पृष्ठ 202, कुल 381 में से

संदर्भ में पढ़ें

पृष्ठ 202

1. अथ etc. After tracing the origin and history of metrical composition, the author in the next two pages (8-9) seeks to explain the varieties of poetical composition in accordance with the natural surroundings, and customs and manners of the different people. These are called styles and Rājaśekhara classifies them into four distinct groups. These four groups, each consisting of Pravṛtti, Rīti and Vṛtti, are already mentioned by Bharata in chapter 13 of his Nāṭyaśāstra. Rāja- śekhara adds to the description of the four groups, four verses of his own, describing women's dress in four parts of India with the preamble—तां ते मुनयोऽभितुष्टुवुः and seeks in these pages to discover scientific explanations for the different styles of writings which existed in early Sanskrit compositions. Incidentally, he mentions also the four Pravṛttis or वेषविन्यास, Vṛttis or विलास‌विन्यास and Rītis or वचनविन्यास adopted by the people living in the four divisions of India. In the eastern part of India, there are: Audramāgadhī Pravṛtti, Bhāratī Vṛtti and Gauḍīyā Rīti. In the Pāñcāla country, there exist: Pāñcālamadhyamā Pravṛtti, Sāttvatī and Ārabhaṭī Vṛttis and Pāñcālī Rīti. The countries of Avanti etc. have: Āvantī Pravṛtti, Sāttvatī and Kaiśikī Vṛttis. The Southern part of India has: Dākṣiṇātyā Pravṛtti, Kaiśikī Vṛtti and Vaidarbhī Rīti. Among the Pravṛttis, Vṛttis and Rītis mentioned above Rājaśekhara seems to attach a relative superiority to the Vaidarbhī, Kaiśikī and Dākṣiṇātyā style of the southern India; because he states that Kāvyapuruṣa was pleased and brought under control by Sāhityavidyāvadhū only through the style current in South India. It seems, however, strange that he failed to recognize the Lāṭīyā Rīti of the dialects of the countries Avanti etc. though the whole of the Avanti or Lāṭa country had been frequently described by him in his works. (See Kāvyamīmāṁsā p. 34. l. 7 and Bāla- rāmāyaṇa, act X). The reason for this, seems to be that he did not favour the idea of creating a new Rīti of Lāṭīyā as proposed for the first time by Rudraṭa, because there is not much difference between the two Rītis, Pāñcālī and Lāṭīyā. In the history of the development of Rītis, Bhāmaha did not acknowledge the existence

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