Text 7.121

पान्तु वो नरसिंहस्य नख-लाङ्गल-कोटयः |
हिरण्यकशिपोर् वक्षः-क्षेत्रासृक्-कर्दमारुणाः ||

pāntu vo narasiṃhasya nakha-lāṅgala-koṭayaḥ |
hiraṇyakaśipor vakṣaḥ-kṣetrāsṛk-kardamāruṇāḥ ||

pāntu—protect; vaḥ—you all; nara-siṃhasya—of Nṛsiṃha; nakha—[in the form] of nails; lāṅgala—of ploughs; koṭayaḥ—the millions; hiraṇyakaśipoḥ—of Hiraṇyakaśipu; vakṣaḥ—of the chest; kṣetra—from the region; asṛk—[in the form] of blood; kardama—on account of mud; aruṇāḥ—reddish.

May the millions of ploughs of Nṛsiṃha’s nails protect you all. They were reddish with the slime which was the blood from Hiraṇya-kaśipu’s chest.

atroddhate vācye ojasvinaḥ śabdāḥ. pada-dyuti-vinirdhūtety-ādi, atra śṛṅgāre teṣām anaucitye’pi prastuta-smara-parārdha-parābhava-niveditasya vīrasyānuguṇyāt te nibadhyante.

Here sounds which have ojas (hard phonemes, harsh phonetic combinations, and long compounds) are used given that the literal sense is intense.

Although they are inappropriate in the context of śṛṅgāra-rasa, such sounds are constructed in the verse that begins pada-dyuti-vinirdhūta (6.4) (Ujjvala-nīlamaṇi 1.5) on account of a conformity with vīra-rasa, which is made to be understood by the defeat of Cupid a million times over, a contextual topic.

Commentary:

In his commentary on the verse of Ujjvala-nīlamaṇi, Viśvanātha Cakravartī does not say that only a secondary rasa justifies the usage of the phonemes which are adverse to the main rasa. He points out that hard phonemes are justified, even though the context is śṛṅgārarasa, simply because Kṛṣṇa defeats Cupid and because He defeats all male lovers, including Nārāyaṇa, thus the hard phonemes evoke the force of His superiority over Cupid “as if those words were great warriors.”^[1] Those phonemes, in addition to that long compound (pada-dyuti-vinirdhuta-smara-parārdha-rūpoddhatiḥ) and the harsh phonetic combinations in that compound, bring out ojas guṇa (the quality of vigor). A dhīra-lalita hero is not classed in the category of vīra-rasa (7.145).

In this regard, Paṇḍita-rāja Jagannātha is very flexible: He says ojas can suitably occur in the context of mādhurya if there is some purpose that justifies it, such as an intensity which is not in the scope of sweetness per se.^[2] The usage done by great poets is the final authority.

This is another example by Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja:

gaṇḍa-tāṇḍavātipaṇḍitāṇḍajeśa-kuṇḍalaś candra-padma-ṣaṇḍa-garva-khaṇḍanāsya-maṇḍalaḥ |
ballavīṣu vardhitātma-gūḍha-bhāva-bandhanaḥ svāṅghri-dāsya-do’stu me sa ballavendra-nandanaḥ ||

“Shark-shaped earrings dangle on His cheeks and are very expert in dancing. The orb of His face shatters the pride of the moon and of lotuses. And He tightens the shackle of His secret moods of love upon the gopīs of Vraja. May that son of the chief of cowherds bestow upon me the service of His feet” (Govinda-līlāmṛta 17.51).

Here the alliteration of ṇḍ, a phoneme of ojas guṇa, in the first line (the first sentence) is suggestive of blazingness in the context of śṛṅgāra-rasa. And that same alliteration in the second line (the second sentence) is suggestive of the force of the implied vyatireka ornament (contrast), in the context of śṛṅgāra-rasa.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

nanv atra padye śṛṅgāra-rasālambanda-rūpa-nāyakasya varṇanāt mādhuryākhyo guṇa eva ghaṭayitum ucito na punar oja-ākhyam. yad uktaṃ kāvya-prakāśe, “āhlādakatvaṃ mādhuryaṃ śṛṅgāre druti-kāraṇam” [Kāvya-prakāśa 8.68] iti, “mūrdhni vargāntyagāḥ sparśā aṭa-vargā raṇau laghu āvṛttir madhya-vṛttir vā mādhurye ghaṭanā matā” [Kāvya-prakāśa 8.74] iti. tathā, “dīptyātma-visṛter hetur ojo vīrya-rasa-sthiti” [Kāvya-prakāśa 8.69] iti, “yoga ādya-tṛtīyābhyām antyayo reṇa tulyayoḥ, ṭādiḥ śaṣau vṛtti-dairghyaṃ gumpha uddhata ojasi” [Kāvya-prakāśa 8.75] iti. ucyate—atra padye smara-parārdha-jetṛtvaṃ, tathā lakṣyādi-sarva-yuvati-cittākarṣaṇa-liṅgena śrī-kṛṣṇasya vaikuṇṭha-nātha-paryanta-sarva-nāyaka-vṛnda-vijetṛtvaṃ ca dṛśyate pada-dyutīty ādibhir viśeṣaṇair asamordhva-guṇodgāribhir mahā-bhaṭair iveti prakaṭasyāpi śṛṅgāra-rasasya sthites tathā ghaṭanā nāsamañjasā iti (Ānanda-candrikā 1.5).

[2]:

atra sarvāvacchedena prasādābhivyañjakatvam, aṃśa-bhedena tu mādhuryaujo’bhivyañjakatvam api, manasijāntasya mā kurv ādeś ca mādhuryābhivyakti-hetutvāt, sakhya ity-āder ojo-gamakatvāt. nanv atra śṛṅgārāśrayasya mādhuryasyābhivyaktaye tad-anukūlās tu nāma racanā, ojasas tu kaḥ prasaṅgo yad-arthaṃ tad-anukūla-varṇa-vinyāsa iti cet, nāyikā-mānopaśāntaye kṛtāneka-yatnāyās tadītaṃ hitam upadiśantyāḥ sakhyāḥ sa-krodhatvasya vyañjanīyatayā tathā-vinyāsasya sāphalyāt. kiṃ bahunā rasasyaujasvino’marṣāder bhāvasya cāvivakṣāyām api vaktari kruddhatayā prasiddhe vācye vā krūratare ākhyāyikādau prabandhe vā, paruṣa-varṇa-ghaṭaneṣyate (Rasa-gaṅgādhara, Kāvya-mālā edition, pp. 65-66).