parallel passages that are to be found in other dramaturgic and rhetorical treatises. This is especially the case where only a single word is used to explain the meaning of a technical term, as often happens in Book 1, in the treatment of dramatic structure.[1]
In his definitions of technical terms, Dhanaṃjaya occasionally resorts to etymological explanations, on the supposition that the root of a word or its component parts will give a satisfactory idea of its meaning and application.[2] As a typical example, and one which shows the method at its best, may be cited the treatment of the word ādhikārika in 1. 19. Analytic in character is the definition of the term vyabhicārin (4. 8)—
viśeṣād ābhimukhyena caranto vyabhicāriṇaḥ—
in which the author attempts to indicate the force of each of the components by a separate explanatory word. Other examples of etymologic interpretation are found at 1. 9, 20, 81, 126; 2. 44.
The Hindu fondness for minute and often futile classification and subdivision is in evidence throughout the work, but is best exemplified in the treatment of the Erotic Sentiment (4. 56–78) and also of the types of heroine (2. 24–35), the classification of which is shown by a diagram on page 149. Dhanaṃjaya fortunately refrains from foolish computation (so often found in later treatises)[3] as to the theoretically possible number of types of hero and heroine, but his commentator makes up for the deficiency in the former case.[4]
Meters and metrical considerations. The Daśarūpa is composed for the most part in the ordinary śloka meter regularly found in treatises of this kind. Eighteen stanzas, however, including the last section in each book, are written in other meters. A list of these is here given in the order of their occurrence.
