সাহিত্য দর্পণ | Sahitya Darpana

FOREWORD One of the most profound aspects of the thought of India, as part of its speculations in the domain of higher philosophy and the Ultimate Reality, has been its criticism of literature in its intent, its scope and 08 expression. Indian Dramaturgy, Indian Poetics, Indian Aesthetics are among the finest productions of the Indian mind ; and, as in all other branches of Indian thought, in its desire to go to the fundamentals, we have here a great system of original endeavour to unravel the mystery of literary and aesthetic enjoyment and to find its rationale. Indian Poetics, seeking to channel a scholar’s thought in analysing literary sentiment and aesthetic appreciation, and to find out the bases of the mystic appeal, in its beginnings goes back to the close of the Vedic period, about the 10th century B.C., some 3000 years from now. “A few Vedic passages from the Rig- Veda and other Vedic literature give us some attempts at explaining the nature of the rapture that is behind all artistic appreciation—of the nature of Rasa and of Ananda which: are the concomitants of creative literature that moves the mind and even the spiritual being of man. Here and there in Vedic literature, in the Brahmanas and the Upanishads, we have suggestive passages relating to the understanding and enjoyment of the expression of the human personality through the spoken word, which, when recorded, gives us written literature. We come down to the second half of the first millennium B.C. when we have the first systematised speculations on Indian Poetics and Aesthetics in the writings of Sage Bharata, which belong to the centuries round about Christ, but their bases may go back to the middle of the first millennium before Christ. From after Bharata, we have