Text 8.5

क्वचित् तु सन्तम् अपि नोपकुर्वन्ति. यथा,

kvacit tu santam api nopakurvanti. yathā,

Sometimes the ornaments do not assist the rasa though it exists. This is an example:

śikhaṇḍi-tāṇḍava-krūre kāle jātā priyaṃ vinā |
pracaṇḍa-smara-kodaṇḍa-mukta-kāṇḍāli-khaṇḍitā ||

śikhaṇḍi—of the peacocks; tāṇḍava—because of the dance; krūre—which is cruel; kāle—at a time; jātā—occurred; priyam—the male lover; vinā—without; pracaṇḍa—impetuous; smara—of Cupid; kodaṇḍa—from the bow; mukta—released; kāṇḍa—of arrows; ali—due to a series; khaṇḍitā—she was torn to pieces.

[In Mathurā, Hari speaks about Rādhā:] At this time, cruel because of the dance of peacocks; without Me, Her lover, She turns to shreds under the fierce arrows released from Cupid’s bow.

atra ṭa-vargānuprāso virodhād rasaṃ nopakaroti, kintu śabdam eva.

In this verse, the alliteration of the phonemes of the ṭa group do not assist the rasa since those phonemes are adverse to the rasa. Rather, the alliteration only enhances the sounds.

Commentary:

Later Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa says the alliteration is faulty for that reason (10.264). This is an instance of the literary fault called pratikūla-varṇa (adverse phonemes) (7.53) (10.261). The phonemes of the ṭa group are a characteristic of ojas guṇa (8.23). This verse features vipralambha-śṛṅgāra-rasa (separation), therefore sweet phonemes should be used. Alternatively, the hard phonemes are not faulty because they enhance the idea that Cupid’s arrows are fierce. Thus there are exceptions to the rule (7.121). In addition, the long compound that makes the entire second half of the verse brings out ojas guṇa.