Text 7.123

श्लेषादाव् अप्रयुक्त-निहतार्थयोर् न दोषः. यथा,

śleṣādāv aprayukta-nihatārthayor na doṣaḥ. yathā,

When there is a literal double meaning (śleṣa), and so on, neither aprayukta (not in usage) (7.5) (7.25) nor nihatārtha (obstructed meaning) (7.7) (7.26) is a fault. For instance:

parvata-bhedi pavitraṃ jaitraṃ narakasya bahu-mataṃ gahanam |
harim iva harim iva harim iva sura-sarid-ambhaḥ patan namata ||

parvata-bhedi—which crash on a mountain (the Himālayas); pavitram—the means of the purification (or parvata-bhedi-pavitram—He separated a mountain (Govardhana) and He is pure); jaitram—glorious^[1] (the defeater); narakasya—of hell (or of Naraka) (or of little men); bahu-matam—highly thought of (or in regard to whom there are many opinions⁴⁶¹); gahanam—deep (or bahu-mataṅga-hanam—the killer of many elephants); harim iva—like Hari (Viṣṇu); harim iva—like Hari (Indra) (the definition of hari is in Commentary 2.38); harim iva—like a lion; sura—of gods; sarit—of the river; ambhaḥ—to the waters; patat—while falling; namata—all of you should bow.

Let us offer our obeisances to the waters of the Ganges, the river of the gods. Those waters crash on a mountain (parvata-bhedi), they are glorious (jaitram), they are the means of the purification of hell (narakasya pavitram), they are highly esteemed (bahu-matam), and they are deep (gahanam).

The waters of the Ganges are like Hari: He lifted a mountain (parvata-bhedi), He is pure (pavitram), He vanquished Naraka (narakasya jaitram), there are many opinions about Him (bahu-matam), and He is unfathomable (gahanam).

The waters are like Indra (hari): He cut [the wings of] mountains (parvata-bhedi), he protects with the thunderbolt (pavi-tram), he defeats little men (narakasya jaitram), he is highly esteemed (bahu-matam), and he is hard to approach (gahanam).

In addition, the waters are like a lion (hari): It owns a variety of mountains (parvata-bhedi), it is holy (pavitram) (as a vibhūti of the Lord^[2] ), it defeats a man (narakasya jaitram), and it kills many elephants (bahu-mataṅga-hanam). (Sāhitya-darpaṇa 7.17)

atra siṃha-pakṣe mataṅga-śabdo mātaṅgārthe’prayuktaḥ. indra-pakṣe pavitra-śabdo nihatārthaḥ.

In the meaning of hari as lion, the word mataṅga in the sense of ‘elephant’ is not in usage (aprayukta) (the word mātaṅga is standard). In the meaning of hari as Indra, the word pavi-tra (he protects with the thunderbolt) is an obstructed meaning (nihatārtha).^[3]

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Śeṣarāja Śarma explains that the word jaitra is formed by adding the suffix a[ṇ] after jetṛ without changing the meaning (Candrakalā 7.17). 461 bahūni matāni yasmiṃs tam (Kṛṣṇānandinī).

[2]:

This is according to Śeṣarāja Śarmā: pavitraḥ prayatas tam, “mṛgāṇāṃ ca mṛgendro’ham” iti vacanena bhavagad-vibhūtitvāt, durgāvāhanatvād vā (Candrakalā).

[3]:

The word pavi means thunderbolt by this definition: hrādinī vajram astrī syāt kuliśaṃ bhiduraṃ paviḥ, śatakoṭiḥ svaruḥ śambo dambholir aśanir dvayoḥ, “These words mean thunderbolt: hrādinī, in the feminine; vajra, in the masculine and in the neuter; kuliśa, bhiduram, pavi, śatakoṭi, svaru, śamba, and dambholi, in the masculine;and aśani either in the masculine or in the neuter” (Amara-koṣa 1.1.50). The meaning of pavi-tra as “he protects with the thunderbolt” is obstructed by the well-known meaning of pavitra as ‘pure’. Neither of the abovementioned two faults is truly a fault, since they are part of a śleṣa (multiple literal meanings).