Text 2.14

विषय्य्-अन्तः-कृतेऽन्यस्मिन् सा स्यात् साध्यवसानिका ॥ २.११cd ॥

viṣayy-antaḥ-kṛte'nyasmin sā syāt sādhyavasānikā ||2.11cd||

viṣayī—by the āropyamāṇa (the thing being superimposed) (the standard of comparison); antaḥ-kṛte—is absorbed (“was put inside”); anyasmin—when the other (the viṣaya, the subject of the superimposition, i.e. the object upon which the thing is superimposed); sā—that (Indication) (or sāropā lakṣaṇā); syāt—is; sa-adhyavasānikā—it has an introsusception (sa-adhyavasānikā = sa-adhyavasānā).^[1] Sāropā lakṣaṇā becomes sādhyavasānā lakṣaṇā (it has an introsusception) when the subject of the comparison is subsumed by the standard of comparison.

viṣayiṇāropyamāṇenānyasminn āropa-viṣaye’ntaḥ-kṛte nigīrṇe saiva sādhyavasānocyate. yathā “gaur evāyam” ity-ādau. gaveha vāhīko’ntar-nigīrṇaḥ. evam “amṛtam evedam” ity-ādau ca, asmin bheda-dvaye saty api bhede tādrūpya-pratītiḥ sarvathābhedāvagamaś ca phalam.

When the subject upon which a thing is superimposed (anyasmin = āropa-viṣaye) is swallowed (antaḥ-kṛte = nigīrṇe) by the thing being superimposed (viṣayī = viṣayiṇā = āropyamāṇena) (the standard of comparison), the Indication is called sādhyavasānā (it involves an introsusception). An example is: gaur evāyam (the ox). Here the outsider was swallowed by the ox. Another instance is: amṛtam evedam (the nectar).

The purpose (the implied sense) of sāropā gauṇī-lakṣaṇā (such as “The outsider is an ox”) is the perception of a similarity of identity, when there is a difference. And the purpose of sādhyavasānā gauṇī-lakṣaṇā (“the ox”) is the understanding of a nondifference in every way.

Commentary:

Sādhyavasānā is the seed of the first variety of the atiśayokti ornament (introsusception) (2.16). For the most part, sādhyavasānā corresponds to metonymy.

Moreover, these terms are synonymous: gauṇī-vṛtti (the rhetorical function called gauṇī), gauṇī vṛtti (the qualitative rhetorical function), guṇa-vṛtti (the rhetorical function that relates to a quality), gauṇī-lakṣaṇā (Indication called gauṇī), gauṇī lakṣaṇā (qualitative Indication), and gauṇa-lakṣaṇā (qualitative Indication). The same scheme applies to other terms, such as mukhyā vṛtti (the main rhetorical function) and mukhyā-vṛtti (the rhetorical function called mukhyā).

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

The word adhyavasāna literally means “ascertainment” and “effort”, but in poetics it has the sense of “the absorption of one thing into another.”