Kāvyādarśa

The Kavyadarsha (Sanskrit: काव्यादर्श, Kāvyādarśa) by Dandin is the earliest surviving systematic treatment of poetics in Sanskrit. This work is divided into 3 paricchedas (chapters) in most of the printed editions, except one, where the third chapter of the other editions is further divided into two. Most of the printed editions have 660 verses, except one, which has 663. In Kāvyādarśa, Daṇḍin argued that a poem's beauty derived from its use of rhetorical devices – of which he distinguished thirty-six types. He was the main proponent of gunaprasthana, the view that poetry needed qualities or virtues such as shleshha (punning), prasaada (favour), samataa (sameness), maadhurya (beauty), arthavyakti (interpretation), and ojah (vigour). Poetry consisted in the presence of one of these qualities or a combination of them.

The Kavyadarsha was in ancient times translated into Kannada, Sinhala, Pali, Tamil and Tibetan, and perhaps even influenced Chinese regulated verse. It was widely quoted by premodern scholars of Sanskrit, including Appayya Dīkṣita (1520–1592); it was included almost in its entirety in the poetic treatises by King Bhoja of Dhār (r. 1011–1055).

Daṇḍin's Kavyadarsha was first printed in 1863, and has often been re-edited since.

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