Published Paper Details:

All Alankarikas accept Guna as an essential quality of poetry, it cannot be said that it developed into a school. The reason most probably is its connection with Riti. There are different opinions as to their number, nature and relationship to other salient features of poetry.It is in the Arthasastra (B.C.1st Century) that we see for the first time some kinds of Gunas. Our epics Ramayana and Mahabharatha are other sources of this concept. Gunas like Laghu, Madhura, Chitra and Udara are seen in both of the epics. In Sanskrit poetics Bharatha is the first to insist that the sahitya�s drama should have some qualities like mrdu, lalita. In the sixteenth chapter of Natyasastra, Bharatha deals with the topics of Lakshanans, Alankaras, Gunas and Dhoshas. Bharatha does not define Guna or indicate its function and difference from Lakshanas and Alankaras. Bhamaha seems to have held that as Gunas and Alankaras are the features of poetic beauty, a distinction between them is unnecessary. He was aware of some theories based on Gunas. Dandin is considered as the founder of Guna Theory. His Kavyadarsa is the first authentic work dealing with Gunas in connection with the Riti otherwise known as Marga. Dandin says that whatever enhances the poetic beauty is its Alankara and in this view gunas are not different from Alankaras . Dandin admits the ten Gunas accepted by Bharatha. According to him there are two types of poetic composition � Marga viz. Vaidharbha and Goudiya. Between the two Vaidarbhamarga is perfect with all the ten Gunas while Gaudiya is characterised by two Gunas, Ojas and Kanthi. Just after the enumeration of ten Gunas, Dandin declares the soul of Vaidarbha marga is ten Gunas. It is because of that Dandin, though a follower of Riti and Alankara School is taken as the founder of Guna School. Kuntaka is a writer of originality in the history of Gunas. He accepts two main sets of Gunas viz. Sadarana and Asadarana. Namisadhu is an important name in the history of Gunas. After discussing three Ritis, he says that these Ritis are not Alankara, but they are Gunas of Sabda. Again in the chapter of Rasa he says that the Sabdalankaras and Arthalankaras are considered as artificial ornaments whereas Rasas are the natural Gunas like Soudarya etc. Anandavardhana, who for the first time made a more scientific definition of Gunas. Jagannathapanditha has a new idea to tell regarding the nature of Guna. To him Gunas are not related to Rasa, the soul of poetry. Atma of Kavya, like our Atma is Nirguna. There can be therefore no gunas at all. Sabdartha, Rachana and Rasa all produce Madurya and other Gunas which are the states of the mind. All of them go to produce that kind of Chittavrthi called Guna which is also equivalent to the Chittavrthi itself.