The background of the samastavastuvisayarupaka and its importance in early kavya

This essay aims at reconstructing some steps in the evolution of the rupaka within the framework of broader research in progress of the genesis of classical Indian literature. The starting-point is the importance that the early kavya works and the most ancient theoreticians seem to attribute to the samastavastuvishayarupaka-s. As a working hypothesis, the recurring occurrences of the epic and kavya works have been examined as a final stage in the continuous slow evolution of a similar intellectual attitude towards a reality which crosses ritual, speculative and finally poetical contexts, whose technical formulation could be informative about the date and the milieu of the origin of kavya.