This is a study of the growth of poetics, theory of literature, literary artefacts, aesthetics of literature as an art form, dramaturgy and philosophy of literature. It deals with the rise of the discipline of poetics in India and the West, throwing light on concepts of rasa, alamkara, riti, dhvani, vakrokti, auchitya and so on. It probes the language of literature, literary meaning and its types, literary conventions and referentiality and verisimilitude in the context of literary meaning. There is a comparative study of the Western literary tradition that is traced to Greek thought and the Indian tradition which has its base in classical Tamil, Pali, Prakrit and Sanskrit works. It involves a detailed inquiry into the homogeneous nature of the Indian tradition and its focus on theoretical questions of literature and its elements as against the focus of Western tradition on literary criticism.