Aristotle’s Poetics: Sanskrit Translation and Critical Study

Aristotle's Poetics is acclaimed as a seminar work on western aesthetics, in general and on literary theory, in particular. However, critical ideas on aesthetics were not altogether wanting in pre-Aristotelian writings such as those of Plato and Xeonphon. Aristotle's distinction lies in being the first author in western intellectual history to have authored a whole treatise on aesthetics and poetics. Notwithstanding the still extant controversy as to whether the Poetics is a full fledged treatise written by the author himself or merely a notebook prepared by his students from his lectures, the very fact that Aristotle could conceive in the 4th century B.C. of a discourse on the theories of the fine arts independently of metaphysics and other branches of human knowledge is in itself enough to win him laurels once for all. For, Aristotle's Poetics is the first book not merely of western literary theory but of the literary theory of the entire world as such. For instance, even the fairly ancient Natyasastra of Bharata, the first book of its kind on Indian dramaturgy and aesthetics, is later than Aristotle's work by nearly two centuries.