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...
Text 10.7
उदाहरणम्,
udāharaṇam,
These are the examples of elliptical similes characterized by the ellipsis of the common attribute (dharma-lope luptopamā):
vadanaṃ vidhur yathoktiḥ sudheva tulyā tanūḥ prasūnena |
adharas tu bimba-bandhur manaḥ kathaṃ kuliśa-kalpaṃ te ||
vadanam—face; vidhuḥ—the moon; yathā—like; uktiḥ—speech; sudhā—nectar; iva—like; tulyā—similar; tanūḥ—body; prasūnena—to a flower; adharaḥ—lower lip; tu—however; bimba—of the bimba fruit; bandhuḥ—the friend; manaḥ—mind (or heart); katham—why?; kuliśa—a thunderbolt; kalpam—almost like; te—your.
Your face is like the moon (te vadanaṃ vidhur yathā).
Your speech is like nectar (te uktiḥ sudhā-iva).
Your body resembles a flower (te tanūḥ prasūnena tulyā).
Your netherlip is the friend of a ripe bimba fruit (te adharo bimba-bandhuḥ).
Why is your heart almost like a thunderbolt? (te manaḥ kathaṃ kuliśa-kalpam)
atra dharma-lope pañcadhā luptā kramād bodhyā.
In this verse, the five kinds of elliptical simile when there is an ellipsis of the common attribute are to be understood by the sequence (10.6).
Commentary:
The common attributes which were elided in the above five examples are as follows, sequentially: being beautiful, being sweet, being lovely, being red, and being hard. The purpose of eliding one or more elements of a complete simile is to add literary charm, since the missing element is left to be implied, and an implied sense is the life of poetry.