Agni Purāṇa
346 - Investigation into poetic excellences
Agni said:
1. Peotry, even though embellished, does not produce pleasure, if it is devoid of gunas (excellences). A necklace would only be burdensome to women, if their bodies are not beautiful.
2. It cannot be 'said that excellence would only be the absence of defect.1 Excellences such as Ślesa (coalescence) and the like and defects scuh as Gūdhartha (obscurity of sense) and the like have been distinguished from one another.
1. The reading dosho bhava has been corrected as dosábhava.
3. An excellence is that which confers great charm to poetry. It exists in two forms such as general and particular.
4. That which is common to all2 is considercd to be the general. The general (excellence) is threefold relating to word, sense and both.
2. Probably the Ritis.
5-6a. The excellence (of word) is that which relates to the word, the body of the poetry3. The excellences of the word are sevenfold, namely, Slesha (coalescence), Lalitya (smoothness), Gambhirya (depth), Saukumārya (softness), Udaratā (richness of expression), Sati (purity) and Yaugiki (derivative).
3. The reading kavyasarfram is better than kavyam sariran.
6b. That is said to be Coalescence in which there is a closely coalesced arrangement of words.
7. Smoothness is declared as that in which a letter that is already combined in the words by means of (substitution such as) guna, adeśa and the like is never euphonically combined.
8. The wise name it as Depth which is a composition chiselled by special characteristics and which contains elevated words; others (name) the same as Susabdatā (grammatical correctness).
9. Softness consists of words inostly of unharsh letters. Elevatedness consists of elevated words and is endowed with praiseworthy epithets.
10. Splendidness (Ojas) (is) abundance of compounds. It is the life of prose etc.1 From the Highest Being to a clump of grass, manliness (comes) by ojas alone.
1. The text wrongly reads as padya.
11-12. That is said to be the Excellence of Sense2 which brings out the excellence of a described object by whichsoever word. There are six varieties of it, viz., Madhurya (tranquility), Samvidhana (contrivance), Komalatvan (softness), Udārata (elegance), Praudhi (maturity) and Samayikatva (being conventional).
2. arthaguna seems to be better than the reading artho guna.
13. The gravity of appearance even in anger (and) deep state of composure is Tranquility. Contrivance (consists of) the effort for the accomplishment of an expected object.
14. An arrangement of words free from rigidity appearing after setting aside laxity (of structure) is (known as) Softness.
15. The excessive gracefulness of intention which indicates the characteristic of the disposition of being aimed at explicitly is the Elegance of Guna.
16. That is declared Maturity in which there are mature reasonings impregnated with logical reasonings bringing about accomplishment of what is intended.
17. The apprehension of the sense in the demonstrated conclusion3 of something independent or dependent (is known as) 'Being Conventional'.
3. The reading råddhantaḥ samaya matah seems to be better than bahvantah samayogatah of the printed text.
18-19a. That which embellishes both word and sense is known by the name 'the Excellence of Both'. Prasāda (lucidity), Saubhagya (loveliness), Yathasankhya (relative enumeration), Prasastata (praiseworthiness), Paka (ripeness) and Räga (tint) are its six (varicties) divulged in their manifoldness by the wise.
19b-20. Lucidity is glorified as consisting of words possessing very well-known sense. That which, when expressed, suggests some eminent attribute, is declared by the wise as Saubhadgya (loveliness) or Udaratva (elegance).
21-22a. Yathasrikhya (is) Relative Enumeration extended to similar things. Praiseworthiness is the description of even a terrible object by means of a word not terrible, when there is an occasion.
22b-23. A certain high maturity is said to be Ripeness. It is of four kinds, viz., as the ripeness of grape and that of coconut water etc. That is indeed the ripeness of grape in which there is sweetness both at the beginning and the end.
24-25. It is glorified as Tint which is a special characteristic for the purpose of poetic composition. It excels even the natural grace (when) put to constant practice. It is again of three varieties: yellow, saffron and indigo. That which is with in the range of its own characteristics is to be recognised as the particular (Excellence).
Summary of chapter 348 of the Agni Purāṇa is as follows:
A lexicon of the single-letter meanings of each Sanskrit phoneme is presented: A (akāra) signifies Viṣṇu, I signifies Manmatha (Kāma), U signifies Śiva, and so on through all the vowels and consonants. This Ekākṣara-kośa is rooted in the Māṭṛkā (mother-phoneme) system of tantric thought, according to which the entire Sanskrit alphabet is a manifestation of divine Śakti. The connection between specific phonemes and specific deities — the system underlying bīja-mantras — is made explicit. The nava-āvaraṇa mantra of Durgā, the mūlamantra of Gaṇapati, and several other key mantras are described as grammatically analyzable through the ekākṣara lexicon. The Garbhālaṅkāra (a citrabandha in which the same text encodes multiple layers of meaning) is also noted in this context.
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