Mudrarakshasa (literary study)
by Antara Chakravarty | 2015 | 58,556 words
This page relates ‘Use of Rupaka-alamkara’ of the English study on the Mudrarakshasa: an ancient Sanskrit dramatic play (Nataka) authored by Vishakhadatta which deals with the life of king Chandragupta. This study investigates the Mudra Rakshasa from a literary perspective, such as metrics, themes, rhetorics and other poetical elements. Chandragupta ruled the Mauryan Empire during the 4th century BCE, hence this text can also be studied as a historical textbook of ancient India.
3.5. Use of Rūpaka-alaṃkāra
[Full title: Use of Alaṃkāra in Mudrārākṣasa: Arthālaṃkāras, Sādṛśyamūlaka (or Sādṛṣyagarbha) (2). Rūpaka]
In Mudrārākṣasa, Rūpaka has a good role in beautifying the speeches of the characters. According to Viśvanātha,
rūpakaṃ rūpitāropadviṣaye nirapahnave.[1]
“Rūpaka consists in the representation of the subject of description, which (subject) is not concealed, as identified with another”
Viṣaya, is an object upon which something is superimposed and viṣayī is the object, superimposed upon another. So, viṣaya and viṣayī are here equivalent respectively to upameya and upamāna. Rūpakālaṃkāra also can be divided into various types. A good number of Rūpakas of different kinds is used by the dramatist in this drama.[2]
In the first act in the speeches of Cāṇakya—
śyāmīkṛtyānanendūnariyuvatidiśāṃ saṅtataiḥ śokadhūmaiḥ
kāmaṃ mantridrūmaibhyo nayapavanahṛtaṃ mohabhaṣma prakīrya/
dagdhvā saṃbhrāntapauradvijagaṇarahitānnandavaṃśaprarohān
dāhyābhāvānnakhedājjvalana iva vane śāmyati krodhavahniḥ//[3]
There is śliṣṭa-sāṅga-rūpaka. Because, here the superimposition of forest fire on his wrath, rise to several other superimpositions, such as, the quarters on the enemyladies; moon on the faces; smokes on grieves; trees on the ministers; the wind on the statesmanship; ashes on the insensibility; flocks of birds on the citizens and finally the bamboo-shoots on the scion of the Nanda dynasty.
Again,—
kauṭilydhīrajjunibaddhamūrtiṃ manye sthirāṃ mauryanṛpasya lakṣmīṃ/
upāyahastairapi rāksasena vikṛṣyamānāmiva lakṣayāmi//[4]
In the above verse, Ahituṇḍika expresses his feelings that the royal splendour (rājalakṣmī), i.e., sovereignty of Candragupta as stable with her form tied down by the rope in the form of Kauṭilya’s wit so that she cannot leave Candragupta. But at the same time he (Ahituṇḍika) feels as if, she (rājalakṣīmi) is being dragged down along by Rākṣasa with hands in the form of expedients. Here, dhīrajju is a Rūpaka giving rise to another in the 3rd line of the verse upāyahasta [upāyahastaiḥ]. The figure of speech here, therefore, Paramparita-rūpaka.
The 9th verse of Act V is laden with the Niraṅga-kevala-rūpakalaṃkāra. cf.,—
“(To himself) We bow to loyalty, which is a mother to those of our type drawing us toward her virtues and makes us blind to faults.”[5]
Herein, the svagata (to himself) speech, Siddhārthaka makes a salutation to ‘devotion to the master’, superimposing on their ‘mother’, which makes them see only the excellence and ignore faults. Here, the expression, asmādṛśajananai svāmibhaktai bears the above mentioned alaṃkāra.
This perhaps establishes the dramatist’s penchant for this beautiful form of alaṃkāra called Rūpaka.
Footnotes and references:
[1]:
Sāhityadarpaṇa, X.27
[2]:
Mudrārākṣasa, I.7,9,10,15; II.8,23; III.7,13,21,28,29,30; IV.18; V.9; VI. 1, 2, 4, 16, 19; VII.9 etc.
[3]:
I.11
[4]:
Mudrārākṣasa, II.2
[5]:
ānayantvai gunesu dosesu parāṅmukhaṃ kurvatyai/ asmādṛśajananyai praṇamāmaḥ svāmibhaktyai// Ibid. V.9