Notes Towards Defining ‘Theory’ (Śāstra) in Sanskrit; Systematic Classification Presented in Rājaśekhara’s Kāvyamīmāṃsā
Notes Towards Defining ‘Theory’ (Śāstra) in Sanskrit; Systematic Classification Presented in Rājaśekhara’s Kāvyamīmāṃsā

Summary/Abstract: Even though the genre of śāstra is one of the most familiar and important constituents of the cultural and intellectual history of South Asia, it did not receive the proper atten-tion and the term itself remains obscure. Also in the tradition of Sanskrit letters itself the scope and nature of śāstra, it would seem, is not precisely delineated. Using the dis-cussion presented by Rājaśekhara, the tenth century poet and theoretician, in his Kāvy-amīmāṃsā, this article will try to bring together recent evaluations of the genre with a contextualized discussion of the tradition’s selfunderstanding.

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