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Ami Upadhyay. A Handbook of the Indian Poetics and Aesthetics. Bareilly: Prakash Guide Depot, 2017, Pages 177, Value: Rs. 125/-. ISBN 978-81-7977-601-8
Although curiosity in classical Indian poetics has been dwell, nothing new appears to have been added or found during the last half-a-century or extra. New books by professors of English, at finest, have been repetitive. A scholar of the stature of Ananda Coomaraswamy is awaited to narrate Sanskrit poetics to Western theoretical developments within the current century.
Having mentioned this, I’m pleased to flick thru the e book in hand, a “compendium of enjoyment,” as Ami Upadhyay says. Ami is a classical dancer and instructor of English language and comparative literature, and competent to inform us about Indian poetics and aesthetics, together with theories of Rasa, Riti, Dhvani, Vakrokti, Alankaras, Aucitya, Guna-Dosa, and so on. She clearly dwells on Bharata’s Natya Shashtra and briefly touches upon different Sanskrit poeticians and theorists reminiscent of Dandin, Jagannatha, Kuntaka, Abhinavagupta, Ksemendra Rajasekhara, Vishwanatha, Hemendra and others, on the one hand, and Plato, Aristotle, Ananda Coomaraswamy, and different Europeans, on the opposite.
Organised in three components, the primary half seeks to outline aesthetics, poetry, and drama (Natya, Nataka and Kavya) with a quick description of the background of Indian poetics. The second half offers with the varied faculties of Indian poetics, explaining the attribute points of the Rasa within the Vedas, Upanishads, and Ayurveda; rasa as Ananda (pleasure); Sringara rasa (erotic sentiments); Karuna rasa (pathetic sentiment); Raudra and Vira rasa (the horrible and the heroic); Hasya rasa and Adbhuta rasa (the comedian and the marvellous); Bhayanak and Vibhatsa rasa (the horrible and the odious); and Santa rasa (the tranquil). Ami additionally offers with the idea and construction underlying the Natya Shashtra in ten chapters. Within the remaining ten chapters of the second half, she discusses the theoretical and explanatory contributions from different distinguished poeticians and aesthetes. The third half presents a listing of main theorists and their works; glossary of vital phrases, and chosen bibliography.
The brief chapters on Coomaraswamy, and Indian and Western Literary criticism and poetics, together with the appendices ought to assist new students pursue additional research in a topic which is already a part of English literature course in lots of universities in India and abroad.
Ami’s handbook is clearly deliberate and well-developed, however omission of R S Tiwary’s A Essential Strategy to Classical Indian Poetics (1984) from her Bibliography is disappointing.
I’m happy to advocate it to Honour’s and M A college students.
–Professor R Ok Singh
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Source by Ram Krishna Singh
