doá¹£a-guṇa-vicÄra — ei alpa kari' mÄni
kavitva-karaṇe Å›akti, tÄá¹…hÄ se vÄkhÄni
doá¹£a-guṇa-vicÄra - therefore to criticize one's poetry as good or bad; ei - this; alpa - negligible; kari' - making; mÄni - I consider; kavitva - poetic ingenuity; karaṇe - in performing; Å›akti - power; tÄá¹…hÄ - that; se - we; vÄkhÄni - describe.
“Such mistakes should be considered negligible. One should see only how such poets have displayed their poetic power.
In ÅšrÄ«mad-BhÄgavatam (1.5.11) it is said:
tad-vÄg-visargo janatÄgha-viplavo
yasmin prati-ślokam abaddhavaty api
nÄmÄny anantasya yaÅ›o ’ṅkitÄni yat
śṛṇvanti gÄyanti gṛṇanti sÄdhavaḥ
“In explaining the glories of the Lord, inexperienced men may compose poetry with many faults, but because it contains glorification of the Lord, great personalities read it, hear it and chant it.†Despite its minute literary discrepancies, one must study poetry on the merit of its subject matter. According to Vaiṣṇava philosophy, any literature that glorifies the Lord, whether properly written or not, is first class. There need be no other considerations. The poetic compositions of BhavabhÅ«ti, or ÅšrÄ«kaṇá¹ha, include MÄlatÄ«-mÄdhava, Uttara-carita, VÄ«ra-carita and many similar Sanskrit dramas. This great poet was born during the time of BhojarÄja as the son of NÄ«lakaṇá¹ha, a brÄhmaṇa. KÄlidÄsa flourished during the time of MahÄrÄja VikramÄditya, and he became the state poet. He composed some thirty or forty Sanskrit dramas, including KumÄra-sambhava, AbhijñÄna-Å›akuntalÄ and Megha-dÅ«ta. His drama Raghu-vaá¹Å›a is especially famous. We have already described Jayadeva in chapter thirteen of the Ä€di-lÄ«lÄ.
