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...
Text 8.8
क्रमेणैषां लक्षणम् आह,
krameṇaiṣāṃ lakṣaṇam āha,
He sequentially defines the guṇas,
āhlādakatvaṃ mādhuryaṃ śṛṅgāre druti-kāraṇam ||8.68cd||
karuṇe vipralambhe tac chānte cātiśayānvitam ||8.69ab||
āhlādakatvam—delightfulness; mādhuryam—the guṇas called sweetness; śṛṅgāre—in śṛṅgāra-rasa; druti—of melting; kāraṇam—the cause; karuṇe—in karuṇa-rasa (lamentation); vipralambhe—in separation from the beloved; tat—that [sweetness]; śānte—in śānta-rasa; ca—and; atiśaya—with intensity (eminence); anvitam—endowed.
Mādhurya (sweetness) means delightfulness. In sambhoga śṛṅgārarasa, it is the cause of the melting of the heart. In karuṇa-rasa, in vipralambha śṛṅgāra-rasa, and in śānta-rasa as well, mādhurya has intensity.
āhlādo rañjanaṃ śṛṅgāre’rthāt sambhoge drutir vigalanam.
ojaḥ-prasādayos tu śravyatvam eva.[1] atiśayo’tidrava-hetutvāt.
“Mādhurya is delightfulness” means it gives pleasure. The term druti (melting) means vigalanam (mollification). Being worth hearing also applies to ojas and to prasāda. The words “Mādhurya has intensity” signify that mādhurya is the cause of the melting of the heart.
Commentary:
Viśvanātha Kavirāja argues that mādhurya, as a quality of the rasa, is the melting of the heart.[2]
According to Ānandavardhana, mādhurya-guṇa (sweetness) relates to both the sounds and the meanings,[3] and the same applies to ojas guṇa (vigor) and to prasāda-guṇa (clarity).[4] In the sūtra, Mammaṭa defines the real mādhurya, the mādhurya of the rasa, but in the elaboration he uses the term mādhurya in the conventional sense: To say that sweetness relates to sounds and meanings is valid by figurative usage (8.11), since the real sweetness is the sweetness of the rasa. The meanings in mādhurya-guṇa, for instance, are in the scope of the rasa, but when there is no rasa, the sweet meanings are said to be in the scope of mādhurya-guṇa, and so on (8.27). Moreover, prasāda-guṇa, characterized by an ease of understanding a meaning, involves the quality of the wording, and not the excellence of the meaning.
Bhāmaha defined mādhurya as “being worth hearing.”[5] Ānandavardhana added that ojas as well is characterized by being worth hearing.[6] This applies to prasāda also. The idea is that although prasāda means “the clarity of the meaning,” that clarity is facilitated by phonetic combinations which can be easily deciphered, and so on (8.10).
Ānandavardhana, however, does not say that mādhurya-guṇa occurs in śānta-rasa.[7] Similarly, in this context Kavikarṇapūra does not mention śānta.[8] Viśvanātha Kavirāja and Paṇḍita-rāja Jagannātha agree with Mammaṭa regarding the occurrence of mādhurya in śānta.[9] Abhinavagupta states that in śānta, sometimes ojas is prominent and sometimes mādhurya is prominent.[10] The śānta-rasa of the ancients is based on nirveda (disgust toward material lif), thus it differs from Rūpa Gosvāmī’s śānta.
According to Abhinavagupta, Ānandavardhana says there is more mādhurya (melting) in lamentation (karuṇa) than in separation (vipralambha).[11] However, Viśvanātha Kavirāja holds the opinion that Mammaṭa implies a sequential increase of mādhurya as stated in the above sūtra: sambhoga, karuṇa-rasa, vipralambha, and śānta-rasa.[12] Nāgeśa Bhaṭṭa says that śānta-rasa has the most mādhurya because the cessation of a desire for sense gratification occurs, insofar as nirveda is the sthāyi-bhāva, and this results in the reobtainment of the bliss of the soul.[13]
Depending on the context, the term mādhurya (charm) means sweetness or melting. Śṛṅgāra-rasa has the most sweetness in the sense that it gives the most pleasure.[14] This is the origin of the term madhura-rasa.[15] Moreover, delight occurs in reading about the karuṇa-rasa of poetry, but not in experiencing the karuṇa-rasa of material life.
Footnotes and references:
[2]:
citta-dravībhāva-mayo hlādo mādhuryam ucyate || (Sāhitya-darpaṇa 8.2); yat tu kenacid uktaṃ—“mādhuryaṃ druti-kāraṇam” iti, tan na, dravī-bhāvasyāsvāda-rūpāhlādābhinnatvena kāryatvābhāvāt. (Sāhitya-darpaṇa 8.2)
[3]:
[4]:
[6]:
sa mādhurya-lakṣaṇo guṇaḥ. śravyatvaṃ punar ojaso’pi sādhāraṇam iti (Dhvanyāloka 2.7).
[7]:
[8]:
rañjakatvaṃ hi mādhuryyaṃ cetaso druti-kāraṇam |
sambhoge vipralambhe ca tad evātiśayocitam || (Alaṅkāra-kaustubha 6.16);
ca kārāt karuṇādau ca (Alaṅkāra-kaustubha 6.16).
[9]:
śṛṅgāra-karuṇa-śāntānāṃ mādhuryavattvena druti-kāraṇatvam (Rasa-gaṅgādhara, KM p. 54).
[10]:
[11]:
śṛṅgāre vipralambhākhye karuṇe ca prakarṣa-vat, mādhuryam ārdratāṃ yāti yatas tatrādhikaṃ manaḥ (Dhvanyāloka 2.8); sambhoga-śṛṅgārān madhurataro vipralambhaḥ, tato’pi madhuratamaḥ karuṇa iti, tad-abhivyañjana-kauśalaṃ śabdārthayor madhurataratvaṃ madhuratamatvaṃ cety abhiprāyeṇāha śṛṅgāra ity-ādi (Locana 2.8).
[12]:
sambhoge karuṇe vipralambhe śānte’dhikaṃ kramāt (Sāhitya-darpaṇa 8.2).
[13]:
[14]:
śṛṅgāra eva rasāntarāpekṣayā madhuraḥ prahlāda-hetutvāt (Dhvanyāloka 2.7).
[15]:
tan madhura-rasābhivyañjakayoḥ śabdārthayor upacaritaṃ madhura-śṛṅgārarasābhivyakti-samarthatā śabdārthayor mādhuryam iti hi lakṣaṇam (Locana 2.7).