Sahitya-kaumudi by Baladeva Vidyabhushana

by Gaurapada Dāsa | 2015 | 234,703 words

Baladeva Vidyabhusana’s Sahitya-kaumudi covers all aspects of poetical theory except the topic of dramaturgy. All the definitions of poetical concepts are taken from Mammata’s Kavya-prakasha, the most authoritative work on Sanskrit poetical rhetoric. Baladeva Vidyabhushana added the eleventh chapter, where he expounds additional ornaments from Visv...

न लवो'पि लवेन च व्यथायाः
  परिवृद्धौ विदुनोति यस्य सर्वः |
न खलो नख-लोमतो मतो न्यस्-
  तम् अबद्धाः किल केन संत्यजेयुः ||

na lavo'pi lavena ca vyathāyāḥ
  parivṛddhau vidunoti yasya sarvaḥ
|
na khalo nakha-lomato mato nyas-
  tam abaddhāḥ kila kena saṃtyajeyuḥ
||

na lavaḥ api—not even a trace; lavena—with a fragment; ca—(verse filler); vyathāyāḥ—of pain; parivṛddhau—when there is an increase; vidunotipains; yasya—whose; sarvaḥ—all (miscreants) (any); na—not; khalaḥ—a miscreant; nakha—of the nails; lomataḥ—than the hair; mataḥ—thought of; nyastam—in the manner of being put down; abaddhāḥ—those who are unrestrained; kila—indeed; kena—by whom?; saṃtyajeyuḥ—can be abandoned.

A miscreant should not be thought of more than the hair of the nails.

evam-ādi-vaicitrya-sahasra-bhāg idaṃ kliṣṭa-kāvyam iti kṛtsnaṃ na vivṛtam. gadyeṣu tu nirantaraivāvṛttiḥ. yathā, “jaya jaya sac-cidānanda-ghana-ghana-ghaṭā-medura-duravagāha-līlaḥ” ity-ādi.

Yamaka has thousands of varieties in this way. Yamaka is the reason poetry is hard to make, thus here it is not entirely expounded. In prose, however, a repetition is constant. For instance: jaya jaya sac-cid-ānanda-ghana-ghana-ghaṭā-medura-duravagāha-līlaḥ, “Glory, glory to He who is real, whose awareness is deep, who has dense bliss, who is glistening like rainclouds, and whose pastimes are unfathomable.”

Commentary:

One yamaka is: ghana ghana. The first word ghana means dense, and the second one means cloud. The other yamaka is “dura dura.” In this one, each sound is meaningless.

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