Sanskrit Poetics as a Study of Aesthetic

S. K. De’s classic study offers the first synoptic, rigorously argued account in English of how Sanskrit thinkers conceived poetry—as craft, as meaning, and as aesthetic experience. Ranging from the early alamkārikas through Daṇḍin and Vāmana to Ānandavardhana and Abhinavagupta, De traces the discipline’s formative alliance with grammar and its gradual turn from cataloging “ornaments” to theorizing rasa, poetic “relish.” Along the way he clarifies foundational debates over śabda and artha, guṇa and doṣa, rīti and aucitya, and the crucial emergence of dhvani (suggestion) as the mode by which poetry transcends literal statement. De’s guiding question—what kind of knowledge or experience is realized in poetry?—organizes a lucid reconstruction of Indian poetics as it moves from normative handbooks toward a philosophy of aesthetic intuition that is at once analytical and spiritual.

Balancing close reading with intellectual history, Sanskrit Poetics as a Study of Aesthetic dismantles persistent caricatures of Sanskrit criticism as merely technical. De shows how its most ambitious theorists grappled with the unity of expression and intuition, the generalization (sādhāraṇīkaraṇa) that makes shared emotion possible, and the critic’s role as sahṛdaya, the “like-hearted” relisher of art. Written with extraordinary economy and precision, the book speaks across disciplines—literary studies, aesthetics, Indology, religious studies—while remaining anchored in primary texts. This new presentation restores a landmark of comparative poetics to readers seeking a coherent map of a vast field and a compelling account of why rasa still matters: not as hedonism, but as a disciplined form of bliss that suspends practical aims and opens a distinct mode of knowing. De’s work remains indispensable for anyone interested in how a non-Western tradition theorized what poetry does and why we care.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1963.