad) tasted- like food
Emotive aesthetic
Cultured people- dominated state is evoked by expressions
Portrayal of human feelings and attitudes
Play or poems arouse certain emotions as it is concrete representative or objectification of such emotion

Question 6

What are four conditions of Evoking Rasa?

Answer 6

Four conditions for evoking Rasas
(i) causes (vibhāvas), (ii) symptoms(anubhāvas), (iii) ancillary feelings(vyabhichārins), and (iv) their conjunction (samyoga).
Constituents of Rasas
1) Bhāva: emotion and mental state: feelings, emotion and psychological state etc. it
2) Abhinaya- actors convey bhavas through avinaya
Abhi- to lead towards the meaning
i) Vāchika: imitation by speech, language, metre or gestures
ii) Āngika: imitation by expressions and movements
iii) Āhārya: imitation by costume and makeup
iv) Sāttvika: imitation by psychic change

3) Sthāyibhāva (basic mental states):
eight sthāyibhāvas which effect eight dominant rasas:
rati (erotic love), hāsa (laughter), śok (sorrow), krodh (anger), utsāh (enthusiasm), bhaya (fear), jugupsā (disgust), and vismaya (astonishment).
These correspond to eight rasas namely: śringāra (amorous), hāsya (comic), karuna (compassionate), raudra (wrathful), vīr (heroic), bhayānaka (fearful), bībhatsa (odious),and adbhuta (marvellous).
1. Vibhāva: Objective reason for the emotion
2. ĀlambanaVibhāva
It refers to the person, scene, object or thought that excites a person’s emotions. It is further divided into two kinds.
(i) Āśraya : the person or persons in whom the emotion is aroused.
(ii) Vishaya: the person or object for whom the emotion is awakened.
iii. UddipanaVibhāva
It is the exciting cause. It refers to the external conditions or background features which enhance the dominant emotions.

Question 7

About Sringara?

Answer 7

Sthāyi bhāva Rasa
Rati (erotic love) Sringāra (amorous) light green Vishnu
Two bases- union and separation
Determinants- pleasure of the season, the enjoyment of garlands, seeing or listening to the beloved.
Shown by cleaver movement of eyes, eyebrows, sweat words
Consequences- fear, jealousy, even insanity or death.
Transitory stage: pathetic, separation
Ex: Romio Juliet

Question 8

About Hasa?

Answer 8

Hāsa (laughter) Hāsya (Comic) white pramathas
Uncanny dressing, quarrel, irrelevant words,
Consequences,: throbbing your lips, the nose and the cheeks, opening the eyes wide.
Transitory stage: sleep, dreaming, insomnia
The laughter can be self-centered or centered in others
our kinds of laughter: slight smile (smita), smile (hasita), gentle smile (vihasita), laughter of ridicule (uphasita),, vulgar laughter(aphasita) excessive laughter (atihasita)
ex: Falstaff

Question 9

About Karuna?

Answer 9

Sthayibhav Śoka (sorrow)

Rasa KARUNA

Question 10

About Raudra?

Answer 10

Krodha (anger) Raudra (furious) red rudra
Origin to Rakshasa, danava, and caused by fight
Determinant: anger, rape, death, abuse, insult, allegation,
Actions: beating, breaking, bloodbath
Represented on stage by red eyes, biting of lips, knitting of eyebrows
Transitory stage: presence of mind, determination, energy, anger, restlessness etc
Ex: Duchess of Malfi

Question 11

About Utsah?

Answer 11

Utsāh (enthusiasm) Vīra(heroic) light orange Indira
Determinant: presence of mind, diplomacy, discipline, military strength, aggressiveness
Represented on stage: firmness, patience, heroism, charity, diplomacy etc
Transitory stage: contentment, judgement, pride, energy etc
Ex: Macbeth

Question 12

About Bhayanaka?

Answer 12

Bhaya (fear) Bhayānaka (fearful) black yama
Determinants: deformed nose, ghosts, panic and anxiety, forest etc
Represented on stage: trembling of hands and the feet, change of colour, loss of words
Transitory stage: paralysis, perspiration, trembling voice, choking etc
Ex: Ghostly ship in ancient mariner

Question 13

About Bibhatsa?

Answer 13

Jugupsā (disgust) Bībhatsa (odious) blue shiva
Determinants: hearing of unpleasant, offensive, impure and harmful things.
Consequences: stopping the movement of the limbs, narrowing down of the mouth, vomiting, spitting etc
Transitory stage: delusion, fainting, sickness etc
Ex: Ancient mariner, slimy creatures in the sea

Question 14

About Adbhuta?

Answer 14

Vismaya (astonishment) Adbhuta (marvelous) yellow Brahman
Determinant: bravery, heavenly, mansions and castles,
Represented: widening of eyes, looking with gaze, loss of words
Ex: when Una goes into the Giant’s castle

Question 15

Book on Dhvani?

Answer 15

Dhvanyâloka, or “Light on [the Doctrine of] Suggestion,” Räjänaka Änandavardhana, a Kashmiri author of the ninth century a.d.
Dhvanyâloka consists of 138 Kärikäs,8 written verse, a prose commentary ( Vrtti), on the verse approximately twenty times their length. Within this prose commentary again are some twenty-nine simple verses, of different style than the Kärikäs

Question 16

What does Dhvani means?

Answer 16

Ānandvardhana says in Dhvanyāloka that dhvani denote
(i) sound structure of words,
(ii) the semantic aspect of words, the vyanjakas or the suggesters, and
(iii) “the revealed suggested meaning as such and the process of suggestion involved.”
Ānandvardhana believes that suggestion depends on denotation.
He has divided speech into two kinds: vācya (denotative), and pratīyamāna (suggestive/symbolic).
Suggestive elements are more important in poetry than the denotative ones.
The relationship between denotative and suggestive aspects of a word is like a dīpaka (earthen candle). Where there cant be light without the fire, but the fire is also dependent on the dipaka.
dhvani is the method or the means the end which is rasa
vyanjaka (suggestive) power of the word or language evokes emotions (the permanent ones known as sthāyi bhāvas

Question 17

What are three levels of meaning according to Anandvardhana?

Answer 17

According to Ānandvardhana, there are three levels of meaning:

i. Abhidhā – the literal meaning
ii. Laksanā – the metaphorical meaning,
iii. Vyanjanā – the suggestive meaning.

Question 18

What is Abidha?

Answer 18

Abhidhā or the literal meaning is the meaning that we get when a word is uttered.
It can be divided into vācaka (the signifier) and the meaning conveyed is vācya (the signified).
They are related to each other by vācyavācaka (signified-signifier) relationship
2. Laksanā relates to the metaphorical meaning of a word
3. Vyanjana: is the suggestive meaning.
The readers can get the suggestive meaning by understanding the Abhidha or Laksana. The sense which is suggested by the word is called Vyangyārtha (the suggested sense) and the word which conveys this sense is vyanjaka.

Question 19

What does Anandvardhana say about poetic language?

Answer 19

Ānandvardhana claims that poetic language is entirely different from ordinary language. In poetic language, it is dhvani which is the distinguishing factor.
“The meaning of poetry have two parts:
that which can be stated in words or abhidha
and that which is only a suggestive meaning pratiyamāna…
This suggested meaning or pratiyamāna, is the soul of poetry.”Mark Antony, during his funeral speech for Julius Caesar says many times:
“Brutus is an honourable man.”

Question 20

What does Sphota means?

Answer 20

According to Patanjali, language (śabda) has two aspects:
(i) the sphota which refers to the permanent element in sound; and
(ii) dhvani which refers to the non-permanent elements of speech.
Sanskritsphoṭacomessphuṭ or’to burst’.
It means “bursting forth” of meaning or idea on the mind as language is uttered.

Question 21

Three parts of Sphota?

Answer 21

Bhartṛhari expands on the notion ofsphoṭainto three parts
varṇa-sphoṭa, at the syllable level
pada-sphoṭa, at the word level, and
vakya-sphoṭa, at the sentence level

Question 22

What does Bhartrihari say about Sphota?

Answer 22

Bhartrihari in his ‘Vākyapadiya’ 5th century AD
He makes a distinction betweensphoṭa, which is whole and indivisible, and Nada the sound, which is sequenced and therefore divisible. Thesphoṭais the intention, behind an utterance.
However,sphoṭaarises also in the listener. Uttering thenādainduces the same mental state orsphoṭain the listener who can use his Pratibha to understand the meaning of the word.
(dhvani) can be long or short, loud or soft, but thesphoṭaremains unaffected by individual speaker differences.
The way we can only understand a sentence when the last word is spoken similarly It is only from the last sound of the last syllable that we understand the structure of the word and its meaning.

Question 23

What are types of Dhvani?

Answer 23

Types of Dhvani
Prakrit Dhvani – It refers to the primary sounds which are produced by the speaker and heard immediately by the hearer. As soon as the hearer listens to these sounds, he perceives the sphota
Vaikrit Dhvani –It refers to the series of sounds which come out from the initial sounds. These secondary sounds continue to reveal the same sphota.
Sphota – Sphota is a linguistic symbol. It does convey meaning but it can neither be pronounced nor written.
Dhvani, then, is perceived as the articulated sound, which carries the ‘tātparya’ (meaning). It is closely related to sphota. It is the revealer of sphota. So dhvani is the process whereas sphota is the end result.

Question 24

About Pratibha?

Answer 24

Anand discusses ‘pratibhā’ or genius behind the poet’s creative powers.
But this ‘pratibhā’ is not limited to the poet alone. The reader too has to be endowed with this power to relish the aesthetic experience.
He equates that with ‘poetic imagination.’ which communicates something more than the denotative meaning of words.
So, here is a distinction between the literal meaning and the inner significance of a word. The words are therefore both vācaka (expressive) and bodhaka (indicative or suggestive).

Question 25

What are the bases of classification of Dhvani?

Answer 25

There are two bases for the classification of dhvani:

(i) According to the nature of the suggested sense.
(ii) According to the relation between the conventional and the suggested meanings.

Question 26

Classicficaiton of Dhvani on the suggested sense?

Answer 26

On the first basis, dhvani or the pratīyamāna has been classified into: (i) Laukika and (ii) Alaukika.
1. Laukika Vyangya
The first type of pratīyamāna is that in which meaning can be expressed directly. It is further subdivided into two types:
i. Vastudhvani
In a poetic composition. when the words offer their direct meaning and, in turn, suggest some other idea, it is called Vastu dhvani.
a situation, an idea or any fact.
ii. Alamkāra Dhvani
When in addition to the expressed meaning, some decorative meaning is suggested. Here the suggested sense is transformed into a figure of speech.

Question 27

On second basis classification of dhvani?

Answer 27

2. AlaukikaVvyangya (rasa dhvani)
   Here meaning is comprehended only through suggestion and cannot be a part of direct sense or lokavyavahāra (ordinary experience).

Question 28

Functions of Dhvani

Answer 28

FUNCTIONS OF DHVANI
Abhinavagupta in his work Locana discussed the functions of dhvani 10th century AD
Dhvanatīti dhvanih: “that which suggests” (the sound structure of the word or the signifier)
Dhvanyate iti dvhvanih: “that which is suggested” (the semantic aspect of sabda)
Dhvanānām dhvanih: “the evoked or suggested meaning as such and the process of suggestion involved”

Question 29

What does Alamkara means?

Answer 29

Alamkāra literally means “embellishment or ornament.” In a restricted sense, Alamkāra means any trope or figure of speech that adorns a literary composition.
The word Alamkāra is derived from the root √kr with the prefix alam, which means ‘to decorate’, ‘to adorn’: “alankaroti iti alankārah.”

Question 30

What is the object of poetry?

Answer 30

The object of poetry is beauty which can be best expressed through embellishment – Alamkāras. Alamkāras figure first in Nātyasāstra
The earliest proponent of Alamkāra theory, by common consent, is Bhāmaha. His famous treatise is Kāvyālamkāra wherein he has developed a detailed theory of figures of speech. In Chapters 2 and 3 of Kāvyalamkāra he discusses thirty-five figures of speech.

Question 31

What are the classification of Alamkara?

Answer 31

According to the Sanskrit theoreticians, śabda (word) and artha (meaning) are the two basic elements of poetry. From this it follows that the basic classification of the embellishments would be:
i. Śabdālamkāra (verbal),
ii. Arthālamkāra (ideational), and
iii Ubhayālamkāra (including both).

Question 32

What is Sabdalamkara?

Answer 32

A figure of speech depending for its pleasantness on the phonetic form (sound) of the word, śabdālankāra ornaments the sound of the word. In Sanskrit poetics, following are the śabdālankāras:

Question 33

What is Anuprasa?

Answer 33

Anuprāsa(Alliteration)
The repetition of initial consonant sound is called alliteration. You can refer to the following stanza from Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner as a characteristic example:

The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew,
The furrow followed free;

Question 34

What is Yamaka?

Answer 34

Yamaka (Pun)
It refers to the repetition in the same stanza of words or syllables similar in sound but different in meaning. The following dialogue from Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet serves as an example of Yamaka:
Mercutio: That dreamers often lie Romeo: In bed asleep, while they do dream things true. Dreamers lie (are false), and lie (down).

Question 35

What is slesha?

Answer 35

3.Slesha (paranomasia)
When a word is used once and has more than one meaning, it is Ślesha alankāra :
When I am dead, I hope it may be said ‘His sins were scarlet, but his books were read’. (Hilaire Belloc, “On his Books”) In the above example, the word ‘read’ has two meanings: (i) the colour red and (ii) the act of reading.

Question 36

What is Dhvanyatmakata?

Answer 36

Dhvanyātmakatā (Onomatopoeia)
In its simplest sense, onomatopoeia refers to the formation or use of words that imitate the sounds associated with the objects or actions they refer to
Ex Ancient Mariner

Question 37

What is Arthalamkara?

Answer 37

Arthālamkāra

It refers to the embellishment of sense by poetical figure

Question 38

What is Upama?

Answer 38

Upamā (Simile)
”An upamā or simile is a figure of speech that states explicitly the similarity existing between two different things.
“The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock”:
When the evening is spread out against the sky Like a patient etherized upon the table; Here a comparison is made between the evening and a patient on the basis of a property which both have in common, i.e. the state of inertia.

Question 39

What are four elements of Upama?

Answer 39

i. Upameya: the subject of comparison. ii. Upamāna: the thing or object which the subject is compared to. iii. Sādharmya: the quality which is the point of comparison. iv.Vāchaka: the word indicating the similarity between the upameya and upamāna.

Question 40

What is Rupaka?

Answer 40

Rūpaka (Metaphor) In upamā, there is a similarity between the upameya and the upamāna, but in arūpaka, both are depicted as one.
Macbeth
Life’s but a walking shadow

Question 41

What is ananvaya?

Answer 41

. Ananvaya

In this type the upmāna and the upameya are the same. The comparison is among them only.

Question 42

What is Drstanta?

Answer 42

Drstānta (poetic analogy)
According to Kuntaka, “when another idea is pointed to on the basis of its factual similarity (to the idea on hand) without explicit use of expressions like iva, we have drstānta or poeticanalogy.” Here, a direct comparison is made between two events, people, or ideas to draw a particular inference. Consider the following stanza from Amy Lowell’s poem, ‘Night Clouds”:
The white mares of the moon rush along the sky Beating their golden hoofs upon the glass heavens; The white mares of the moon are all standing on their hind legs Pawing at the green porcelain door of the remote Heavens. In the above example, the analogy between the mares and the clouds creates a vivid and striking image of clouds on a moonlit night.

Question 43

What is Atisayokti?

Answer 43

Atiśayokti (Hyperbole)
In Hyperbole a statement is made emphatic by overstatement:
Hamlet: I loved Ophelia: forty thousand brothers Could not, with all their quantity of love Make up my sum. (Shakespeare, Hamlet, V.II) In this context, you must remember that though this statement may seem an exaggeration to you, or the onlookers, but from the point of view of the speaker, it may be very serious and genuine. Hyperbole is an expression of an excited person’s tendency to exaggerate. So, we must also take into account the speaker’s point of view.

Question 44

What is Manavikaran?

Answer 44

Mānavīkarana (Personification)
By this figure inanimate objects and abstract ideas are invested with the attributes of a living being i.e. they are shown as having life and intelligence.
For example: The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window panes. (T. S. Eliot – “Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”)

Question 45

What is Sambodhita Manavikarana?

Answer 45

Sambodhita Mānavīkarana (apostrophe)
An apostrophe is a direct address to the dead, to the absent, or to a personified object or idea. This figure is a special form of personification.
For example– Absence, hear thou my protestation (John Donne: “Present in Absence”)

Question 46

What is Utpreksa?

Answer 46

. Utprekśā (Conceit)
According to Kuntaka, “Either by way of fancying or by way of similarity or by way of both, when the poet desires to convey the extraordinary nature of the subject under description,…and which involves thus a coordination of the well-conceived matter on hand with a purport apart from it, we have the figure of speech called utprekśā.”
If they be two, they are two so,
As stiff twin compasses are two;

Question 47

What is Aprastutaprasamsa?

Answer 47

Aprastutapraśamsā (Indirect Praise)
According to Kuntaka,
When an extraneous word-meaning or sentence-meaning becomes the main theme of a description in so far as it lends charm to the proposed subject on hand; by virtue of similarity or some other relation between the two, the figure of speech will be designated ‘Praise of the inapposite’
Chaucer’s April in The Canterbury Tales by way of contrast:
April is the cruellest month, breeding Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing Memory and desire, stirring Dull roots with spring rain.

Question 48

What is Samasokti?

Answer 48

Samāsokti (Condensed Metaphor)
It is a simile in which the upamāna is implicit. It may be defined as the understanding of what was not intended, on the basis of what was. Edwin Gerow illustrates this through an example by Charles Dickens:
There was a lean and haggard woman too- a prisoner’s wife- who was watering, with great solicitude, the wretched stump of a dried- up, withered plant, which it was plain to see, could never send forth a green leaf again- too true an emblem, perhaps, of the office she had come there to discharge. In this example, change and termination is indicated through the metaphor of the withered plant.

Question 49

What is Virodha?

Answer 49

Virodha (Oxymoron)
It is a figure of speech whereby two contradictory qualities are predicted at once of the same thing i.e. they are placed side by side.
For example: To live a life half-dead, a living-death (Milton, Samson Agonistes) Or Parting is such sweet sorrow (Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, II. ii) 6.8.2.12. Viśeshana Viparyaya (Transferred Epithet)
By this figure an epithet or adjective is transferred from the object to which it belongs to another:
The plowman homeward plods his weary way. (Thomas Gray: “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”) Here, the adjective ‘weary’ which should be used for the plowman, is used with “way”.

Question 50

What is Parayayokti?

Answer 50

PARYĀYOKTI (PERIPHRASIS)
It means a piece of writing that is neither plain nor precise. On the contrary, even a plain or simple thing is expressed in a roundabout way:
Night’s candles are burnt out, and jocund day Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tips…
Vyatireka
In simple terms, it means that in vyatireka, the intention of the poet is to show the excellence of the upameya over the upamāna. For example, consider the following lines from Shakespeare’s sonnet, “Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day?”

Question 51

What is Vakrokti?

Answer 51

Vakrokti is a device which can simply be defined as deviant language. By deviant language we mean that which is not simple expression which is written in a common language.
• The poets do not express their feelings and sensibilities in simple language manner because then the poetic message will become mundane and not so unique and the readers will find no interest in such poetry.
• A poet can be creative only when he uses deviant expressions which do not give literal, transparent meanings.
• The term ‘Vakrokti’ is made up of two components – ‘vakra’, which means ‘crooked, oblique, or unique’ and ‘ukti’, which means ‘expression’ or ‘speech’.
• Thus the literal meaning of vakrokti is ‘crooked’ or ‘indirect speech’.
• In its wider sense, it means striking expression.

Question 52

Mention of Vakrokti?

Answer 52

• The earlier mention of this theory of vakrokti can go back to Atharvaveda and Agnipurāna as the sense of crookedness
• For Bhāmaha. In his treatise Kāvyālamkāra, Vakrokti is the distinguishing feature of poetic language.
• Vakrokti, for Kuntaka is synonymous with the principles of beauty underlying all kinds of poetic language.
• According to Kuntaka, vakrokti is the life and breath of poetry – it is the soul of poetry: “vakrokti kāvyajīvitam”.
• The beautiful and the miraculous in poetry are born due to vakrokti. It is different from ordinary language speech. It is a “vicitra abhidhā” (striking denotation).

Question 53

What is the function of poetry according to Kuntaka?

Answer 53

• According to Kuntaka, the function of poetry is introducing strangeness to please the sensitive readers.
• Kuntaka assigns a very important role to the poet’s skill (kauśala / vaidagdhya) and his genius (pratibha) in the poetic creation. He believes that vakrokti comes from the Pratibha of the poet.

Question 54

What are the grammatical varieties of Vakrokti?

Answer 54

The grammatical variety of vakrokti is concerned with the inner structure of language
It includes:
i. Varna-vinyāsa vakratā (Phonetic obliquity) all the possible arrangements of phonemes in poetry like alliteration, rhyme etc.
ii. Pada-pūrvārdha vakratā (Lexical obliquity) Lexical obliquity refers to the poet’s choice of words – the vocabulary, metaphors, adjectives and “veiled expressions”, use of language for meaning other than the general ones

Question 55

What are Pada-purvadha vakrata?

Answer 55

1. Rūdhi-Vaicitrya vakratā(Obliquity of usage)
   When the conventional denotation of a word gives an improbable or exaggerated meaning,
2. Paryāya–Vakratā(Obliquity of Synonym)
   The poet uses a synonym which fits perfect in accordance to the meter and the meaning.
3. Upcāra–Vakratā(Obliquity of transference) Here the inanimate objects or abstract ideas are invested with human attributes. A word is used in its secondary sense to refer to an object with which it has no direct associations. According to Kuntaka, “When the stated and the implied, though apparently far-removed from each other, have a common attribute, howsoever slight which may be and lends itself to hyperbolic treatment, imparting charm and delight in kāvya, it is upcāra-vakratā.”
4. Viśesana–Vakratā (Obliquity of Adjectives):
   The oblique use of adjectives heightens the beauty of a verb or case and contributes to the evocative and imaginative powers of the poetic expression.
5. Sanvrti-Vakratā (Obliquity of Concealment)
   • When the subject of description is concealed by the use of pronoun in order to achieve excellence of expression, or to conceal the object when its specialty is beyond words; or when a subject is concealed to suggest something which can only be experienced etc.
6. Linga-Vaicitrya Vakratā (Obliquity of Gender)
   • It occurs in poetry when a gender is employed in such a way as to enhance the beauty of expression. According to Kuntaka, it works at three levels:
   i. When words belonging to two heterogeneous genders are brought together and used without distinction in a generalized way.
   ii. When the feminine gender is used to designate an object ignoring the other possible gender for the sake of excellence because it is pleasing.
7. Kriyā–Vaicitrya-Vakratā(Obliquity of Action)
   • The artistic use of root verbs which is capable of producing a unique beauty is regarded as kriyā-vaicitrya-vakratā. According to Kuntaka, it has five varieties:

Question 56

What are Pada Paradha Vakrata?

Answer 56

iii. Pada-parardha vakratā (Grammatical obliquity)
When the strikingness appears in the terminal part of the word, it is called padaparārdha-vakratā or pratyaya-vakratā. It consists in a specific or peculiar use of tense, case, number, voice, person, particle and indeclinables

Question 57

What is Kala Vaicitrya Vakrata?

Answer 57

. Kāla-Vaicitrya-Vakratā (Obliquity of Tense)
It consists in the employment of significant tenses appropriate to the subject of description. In this kind of vakratā, the writer expresses himself in the tense other than the one ordinarily required.
For example the romantic poets like Scott and Keats made copious use of the tales and legends of the middle ages. This led to a revival of the ballad form.

Question 58

What is Karaka Vakrata?

Answer 58

Kāraka-Vakratā(Obliquity of Case)
According to Kuntaka, when an ordinary case is employed in kāvya by the writer as the main case or vice versa, or the cases are transported, we have kāraka-vakratā. Thus this vakratā is based on the oblique transposition of the cases. Here animation is attributed to even inanimate objects and the auxiliary cases are made more important than the primary ones. According to Kuntaka, “treatment of one and all auxiliary ‘instruments of action’ as if they were pre-eminent by superimposing primacy on them and reducing the status of the really pre-eminent into that of an auxiliary so that some special shade of charm is infused into the artful poetic expression is known as kāraka-vakratā. It involves “a reversal of status in ‘instruments of action’

Question 59

What is Sankhya Vakrata?

Answer 59

3. Sankhyā Vakratā(Obliquity of Number) It functions on the basis of the oblique transposition of numbers. In this singular number is changed into plural number and vice-versa. The interchange of two opposite numbers imparts beauty and charm to the poetic expression.
   4.

Question 60

What is Purusha Vakrata?

Answer 60

6. The poetic expression in which the persons are transposed is known as purusa vakratā: “When the (grammatical) first person or second person is required logically, instead of using it, the third person is used obliquely in order to gain poetic beauty; it should be regarded as the obliquity of person.” According to Kuntaka, the appropriate use of this obliquity is possible only in epic poetry but at the same time its strikingness is discernible in other forms of kāvya.

Question 61

What is Upgraha Vakrata?

Answer 61

It works upon the two voices of the verb – Active and Passive. As you all know, in the Active voice the subject performs the action whereas in the Passive voice, the subject undergoes action and the object

Question 62

What is Pratyaya Vakrata?

Answer 62

Pratyaya-Vakratā (Obliquity of Particle or Affix)
Apart from the usual affix, when a new affix is superadded for the purpose of poetic beauty, it is called pratyaya-vakratā.

Question 63

What is Pada - Vakrata?

Answer 63

Pada-Vakratā (Obliquity of Prefix)
These are underivable words and do not have any grammatical bond with the words. They remain immutable in all genders, numbers and cases, yet they play an important role in poetry.
For example, you can consider the following lines from Tennyson’s poem, “Break, break, break”:
But O for the touch of a vanish’d hand
And the sound of a voice that is still In the above example, the indeclinable “O” successfully conveys the poet’s intense grief over the loss of his dead friend.

Question 64

What is Vakya Vakrata?

Answer 64

Vākya-vakratā (Sentential obliquity) The non-grammatical variety of vakrokti includes extra linguistic features such as context and composition. Kuntaka divided this non-grammatical variety into:
1 Sahaja-Vakratā (Natural Obliquity) When the vastu has its own innate charm and is presented without heavy embellishments in a simple style, it is sahaja-vakratā.
2. Aharya Vakratā(Imposed Obliquity)
The subject-matter is not only an imaginative matter – the poets do not create out of non-existent things in the words, but they imagine a divine beauty in the things that merely exist.

Question 65

What is 5. Prakarana-vakratā (Episodic obliquity)

Answer 65

1. Bhāvapūrnasthiti Vakratā(Obliquity of Emotional State)
   In simple terms, you can understand it thus: in poetry, the heroes are gifted with great and sublime thoughts and emotions. The poet is expected to keep the mystery intact.
2. 2. Utpādya Lāvanya Vakratā(Obliquity of Modified Source Story)
      Another kind of Prakarana-vakratā is the introduction of originality through modification:
      For example Shakespeare used Holinshed’s Chronicles
      for his plays Macbeth and King Lear.
      3.Upakārya-Upkāraka Bhāva Vakratā(Obliquity of Episodic Relationship)
      This refers to the organic unity among the episodes. This idea may be illustrated with the instance of Shakespeare’s Macbeth
3. Angīrasa Nisyandanikasa Vakratā(Obliquity of Dominant Rasa)
   In a play, a particular episode may outshine the others because of its artistic brilliance and it may contribute to the consummation of angīrasa in a way that has not been manifested by the others.
   Soliloquys in Hamlet

Question 66

What is 6. PRABANDHA-VAKRATĀ (COMPOSITIONAL OBLIQUITY)

Answer 66

This kind of vakratā involves the peculiarity of the whole composition. It comprises “adaptation of a story from a known source with additions resulting in new creative dimensions, a new emotional significance and erasure of unwanted episodes and plausible development of composition.”
1.Rasāntara – Vakratā(Obliquity of Changing the Rasa)
“When there is a departure from the enriched “rasas’ of the source-book and a new ‘rasa’ is used by the poet at the conclusion of his work.
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte is adapted as Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys in a postcolonial way portraying Bartha Mason as a tortured West Indian.

2. Samāpana Vakratā(Obliquity of Winding up the Story)
   When a poet is selective in his portrayal of the hero as he wants to portray him in good light.
3. Kathā – Viccheda Vakratā(Obliquity of Intending End)
   This kind of vakratā is concerned with the suddenness of the intended end.
4. Anusāngika-Phal Vakratā (Obliquity of Contingent Objective)
   This kind of vakratā deals with the intended and achieved objectives in the story. Sometimes the writer begins his narrative with a particular intention, but towards the end, the protagonist achieves many other results
   5 Nāmkarana-Vakratā(Obliquity of Title)
   According to Kuntaka, a poet can display his artistic merit even in designing his main plot with a very significant title. For example Eliot’s Wasteland
5. Tulya Kathā Vakratā(Obliquity of Identical Subject)
   Kuntaka says that even when great writers compose different works, based on an identical theme, each one of them possesses infinite individual beauty.
   Example Antony and Cleopatra by Shakespeare and All for Love by Dryden

Question 67

History of Dalit Aesthetics?

Answer 67

It is generally believed that Manu in Manu Smriti propagated the Chaturvarna. However, the mention of Caste is there in Vedic Period as well and in texts like Bhagvad Gita
It is mentioned in Rig Ved (1200-900 BCE)- in the Purusha Shukta hymns
It was challenged by Buddhists by creating Sanghas which admitted everyone.
Ambedkar believed that the caste system took shape because of the conflict between settled and Nomadic tribes.
First, a Section of nomadic tribe started agricultural activities and got settled.
The unsettled and broken tribes adopted Buddhism and the settled one started having contempt towards them, so they became untouchables.
For U.N. Roy- it happened much before Buddhism and it is a conflict between the food gatherers and food producing people
In 19th and 20th century Social reformers attacked the hereditary and the basis of distinction and the law of Karma which defended casteiesm
There were reformers like Ghasi Das who founded Satnami Sect

Question 68

What was the debate between Gandhi and Ambedkar?

Answer 68

Debate between Gandhi and Ambedkar
For Gandhi- Inequality should be removed from Caste System
He didn’t reject Caste system
I believe that if Hindu Society has been able to stand, it is because it is founded on caste system… (DAS 26)
For him th ey were Harijans, Children of God, which was considered patronising by the Dalit community.
On the other hand, there was Babasaheb Ambedkar, who rejected the Caste system altogether.
In his book Annihilation of Caste he proposes that the Caste System “reaffirmed the Brahmin’s hegemony, because each caste oppressed inferior castes and was in turn subjected to the Brahmin’s contempt.
The Dalit movement stands on this ground of the difference between the views of Ambedkar and Gandhi. It depends on the total rejection of the Gandhian view when it comes to the existence of the Caste.
In British Period, there was no chance however of the disintegration of the Caste system as there was no equality, not even a bourgeois equality. Therefore, all those who believed as well as those who didn’t believe in the Caste system came together to fight against it.
However, the Britishers used all their strategic might to please both kinds of people. They changed their views on Caste according to what the different segments thought about it.

Question 69

Constitution?

Answer 69

After India got independence, the constitution which was drafted by Ambedkar tried to remove the social stigmas related to Caste system, especially untouchablity.
Article 17 of the Constitution says:
“Untouchability” is abolished and its practice in any form is forbidden. The enforcement of any disability arising out of “untouchability” shall be an offence punishable in accordance with law”
In order to bring equality for the Dalits, several movements happened after Independence as well. One of them was the Dalit Panthers movements, which was inspired by the American Black Panthers movement against the racial profiling of the African Americans. They were quite active and effective in their mission as the movement spread into the society including the urban neighbourhoods, institutions and government offices.

Question 70

About Maharashtra Dalit Sahitya Sangh?

Answer 70

At the first conference of Maharashtra Dalit Sahitya Sangha in 1958, the term Dalit literature came into use.
In order to bring about a change in their social condition they needed social, cultural, religious and creative equality. Thus, they rejected literary conventions and language rigidities of the classical literature of upper castes and decided to create a literature of their own that may help them carve a new identity for themselves.
Baburao Bagul, a Dalit activist and writer says that “Dalit literature takes man as its center. It participates in man’s joys and sorrows and leads him to a just revolution. It teaches equality to the mass of humanity, that is, society
There was no discussion about aesthetics in Dalit literature until 1988, when Sharad Patil wrote Abrahmani Sah ityanche Saundaryashastra. In this work, he argued that since Dalit literature has no aesthetics of its own, it is relying on the Brahminical aesthetics. He asserted that aesthetics is like a weapon and every revolutionary literature has acquired it.

Question 71

Who is Dalit?

Answer 71

Towards an Aesthetic of Dalit Literature. History, Controversies and Considerations
Sharankumar Limbale(trans, edited with a commentary by Alok Mukherjee)2004
WHO IS DALIT?
Harijans and Neo-Buddhists are not the only Dalits, the term describes all the untouchable communities living outside the boundary of the village, as well as Adivasis, landless farm-labourers, workers, the suffering masses, and nomadic and criminal tribes. In explaining the word, it will not do to refer only to the untouchable castes. People who are lagging behind economically will also need to be included

Question 72

Aesthetics of Dalit Literature?

Answer 72

If pleasure is the basis of the aesthetics of Marathi savarna literature, pain and suffering is the basis of the aesthetics of Dalit literature.
It is a literature that is intended to make readers restless or angry and not to please their senses.
According to the Savarna aesthetic theory, the beauty of an artistic creation lies in its expression of world consciousness or other-wilderness. This traditional theory is universalistic and spiritualistic.
Dalit literature rejects spiritualism and abstraction, its aesthetics is material rather than spiritualist. It believes in artistic rendering of reality.
Dalit writers give priority to problems of society over the entertainment of the readers. They express their feelings in their literature. They do not create literature with urbane readers in mind. Their effort is to transport the aesthete-readers to their own level of experience.
Thus, a great or good work will be the one, which arouse a Dalit consciousness in readers
The readers must think about things like “freedom, love, justice and equality” after reading Dalit Literature.