The role of 'anaucitya' in the comprehension of a proverb

Abstract

There are many theories in Indian poetics which discuss different characteristics of poetry. However, each theory focuses on a specific characteristic of poetry except the aucitya theory put forward by the alan͘kārika Kṣemendra. Poetry is considered to be flawless, beautiful, impactful and gets appreciated by the Sahṛdayas i.e., connoisseurs only if it has propriety. What type of propriety does Poetry need? And how can one find it out? These questions are answered by the theory of aucitya. Kṣemendra has thought of twenty-seven types of aucitya which can be examined in poetry. Kṣemendra, by putting forward this theory, as if has given us a tool to investigate the propriety of different components in poetry. While putting forward the theory Kṣemendra has discussed and given examples of not only of aucitya but also of anaucitya.

Since it is observed that there are many commonalities shared by proverbs and poetry, this paper attempts to apply the theory from the domain of Indian Poetics i.e., aucitya theory to proverb comprehension. Kṣemendra, while putting forward this theory shows how anaucitya proves to be a flaw/hurdle in enjoying poetry. This paper, on the contrary, attempts to elaborate on how anaucitya in proverb helps in the comprehension of proverbs. This paper also explains the process of the comprehension of the proverbs with the help of an unpublished Sanskrit text.