Sahitya-kaumudi by Baladeva Vidyabhushana

by Gaurapada Dāsa | 2015 | 234,703 words

Baladeva Vidyabhusana’s Sahitya-kaumudi covers all aspects of poetical theory except the topic of dramaturgy. All the definitions of poetical concepts are taken from Mammata’s Kavya-prakasha, the most authoritative work on Sanskrit poetical rhetoric. Baladeva Vidyabhushana added the eleventh chapter, where he expounds additional ornaments from Visv...

यथा,
कम्प्रा स्वेदिनि चूर्ण-कुन्तल-तटे स्फारेक्षणोत्तुङ्गिते
  सव्ये दोष्णि विकासि-गण्ड-फलका लीलास्य-भङ्गी-शते |
बिभ्राणस्य हरेर् गिरीन्द्रम् उदयद्-बाष्पा चिरोर्ध्व-स्थितौ
  पातु प्रस्नव-सिच्यमान-सिचया विश्वं व्रजाधीश्वरी ||

yathā,
kamprā svedini cūrṇa-kuntala-taṭe sphārekṣaṇottuṅgite
  savye doṣṇi vikāsi-gaṇḍa-phalakā līlāsya-bhaṅgī-śate
|
bibhrāṇasya harer girīndram udayad-bāṣpā cirordhva-sthitau
  pātu prasnava-sicyamāna-sicayā viśvaṃ vrajādhīśvarī
||

kamprā—she was trembling; svedini—had perspiration; cūrṇa-kuntala—of the locks of hair; taṭe—when the edge; sphāra-īkṣaṇā—she whose eyes are wide-open; uttuṅgite—was made high; savye—left; doṣṇi—when the arm; vikāsi—are blooming; gaṇḍa—of whose cheeks; phalakā—she the surfaces; līlā—playful; āsya—of the face; bhaṅgī—of curvatures; śate—when there was hundreds; bibhrāṇasya—who was holding; hareḥ—of Hari; giri-indramGovardhana (“the king of mountains”); udayat—are rising; bāṣpā—she whose tears; cira—for a long time; ūrdhva—was high; sthitau—[when His left hand was] one whose position; pātu—may she protect; prasnava—by a flow [of breast milk]; sicyamāna—are being sprinkled; sicayā—she whose clothes; viśvam—the world; vraja-adhīśvarī—the female ruler of Vraja.

May Yaśodā, the queen of Vraja, protect the world. When Hari was holding Govardhana, her clothes became moistened by her breast milk. When the base of His curly locks showed perspiration, she began to quiver. When He raised His left arm, her eyes widened. When He playfully did hundreds of facial gestures, her cheeks started to bloom. And when He held His left hand in the air for a long time, tears arose on her face. (Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu 4.8.31)

atra hāsya-karuṇau vātsalya-ratim eva puṣṇītaḥ.

Here, hāsya-rasa (laughter) (He playfully did hundreds of facial gestures) and karuṇa-rasa (compassion) (tears arose on her face) enhance vātsalya-rati (motherly love, implied from the outpour of breast milk).

Commentary:

Rūpa Gosvāmī says the verse also features bhayānaka-rasa (she quivers) and adbhuta-rasa (her eyes widened). Those two are not mutually contradictory, but bhayānaka and hāsya are mutually contradictory (Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu 4.8.13) and so are adbhuta and karuṇa (Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu 4.8.11). Rūpa Gosvāmī specifies that in this verse all of them nourish vātsalya.

This is Mammaṭa’s example:

bhū-reṇu-digdhān nava-pārijāta-mālā-rajo-vāsita-bāhu-madhyāḥ |
gāḍhaṃ śivābhiḥ parirabhyamāṇān surāṅganāśliṣṭa-bhujāntarālāḥ ||
sa-śoṇitaiḥ kravya-bhujāṃ sphuradbhiḥ pakṣaiḥ khagānām upavījyamānān |
saṃvījitāś candana-vāri-sekaiḥ sugandhibhiḥ kalpa-latā-dukūlaiḥ ||
vimāna-paryaṅka-tale niṣaṇṇāḥ kutūhalāviṣṭatayā tadānīm |
nirdiśyamānān lalanāṅgulībhir vīrāḥ sva-dehān patitān apaśyan ||

“The heroic men, sitting on couches in aerial vehicles; their chests perfumed by the pollen of fresh pārijāta flower garlands; embraced by celestial nymphs; cooled with fans which thrust a mist of sandalwood-scented water; and wearing fragrant silken clothes from heaven; saw their dead bodies covered in dust, pointed to by the damsels with great curiosity, embraced by jackals, and fanned by the flapping wings of carnivorous birds dripping with blood” (Kāvya-prakāśa, verses 334-336).

Although bībhatsa-rasa and śṛṅgāra-rasa are mutually incompatible, there is no fault because vīra-rasa is the contextual topic whereas bībhatsa-rasa and śṛṅgāra-rasa are secondary elements. According to Narahari Sarasvatī Tīrtha and Govinda Ṭhakkura, here bībhatsarasa and śṛṅgāra-rasa are vyabhicāri-bhāvas (transitory emotions) of vīra-rasa.[1]

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

atra bībhatsa-śṛṅgārayor antar vīra-raso niveśitaḥ (Kāvya-prakāśa, verses 334-336 vṛtti); yadyapi vīra eva prādhānyam, anyau ca tad-vyabhicāriṇāv iti na virodhas tathāpy evam apy avirodhaḥ sambhavatīty udāhṛtam (Kāvya-pradīpa); vīra eveti, prākaraṇikatvād iti bhāvaḥ (Uddyota); rati-jugupse vīraṃ prati vyabhicārī-bhūte (Bāla-cittānurañjinī).

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