Text 8.13

यथा,

yathā,

This illustrates how a disrupture of samatā-guṇa (sameness of style) makes a quality:

sa babhau caṇḍa-dor-daṇḍa-khaṇḍitāsura-maṇḍalaḥ |
mukundaḥ sundarī-vṛndair amandair abhinanditaḥ ||

saḥ—He; babhau—shines; caṇḍa—fierce; doḥ—arms; daṇḍa—by means of the pole-like; khaṇḍita—was torn to pieces; asura—of demons; maṇḍalaḥ—He by whom the multitude; mukundaḥ—Mukunda; sundarī—of beautiful women; vṛndaiḥ—by the groups; amandaiḥ—active; abhinanditaḥ—was praised.

Mukunda was resplendent after tearing to pieces the evil wrestlers with His mighty rod-like arms. He received a round of applause from the excited beautiful women.

atra vīre vācye paruṣā varṇāḥ, śṛṅgāriṇi tu masṛṇāḥ. evaṃ na daśa śabda-guṇāḥ.

In this verse, hard phonemes occur in the context of vīra-rasa that is being expressed (in the first half), yet in the context of śṛṅgāra-rasa the phonemes are soft.

Thus the concept of ten literary qualities of sound (śabda-guṇa) is wrong.

Commentary:

Here the hard phonemes mostly consist of the conjunct ṇḍ. The construction of ojas guṇa is apparent also because of the long compound: caṇḍa-dor-daṇḍa-khaṇḍitāsura-maṇḍalaḥ, much like in English a long uninterrupted sentence gives vigor to the meaning. In the second half (the second sentence), the overall sense is based on the sthāyī of śṛṅgāra-rasa. Therein the construction of mādhurya-guṇa is used to evoke sweetness: The phonemes are sweet and soft, most words are not compounded, and the compound is very short. Thus here a change of guṇa is a literary quality. Vāmana said that having the same style of construction throughout a verse is always a quality, called samatā (samaness of style).

Mammaṭa proves him wrong with this example:

mātaṅgāḥ kimu valgitaiḥ kim aphalair āḍambarair jambukāḥ
  sāraṅgā mahiṣā madaṃ vrajatha kiṃ śūnyeṣu śūrā na ke |
kopāṭopa-samudbhaṭotkaṭa-saṭā-koṭer ibhāreḥ puraḥ
  sindhu-dhvānini huṅkṛte sphurati yat tad garjitaṃ garjitam ||

“O elephants, I’ve heard better trumpets! Yo jackals, what are those petty howls of yours? Hey does and buffalos, why do you move in a proud way? Who does not feel brave when there is no threat? A roar done in front of a lion the tips of whose huge mane are raised due to his outburst of rage when his roar, deep as an ocean, detonates is a roar” (Kāvya-prakāśa, verse 299).

In this verse, the poet has mostly used soft phonemes in the description of the roars of elephants, jackals, does and buffalos, yet in the third line, which describes the lion, the poet used hard phonemes because the literal sense demands it. Thus here also a change in the construction makes a literary quality.