Text 4.86

उदाहरणम्,

udāharaṇam,

This is an example of an artha-śakti-bhū dhvani in a prabandha (short story):

kim atra viśrāmyasi kṛṣṇa-bhoginivāsa-bhūmau vaṭa-pādapānte |
prayāti tigma-dyutir asta-śailaṃ bhrātar niśāpy adya ghanāndhakārā ||
cakāsti saudho’yam udīkṣyamāṇo nandasya goṣṭhādhipateḥ purastāt |
abhyāgatān pādya-mukhopacārair yasmin sa-bhāryo’rcayate sa modāt ||

kim—why; atra—here; viśrāmyasi—you relax; kṛṣṇa-bhogi—of the black snake (or of the hedonist called Kṛṣṇa); nivāsa-bhūmau—which is the place of residence; vaṭa-pādapa-ante—at the edge of a Banyan tree; prayāti—is going; tigma-dyutiḥ—the sun (“whose radiance is intense”); asta-śailam—to the western mountain (the horizon); bhrātaḥ—O brother (i.e. O friend); niśā—the night; api—and; adya—now; ghana-andhakārā—is very dark; cakāsti—shines; saudhaḥ—mansion; ayam—this; udīkṣyamāṇaḥ—which is being seen upward; nandasya—of Nanda; goṣṭha-adhipateḥ—who is the ruler of the cowherd community; purastāt—in front; abhyāgatān—the guests (especially uninvited guests); pādya-mukha—among which the main thing is special wat+er for washing the feet; upacāraiḥ—with articles of worship; yasmin—in which [mansion]; sa-bhāryaḥ—he along with the wife; arcayate—worships; saḥ—he (Nanda); modāt—out of joy.

[Rādha despatched a messenger, who disguised herself as a man. The messenger talks to Kṛṣṇa, who was in Nanda’s presence: “O Kṛṣṇa, Rādhā told me:]

Friend, why are you taking rest at the base of the Banyan tree, which is the place where a black snake lives (or which is the place where the sybarite called Kṛṣṇa abides)? Now the sun is reaching the horizon, and here the nights get very dark. Not far ahead is the mansion of Nanda, the chief of cowherds. Therein, with pādya and other articles of worship, he and his wife joyfully honor even the uninvited guests.” (based on Gīta-govinda 6.12)

atra vallavī-kṛṣṇayor niśābhisāriṇor nānā-vidha-vinoda-bhūr iyaṃ nyagrodha-maṇḍalīti vastunā vastu vyajyate. evam anye’py ekādaśa bhedā mṛgyāḥ. tad evaṃ saptacatvāriṃśad bhedāḥ.

Here a vastu (the implied double meaning on kṛṣṇa-bhogin, “the Banyan tree is the place where the hedonist called Kṛṣṇa abides”) suggests another vastu: The Banyan tree is the location for Rādhā’s and Kṛṣṇa’s tryst.

The other eleven varieties can be researched in this way. Thus there are forty-seven kinds of dhvanis (the previous thirty-five and these twelve varieties of artha-śakti-bhū dhvani in a prabandha).

Commentary:

Here Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa implicitly illustrates a svataḥ sambhavi vastu-dhvani that gives rise to a vastu-dhvani. In truth, however, the first vastu-dhvani (the Banyan tree is the place where the pleasure-seeker called Kṛṣṇa abides) partly arises by śabda-śakti because the key word, kṛṣṇa-bhogin, consists of the śabda-śakti of the word kṛṣṇa (black; Kṛṣṇa) and of the śabda-śakti of the word bhogin (snake; enjoyer): Neither of them can be replaced with a synonym. According to Viśvanātha Kavirāja, a śabda-śakti-bhū dhvani can occur in a prabandha.^[1] However, neither he nor anyone else counts it in the total of fifty-one dhvanis (4.96).

The second vastu-dhvani (the Banyan tree is the location for the tryst) also arises by the artha-śakti of the words nivāsa-bhūmau vaṭa-pādapānte (at the edge of a Banyan tree, which is the place of residence). However, neither Mammaṭa nor Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa recognizes that a vastu-dhvani can arise from ubhaya-śakti (Commentary 4.75)

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

eka-pañcāśad iti, […] iti sapta-catvāriṃśat, asaṃlakṣya-krama-vyaṅgyasya ca padāṃśādi-vṛttitvenāpi cāturvidhyam iti vyākhyātā darśitāḥ. na tv etāvanta eveti niyamaḥ śabda-śakty-udbhavasyāpi prabandha-vyaṅgyatāyā darśitatvāt (Kāvya-prakāśa-darpaṇa 4.43).