Text 7.48

धातुमत्तां गिरेर् वीक्ष्य चक्षुषाम् उत्सवं कुरु. अत्र मत्तेति क्षीवार्थेन निहतार्थः. चक्षुषाम् इति बहुत्वं निरर्थकम्.

dhātumattāṃ girer vīkṣya cakṣuṣām utsavaṃ kuru. atra matteti kṣīvārthena nihatārthaḥ. cakṣuṣām iti bahutvaṃ nirarthakam.

(5) (7) [This shows nihatārtha and nirarthaka in parts of words:] dhātumattāṃ girer vīkṣya cakṣuṣām utsavaṃ kuru, “Take note that the mountain has pigments, and make a festival for the eyes.” Here mattā (the state of having) is a meaning that is obstructed (nihatārtha) by the sense of ‘drunk’. Moreover, the plural in cakṣuṣām (for many eyes) is meaningless (nirarthaka).

Commentary:

This is Mammaṭa’s example of nirarthaka in a part of a word:

ādāv añjana-puñja-lipta-vapuṣāṃ śvāsānilollāsita-protsarpad-virahānalena ca tataḥ santāpitānāṃ dṛśām |
sampraty eva niṣekam aśru-payasā devasya ceto-bhuvo bhallīnām iva pāna-karma kurute kāmaṃ kuraṅgekṣaṇā ||

“At first her eyes were anointed with eyeliner. Afterward they were scorched by the rising fire of separation, enhanced by the wind of her sighs. Now the doe-eyed woman in love is moistening her eyes with the water of her tears as if she were sharpening Cupid’s arrows by wetting them.”

Her glances are compared to Cupid’s arrows. In the old days, the procedure for sharpening a metallic weapon was to smear it with ashes, heat it with fire, and immerse it in water.^[1]

Mammaṭa elaborates:

atra dṛśām iti bahu-vacanaṃ nirarthakam, kuraṅgekṣaṇāyā ekasyā evopādānāt. […] atraiva kurute ity ātmanepadam apy anarthakam, pradhāna-kriyā-phalasya kartr-asambandhe kartr-abhiprāya-kriyāphalābhāvāt,

“Here the plural in dṛśām (of many eyes) is meaningless (nirarthaka), since only one doe-eyed woman is spoken of. In addition, the ātmanepada in kurute (she does) is meaningless, because according to the rule, the result of the action (here the result of the sharpening of the arrows of her glances is the bewilderment of the persons who are the target of her glances) should belong to the doer, yet here that is not the case insofar as the main result of the action has no connection with her, the doer” (Kāvya-prakāśa, verse 200 vṛtti).^[2]

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

aśru-payasā niṣekaṃ kurute tac cetobhuvo bhallīnāṃ pāna-karmevety utprekṣā. śastraṃ paṅkena liptvāgnau santāpya payasi nikṣipyata iti pāna-karma-svarūpam. dṛśaḥ kāma-śastratvenādhyavasāyād ittham uktiḥ (Uddyota).

[2]:

The grammatical rule is: ñidbhya ubhayapadibhyo ṇeḥ kartṛ-gāmi-kriyā-phale, “When the result of the action goes to the doer, an ātmanepada suffix is applied after ubhayapadī verbal roots, verbal causative verbs,and verbal rootswhich have the indicatory letter ñ” (Hari-nāmāmṛta-vyākaraṇa 721) (ṇicaś ca, Aṣṭādhyāyī 1.3.74). The verbal root in kurute is [ḍu]kṛ[ñ] karaṇe (8U) (to do).