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 4.59
तेष्व् आद्यम् आह,
teṣv ādyam āha,
Among those three, he elaborates upon the first one (śabda-śakti-bhū dhvani):
alaṅkāro’tha vastv eva śabdād yatrāvabhāsate ||4.38ab||
pradhānatvena sa jñeyaḥ śabda-śakty-udbhavo dvidhā ||4.39cd||
alaṅkāraḥ—a literary ornament; atha—and; vastu—an idea; eva—only; śabdāt—from a word (or from the words); yatra—in which [dhvani-kāvya]; avabhāsate—manifests; pradhānatvena—predominantly; saḥ—that [dhvani-kāvya]; jñeyaḥ—is known; śabda-śakti-udbhavaḥ—arisen from the force of a word; dvidhā—twofold.
The implied sense which predominantly manifests from the words and which is either an ornament (alaṅkāra) or only an idea (vastu) is called śabda-śakti-bhū (arisen by the power of a word). Thus it has two varieties.
vastv eveti, analaṅkāraṃ vastu-mātram.
The term vastu eva (only an idea) signifies that a vastu (idea) is not the form of an ornament.
Commentary:
An alaṅkāra-dhvani is simply a vastu-dhvani that fits in one of the definitions of ornaments of meaning. Similarly, a rasādi-dhvani is simply a vastu-dhvani that fits in one of the definitions of a rasa and so on.