The Alamakara Theory

 

Introduction:

The tradition of Indian Kavyashastra begins with Bharat’s magnum opus Natyashastra. In the course of dealing with drama Bharatmuni anticipated other schools on Indian poetics particularly Rasa in chapter 6, Natyashastra contains the seeds of ‘Alamkarashastra’ as well as it deals with Alamkaras or figures of speech, in the chapter 4 of Natyashastra. These alamkaras were later developed by the thinkers and poeticians like Bhamaha into an independent school and even shastra so much so that Alamkarshastra becomes an autonomous shastra within Kavyashastra. ‘Kavyalamkar’ of Bhamaha stands as an epicentral text not only in the Alamkarshastra but also in Indian Poetics.

Bhamaha is considered as the founder of the Alamkara school in Sanskrit poetics. The term ‘alamkara’ in Sanskrit stands for the principal of poetic beauty itself, in which sense of this general meaning, the entire science of criticism is named ‘Alamkarshashtra’. The word Alamkara is derived from the word ‘alam’ which in Sanskrit primarily means the making of adornments or decorations.

The earlist systematic work on Alamkara that has survived the ravages of time is that of Bhamaha. To him all alamkaras or figures of speech are based on Vakrokti, or exaggerated and twisted form of expression with embellishments. He was very particular about the grammatical correctness of expression and the absence of flaws in logical arguments.

ALAMKARAS:

In his treatise Bhamaha discusses Kavyalamkara in 151 verses out of total 369. There in he emphasizes the importance of figures of speech in the kavya. He gives five chief figures of speech. And then along with the sub- classification of it, he includes Atishyokto and Vakrokti as alamkara and sums up with thiry eight alamkaras. Bhamaha classifies alamkaras in two categories,

·         Sabdalamkara

·         Arthalamkara

Śabdālaṃkāra means figures of speech based on the word and arthālaṃkāra means figures of speech based on the meaning or sense of the word. The most important figures of speech, he describes are five i.e. Anuprasa, Yamaka, Rupaka, Dipaka and Upma. In his words,

Anuprasah sayamko rupak dikakopame

Iti vayamlamkaraha pagchaievaancheiruda hataha

Out of the five main alamkara the first two i.e. Anuprasa and Yamaka belong to Sabdalamkara and remaining three i.e. Rupaka, Dipaka and Upma belong to Artalamkara. Bhamaha then goes on to describe each in detail.

Anuprasa:

Sarupvarnvinyasaynuprasam Pcakshate

(i.e. the occurrence of the same sound at the start of adjacent) in other words it is an alliteration.

 Alliteration is a figure of speech in which the same sound repeats in a group of words, such as the “b” sound in: “Bob brought the box of bricks to the basement.” The repeating sound must occur either in the first letter of each word, or in the stressed syllables of those words.

Yamaka:

Yamaka is when repetition of letters deffering from each other in meaning , but similar in sound, are used to create surprising effect. Bhamaha uses the lines,

Sadhuna sadhuna ten rajata rajata bhuta

Means, ‘our close persons’ welfare is made through welcoming them through a good person)

Rupaka:

It is ‘an implied simile’. It means carrying over. Thus,a metaphor means the transfer of a name or descriptive term to an object different from. Mammat says metaphor shows identification of the ‘upman’ means an object or thing with the ‘upmey’ means the thing compared. It suggests ‘an extreme resemblance between upman and upmey. For example,

Mukham chandram

Dipaka:

Bhamaha describes ‘Dipak’ in relation to ‘dip’ means ‘a lamp’. A lamp illuminates all the objects round about it. Bhamaha does not give any characteristic of this figure of speech but only sub- classification into three kinds i.e. Addipak, Madhyadipak and Antyadipak, which again are exemplified.

Upma (Similie)

This figure of speech shows likeness between two different objects. Their common qualities are brought together to compare. In it, an object, scene or action is introduced by way of comparison for explanatory illustration as for merely ornamental purpose, for example,

Radha’s face is as beautiful as moon.

Here Radha is ‘Upman’, a person to be compared to other thing ‘moon’ which is ‘upmey’for both have their common qualities- beauty.

OTHER FIGURES OF SPEECH:

Along with these five main figures of speech Bhamaha gives more alamkaras and discusses each in detail.

Atisayokti:

With a specific object if the speech is brought to a complete identification with other object is called ‘Atisayokti’ means ‘hyperbole’. This figure of speech presents things as much greater or smaller than they really are.

Utpreksha:

It is a poetical fancy that represents identical faculty on sense of one thing with another. It shows likeness of one thing with the other. For instance,

Asyamukham nujam chandraha

Here, the speaker narrates one’s face identical with the moon. He has a face like shining moon means ‘ a bright- faced person’.

Prativastupama:

It means ‘realization or understanding of parallel ideas in two different sentences’. It means the first sentence represents the upmey and the other sentence represents the upman. Bhamaha writes,

Samanvastunyasen prativastupamochyat

Yathevanbhidhanidpi gunsamyapratitah

Means between two sentences, the things even if are not same or common, yet they are felt like common. One is as the other, is, for example, ‘useful persons are rare’ and in the second sentence we find ‘such tress are also rare.” Here ‘men’ and ‘trees’ are uncommon things – ‘vastu’. Thus two opposite or anti- objects are compared.

 

Vibhavana:

It means ‘peculiar causation. Its result or effort  arises without its cause. For example, upitamata shikhino means in  the rainy season, the peacocks are intoxicated without drinking water. The other example is Nipodavilaptasurbhi, means kadamba tree is different and alone from other common trees yet it is full of fragrance.

Vyatirek:

It means ‘a sense of excellence’. It shows a thing’s or object’s distinct faculty or characteristic. Here one thing is shown superior to another. ‘upmey’ is shown excellent over ‘upma.’ For example

·         Her skin is softer than the rose

·         His speech is sweeter than the nectar

Svabhavokti:

It means ‘a natural description’ according to the mood of the thing on person related to subject in a poem.

Akshep:

When desire of telling more is prohibited, it becomes Akshep or nishedh.

Artantarnyas:

When stated meaning and suggested meaning differs there occurs Arth+ antar= arthantar.

Samasokti:

Here compound statements are used to achieve embellishment or gravity, for this many adjectives are used.

Vakrokti:

After dealing with these figures of speech Bhamaha added to it Vakrokti. It is an essential part in poetic composition. It suggests a sense – bhava means vicitrabhava we get through some lines in a poem. It consists of striking expression which is different from the current mode or established trend of using figures of speech.

Conclusion:

The theory of Almakara, more than any other, seems to have influenced poetic compositions in Sanskrit. It is an accepted fact that the Mahakavya tradition was nourished in the teaching of the alamkara school. Whatever poetic theories came to be in vogue, in actual practice, poets seems to have had the alamkara theory always in mind. Though the theory of alamkaras was the oldest in literary speculation and was superseded by theories or rasa and dhvani, yet alamkara was a subject dealt with even by the writers of comparatively recent times.For example Mammata and Visvanatha, though they were followers of rasa- dhvani theory, have devoted considerable space to alamkaras. And even after the dhvani theory was universally accepted once and for all, books like Kavalayananda of Appayya Diksita were written dealing solely with alamkara. This would convey an idea of the extent of the influence that the alamkara school extorted on poetry as well as on the theory of poetry.