Text 5.5

[This verse is shown as another instance of rasavat,]

धन्यं वृन्दारण्यं यस्मिन् विलसति सदैव रमणीभिः |
प्रति-कुञ्जं प्रति-पुलिनं प्रति-गिरि-कन्दरम् असौ कृष्णः ||

dhanyaṃ vṛndāraṇyaṃ yasmin vilasati sadaiva ramaṇībhiḥ |
prati-kuñjaṃ prati-pulinaṃ prati-giri-kandaram asau kṛṣṇaḥ ||

dhanyam—fortunate; vṛndā-araṇyam—Vṛndā’s forest; yasmin—wherein; vilasati—He has fun; sadā—always; eva—indeed; ramaṇībhiḥ—with beautiful women; prati-kuñjam—in every arbor; prati-pulinam—on every riverbank; prati-giri-kandaram—in every cave of the mountain (Govardhana); asau—He (the well-known one); kṛṣṇaḥ—Kṛṣṇa.

Vṛndā’s forest is a fortunate place. Therein, in every arbor, on every riverbank, and in every cave of the mountain, Kṛṣṇa always has fun with sexy young ladies. (Govinda-līlāmṛta 17.43)

atra vana-varṇana-bhāvasya sambhoga-śṛṅgāra iti rasavat.

Here, love in meeting (sambhoga-śṛṅgāra) is a subsidiary aspect of the mood of a description of the forest. Here ends the rasavat ornament.

Commentary:

The verse only illustrates the second variety of the udātta ornament (exalted) (10.160). The verse suggests Kṛṣṇa’s sthāyi-bhāva, which is a subsidiary aspect of the description of a location (the forest), yet a mere description of the forest is not a bhāva, therefore even the preyas ornament does not take place here. A mention of the forest would be classed as bhāva if the forest were praised. In adjacent verses, the context is simply a description of Kṛṣṇa.

This is Mammaṭa’s example of rasavat,

kailāsālaya-bhāla-locana-rucā nirvartitālaktaka-vyaktiḥ pāda-nakha-dyutir giri-bhuvaḥ sā vaḥ sadā trāyatām |
spardhā-bandha-samṛddhayeva sudṛḍhaṃ rūḍhā yayā netrayoḥ kāntiḥ kokanadānukāra-sarasā sadyaḥ samutsāryate ||

“May the sheen of Pārvatī’s foot nails always protect you. The sheen of her red nail-polish on her feet was heightened by the splendor of the eye on Śiva’s forehead. The luster of her eyes, which was lovely because they resembled two red lotuses, at once vanished due to that sheen, which had intensely increased in that way as if it were motivated by a mood of competition” (Kāvya-prakāśa, verse 117).

In this verse, the śṛṅgāra-rasa of Śiva and Pārvatī is a subsidiary aspect of a bhāva which is the speaker’s reverence for Pārvatī.^[1] Still, the verse can be classed as first-rate poetry because although the verse fits in the category of rasavat, it is greatly enhanced by ornaments and by implied meanings (Commentary 6.4). The three ornaments are: (1) An upamā (simile): Her eyes resemble two red lotuses, (2) An utprekṣā (fanciful imagination): The sheen increased as if it were motivated by a mood of competition, and (3) An implicit utprekṣā: The red luster of her eyes at once vanished as if due to that sheen. The two implied meanings are: (A) Pārvatī’s eyes were red since she was in māna, and (B) Śiva had fallen at her feet to propitiate her. Those two eminently suggest vipralambha. Ānandavardhana says that second-rate poetry is upgraded to first-rate if the second-rate implied sense accompanies a first-rate rasādi-dhvani.^[2]

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

atra vaktur devī-viṣayaka-rati-rūpa-bhāve devayoḥ śṛṅgāro’ṅgam (Kāvya-pradīpa).

[2]:

guṇībhūta-vyaṅgyo’pi kāvya-prakāro rasa-bhāvādi-tātparyālocane punar dhvanir eva sampadyate (Dhvanyāloka 3.40).