Dandin’s Magic Mirror

Chapter 1 explores Dandin’s Mirror of Literature (Kāvyādarśa) with a special focus on its pedagogy and method (mārga). The chapter opens by introducing Dandin and his uniquely open vision, in contrast to most works of Sanskrit śāstra and, in particular, to that of his main predecessor, Bhamaha. This openness is then demonstrated in the discussion of three of the Mirror’s main topics: poetic ornaments (alaṅkāra), for which Dandin presents a set of figurative modules that enable endless new and playful combinations; poetic flaws (doṣa) and virtues (guṇa), which Dandin sees as scalar (virtues become flaws due to sloppiness or overdoing, but almost every flaw can be upgraded to a virtue or an ornament); and poetry’s difficult path, with an emphasis on the figure of yamaka, or “twinning,” which he shows is easier than would otherwise seem. The chapter concludes by briefly discussing Dandin’s “pleasure principle.”