Text 4.60

क्रमेणोदाहरणानि,

krameṇodāharaṇāni,

Examples are given in order (this illustrates an alaṅkāra-dhvani arisen by śabda-śakti):

so’yaṃ vasanta-samayaḥ samiyāya yasmin pūrṇaṃ tam īśvaram upoḍha-navānurāgam |
gūḍha-grahā rucirayā saha rādhayāsau raṅgāya saṅgamayitā niśi paurṇamāsī ||

saḥ ayam—that well-known; vasanta-samayaḥ—springtime; samiyāya—arrived; yasmin—in which; pūrṇam—who is complete (or in a complete way); tam—Him; īśvaram—the Lord; upoḍha-nava-anurāgam—by whom a new passion was obtained; gūḍha-grahā—[the full-moon night,] by which the stars were concealed; rucirayā—who is exquisitely beautiful; saha rādhayā—with Rādhā; asau—that [well-known full-moon night]; raṅgāya—for the stage (i.e. for the sake of going to the stage^[1] of the Rāsa dance of spring); saṅgamayitā—caused to meet; niśi—at night; paurṇamāsī—the tithi (lunar day) of the full moon (or Paurṇamāsī).

The famous spring season arrived in full force: The full-moon tithi, during which the planets are concealed, made Him, the Lord, who had imbibed a new passion, meet with Rādhā, who is exquisitely beautiful, for the sake of going to the stage of the Rāsa dance at night. (Vidagdha-mādhava, Prologue10)

atra prākaraṇika-śrī-kṛṣṇa-varṇane’prākaraṇika-candra-varṇanam asambaddhaṃ mā bhūd iti tayoś candra-kṛṣṇayoḥ upamānopameya-bhāvaḥ kalpyate, tenātropamālaṅkāro vyaṅgyaḥ. alaṅkāryasyāpy alaṅkāratā brāhmaṇa-śramaṇa-nyāyāt. evam anye ca.

In this verse, a description of the moon, which is not the subject matter given that the description of Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the actual subject matter (in previous verses), has no reason to be incoherent, therefore the relation of upamāna (the standard of comparison) and upameya (the subject of the comparison) between the moon and Kṛṣṇa is conceived. The upamā ornament (simile) is implied in that way.

The fact that even the alaṅkārya (the implied sense) is an alaṅkāra (a figure of speech) occurs from the logical reasoning in calling a renunciant a Brāhmaṇa although officially he is no longer a Brāhmaṇa. This is the case for other alaṅkāra-dhvanis as well.

Commentary:

Kṛṣṇa is compared to the moon since the traditional concept is that at the time (tithi) of the full moon of the month of Vaiśākha (April-May), the moon enters the constellation named rādhā. The simile is facilitated by the implied double meaning of rādhayā (with Rādhā). The simile arises by the force of the word (śabda-śakti), not by the force of the meaning (artha-śakti), because the implied sense, the simile, would be altered by using a synonym of Rādhā, such as Rādhikā.

That implied simile is not only implied from the śabda-śakti of the word rādhā, it is also implied from the artha-śakti of the word paurṇamāsī (the tithi of the full moon) and from the artha-śakti of the words vasanta-samayaḥ samiyāya (springtime arrived). Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa gives prominence to śabda-śakti here, but arguably the implied simile arises from ubhaya-śakti, since śabda-śakti and artha-śakti have equal prominence as suggestive factors in this verse.

The word paurṇamāsī could be replaced with pūrṇimā (Amara-koṣa 1.4.7) without a change in the force of the word, providing the replacement fits the meter. The same applies to the words vasanta-samayaḥ samiyāya.

Here the upamā alaṅkāra (simile) is called alaṅkārya because it is implied, in other words it is what has to be embellished (alaṅkārya) by the words in the text. The term alaṅkārya denotes the alaṅkāra’s status as a first-rate implied sense. The term alaṅkāra has been used since the time of Bharata Muni,^[2] therefore an upamā-dhvani (implied simile) is still called an alaṅkāra (alaṅkāra-dhvani) by the model that a Sannyāsī is called a Brāhmaṇa although officially he is no longer a Brāhmaṇa.

In the old school of poetics, the term alaṅkāra (ornament) signifies that a figure of speech adorns (alaṅkaroti) the literal sense of the sentence. In the new school, however, the idea is that an ornament is so called because it adorns the rasa,^[3] thus in this perspective too the usage of the word alaṅkāra in the term alaṅkāra-dhvani (implied ornament) is justified.

The verse contains more outstanding implied meanings. The implied simile (Kṛṣṇa is like the full moon of Vaiśākha, which includes the notion that Rādhā is like the Rādhā constellation) suggests another implied simile: The other gopīs are like stars. This dhvani arises from the power of the meanings (artha-śakti) in the word gūḍha-grahā, “[the tithi of the full moon,] when the planets^[4] are concealed.” Here the compound gūḍha-grahā could be replaced with a synonym such as gupta-nakṣatrā (when the constellations are hidden). In addition, this implied simile suggests the idea that the gopīs other than Rādhā do not play a prominent role during the Rāsa dance of spring.

The verse can also be construed as follows: “Paurṇamāsī (paurṇamāsī), the perception of whom is concealed (gūḍha-grahā), made Him meet with Rādhā for the sake of going to the stage of the Rāsa dance at night.” This is an implied idea derived from the śabda-śakti of the word paurṇamāsī and from the śabda-śakti of the word gūḍha-grahā. The implied sense of “Paurṇamāsī” fits here because in the next passage of Vidagdha-mādhava, Paurṇamāsī, off-stage, says she is going to make Kṛṣṇa meet with Rādhā.^[5]

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

The word raṅgāya stands for raṅgaṃ gantum, by the rule: tumv-anta-kriyāntare gamye tat-karmaṇaś caturthī, “When another action, which ends in tum[u], is understood, a dative case ending is applied after the object of that action” (Hari-nāmāmṛta-vyākaraṇa 681); kriyārthopapadasya ca karmaṇi sthāninaḥ (Aṣṭādhyāyī 2.3.14).

[2]:

upamā rūpakaṃ caiva dīpakaṃ yamakaṃ tathā |
alaṅkārās tu vijñeyā catvāro nāṭakāśrayāḥ || (Nāṭya-śāstra 16.41)

[3]:

śabdārthayor asthirā ye dharmāḥ śobhātiśāyinaḥ |
rasādīn upakurvanto’laṅkārās te’ṅgadādi-vat || (Sāhitya-darpaṇa 10.1)

[4]:

The nine ‘planets’ (graha) referred to in Vedic astrology are: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, rāhu, ketu, the sun, and the moon.

[5]:

(nepathye): aye nartaka-sāmanta-sārvabhauma! kathaṃ bhavataḥ karṇa-purī-bhūtā bāḍhaṃ nigūḍheyaṃ sandarbha-mañjarī, yad ahaṃ rādhayā sārdham iśvaraṃ taṃ saṅgamayiṣyāmīti. [sutradhāraḥ] (savismayaṃ nepathyābhimukham avalokya) aho, katham ita eva bhagavati paurṇamāsi. paśya paśya (Vidagdha-mādhava, Prologue11).