z/ 



JOURNAL 



ASIATIC SOCIETY. 



No. III. 1860. 



On a Passage in the tenth Book of the Sdhiti/a Darpana. — Hy 

 E. B. Cowell, M. A. 



The Sahitya Darpana has been called " the standard of taste 

 among the learned Hindus." It was compiled by Vis'wanatha 

 Kaviraja, who is said to have lived in the district of Dacca, and 

 his date may be conjecturally placed in the 15th century. His book 

 contains a complete system of Literary Criticism, from words and 

 sentences to dramas and epic poems. Its prevalent fault is a 

 proneness to minute subdivision,* and many parts of it relate to 

 obscure trivialities ; but much of it displays an ingenuity and insight, 

 which only require to be understood to be appreciated. The tenth 

 book is devoted to the especial embellishments of style, — alankdra 

 in its more technical sense ; and many keen observations are 

 scattered through its pages, which often touch on points left unno- 

 ticed by the more ambitious writers on Rhetoric in the West. As 

 an example, I have chosen the section on Simile, which seems to me a 

 very favourable specimen of the delicate analysis of the Hindu 

 Rhetoric, while, at the same time, it will afford an opportunity for 

 making an important correction to the text as it now stands in print. 



* At once the strength and weakness of the self-developed Hindu mind! 

 " Maximum et velut radicale discrimen ingeniorum, quoad philosophiam et 

 scientias, illud est; quod alia ingenia sunt potiora et aptiora ad notandas 

 rerit/m differentias ; aha ad notandas rerum similitudines. Utrumque ingeninm 

 facile labitur in excessuin, prensando aut gradus rerum ant umbras." Nov- 

 Qrg. I. If. 



No. CIV.— New Semes, Vol. XXIX. 2 g 



