An Epitome of Indian

This book is a primer to Understand the History and Development of Alankara Sastra. It will be an easy reading for Sanskrit and useful for students of other literature too! In Sanskrit there are several synonyms of ‘beauty’—‘Saundarya’ ‘Caruta’ ‘Ramaniyata’‘Saubhagya’ ‘Sobha’ ‘Lavanya’ ‘Kanti’ ‘Vicchitti’ and so forth. But the most frequently adopted key-term of aesthetics is Alankara. That is why Alankara-sastra should be translated as the science of beauty. Its widest meaning is adequately stressed by Vamana who aphoristically states — “Saundaryam alankarah.” Since ‘alankara’ can also mean a ‘means of beauty’ it can denote poetic and artistic devices also. In the Rgveda itself we have the use of the word aramkrti which is cognate with the later word alankara and which gives rise to the Indian name of aesthetics namely Alankarasastra. The Vedic term has a double connotation — one aesthetic and the other magical.