Text 7.71

स्थानं पदम्. अस्थान-स्थ-पदं यथा,

sthānaṃ padam. asthāna-stha-padaṃ yathā,

(14) The fault called apada-stha-pada (wrongly placed word) means asthāna-stha-pada (a word positioned in the wrong place).

For example:

vivāha-veṣeṇa tadā murārer babhūva yā śrīḥ kavayantu ke tām |
sapatna-bhāvād iva sābhyasūyā sarasvatī kvāpi na tāṃ vyanakti ||

vivāha—during the wedding; veṣeṇa—on account of the dress; tadā—then; murāreḥ—of Murāri; babhūva—occurred; yā—which; śrīḥ—beauty; kavayantu—can describe; ke—who; tām—that [beauty]; sapatna-bhāvāt—on account of enmity; iva—as if; sa-abhyasūyā—envious; sarasvatī—Sarasvatī; kva api na—never; tām—that [beauty]; vyanakti—expresses.

Murāri looked resplendent in His wedding dress. Who can describe the resplendence He had at that time? Even Sarasvatī never reveals it, being jealous as if because of rivalry. (Alaṅkāra-kaustubha 10.97)

atra tāṃ neti sthāna-sthitiḥ. pada-mātrasyāsthāna-niveśād eva vākyam iṣṭārtha-pratyāyana-mantharam iti vākya-doṣatā.

Here the order should have been: tāṃ na vyanakti instead of na tāṃ vyanakti. The faultiness of the sentence lies in the fact that, since a mere word is wrongly placed, the intended sense of the sentence is grasped with tardiness.

Commentary:

The term na[ñ] is not a pada (declined word). Rather it is a dyotaka, which is one of two kinds of indeclinable words. Words like ca and iti are dyotakas, yet a discrepancy in their usage is the fault called akrama (bad word order) (7.82). By contrast, the faulty usage of na[ñ] is classed in apada-stha-pada simply because the proper positioning of na[ñ] is not always fixed. Kavikarṇapūra says akrama is a subvariety of apada-stha-pada (wrongly placed word).^[1]

Further, even the replacement “tāṃ na vyanakti” is faulty. It is the fault called sandeha (ambiguous), because “sarasvatī kvāpi tāṃ na vyanakti” can be interpreted to mean: “Sarasvatī does not reveal it anywhere.” Therefore the proper version is: vāṇī na kutrāpi tāṃ vyanakti, “Sarasvatī never reveals it.”

Mammaṭa gives this example:

priyeṇa saṅgrathya vipakṣa-sannidhāv upāhitāṃ vakṣasi pīvara-stane |
srajaṃ na kācid vijahau jalāvilāṃ^[2] vasanti hi premṇi guṇā na vastuṣu ||

[The context is water pastimes^[3] :] “The lover strung a garland and placed it on the chest of his sweetheart in the presence of her rivals. Her breasts were plump. No woman relinquished the garland although it was withered by water. Qualities reside in love, not in things” (Kirātārjunīyam 8.37) (cited in Caitanya-caritāmṛta 3.10.21).

Mammaṭa explains: atra kācin na vijahau iti vācyam, “Here the words na kācid vijahau (no woman relinquished) should have been: kācin na vijahau (some woman did not relinquish) (Kāvya-prakāśa, verse 236 vṛtti). Moreover, the verse features the arthāntara-nyāsa ornament (corroboration).

Viśvanātha Kavirāja gives this example: tīrthe tadīye gaja-setubandhāt pratīpa-gām uttarato’sya gaṅgām, “In the holy place related to it, he was crossing the Ganges, which was flowing backward because of the bridge of elephants” (Raghu-vaṃśa 16.33).

He explains: atra tadīya-padāt pūrvaṃ gaṅgām ity asya pāṭho yuktaḥ, “The word Ganges, the antecedent, should have been placed before the pronoun tadīye (related to it)” (Sāhitya-darpaṇa 7.8).

However, the reflexive pronoun sva (own) does not have to be stated before its antecedent. For instance: sve sve karmaṇy abhirataḥ saṃsiddhiṃ labhate naraḥ (Bhagavad-gītā 18.45). Kavikarṇapūra indicates that such a usage is proper.^[4]

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

kramas tad-anyathākramaḥ. asthāna-stha-padād atrāyaṃ bhedaḥ (Alaṅkāra-kaustubha 10.105).

[2]:

The fault called anabhihita-vācya (lack of expression) occurs here because jalāvilām (withered by water) should have been jalāvilām api (although withered by water). The word was added in the translation. Nāgeśa Bhaṭṭa comments: jalāvilāṃ jalena mlānām api (Uddyota).

[3]:

kirāte jala-krīḍā-varṇane kasyāścid varṇanam idam (Uddyota).

[4]:

“svābhirūpya-kamalākara-jāte paṅkaje iva saha bhramarābhyām, niḥsarottara-kṛpā-makarande mādhavasya nayaṇe rurucāte.” atra sva-śabdo mādhave vivakṣitaḥ. sa tu vākya-maryādayā kartṛ-gatatvena pratibhāsamāno nayana-bhramara-gata eva jātaḥ. tenābhirūpyety eva śuddham (Alaṅkāra-kaustubha 10.90).