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 10.43
[This is an example of śuddha sandeha (the doubt remains):]
कृष्णस्य वक्त्रं किं पद्मैः किं चन्द्रेण विनिर्मितम् |
उल्लासयति नेत्रालिं तद्वन् मे सुख-सागरम् ||
kṛṣṇasya vaktraṃ kiṃ padmaiḥ kiṃ candreṇa vinirmitam |
ullāsayati netrāliṃ tadvan me sukha-sāgaram ||
Was Kṛṣṇa’s face made with lotuses or with the moon? It delights my eyes like they do, and to me it is an ocean of happiness like they are.
atra saṃśaya eva paryavasānāt śuddhaḥ saḥ. utprekṣāyām utkaṭā sambhāvya-bhūtaikā koṭir iha tu samakakṣatayā koṭi-dvaya-pratītir iti bhedaḥ.
This verse features the śuddha variety because the sense culminates in uncertainty.
The difference between sandeha and utprekṣā is that in sandeha, there is a perception that both possibilities are equally prominent, whereas in utprekṣā only one possibility, the fanciful assumption, is immensely more prominent.
Commentary:
The śuddha variety of sandeha is characterized by the nonmention of a dissimilarity of attribute. This is Mammaṭa’s example:
asyāḥ sarga-vidhau prajāpatir abhūc candro nu kānti-pradaḥ
śṛṅgāraika-rasaḥ svayaṃ nu madano māso nu puṣpākaraḥ |
vedābhyāsa-jaḍaḥ kathaṃ nu viṣaya-vyāvṛtta-kautūhalo
nirmātuṃ prabhaven manoharam idaṃ rūpaṃ purāṇo muniḥ ||“[Purūravā speaks about Urvaśī:] Was the moon, which gives off splendor, the designer of the creation of this woman? Or perhaps Cupid himself, whose sole rasa is śṛṅgāra, was the designer. Or else maybe springtime itself, abounding in flowers, was the designer? How could Brahmā, the ancient seer, possibly be able to create this ravishing form? He was numbed by his study of the Vedas and has no interest for sensory objects.” (Kālidāsa’s Vikramorvaśīyam) (Kāvya-prakāśa, verse 420)
The verse does not feature an upamāna for the subject of description (Urvaśī). Rather, the moon, Cupid, and spring each have an attribute which is also a feature of her body. For instance, Nāgeśa Bhaṭṭa explains that in her face, flowers have the forms of lips (a red flower), teeth (jasmines), and so on (eyes are lotuses, the nose is a sesame flower, etc.).[1]