Text 8.22

उदाहरणम्,

udāharaṇam,

This illustrates mādhurya-guṇa (sweetness, melting):

santataṃ santanoty asyā nitāntan tānta-cetasaḥ |
durantā kānta-cinteyaṃ hanta santāpa-santatim ||

santatam—continuously; santanoti—fully expands; asyāḥ—of this woman; nitāntam—considerably; tānta—weary (from the verbal root tam glānau); cetasaḥ—whose heart; dur-antā—whose end is far; kānta—about the male lover; cintā—anxiety; iyam—this; hanta—alas; santāpa—of affliction; santatim—the mass.

[Rādhā speaks to a sakhī:] My heart is excessively weary. Alas, My endless anxiety about My lover continually increases My mass of affliction.

Commentary:

The verse mostly features an alliteration of the phoneme nt. There are many rules of optional sandhi (phonetic combination): Here, for instance, the words nitāntan tānta-cetasaḥ stand for nitāntaṃ tānta-cetasaḥ.

Paṇḍita-rāja Jagannātha illustrates the construction of mādhurya in the context of Rūpa Gosvāmī’s śānta-rasa (Mammaṭa’s deva-viṣayā rati):

tāṃ tamāla-taru-kānti-laṅghinīṃ kiṅkarī-kṛta-navāmbuda-tviṣam |
svānta me kalaya śāntaye ciraṃ naicikī-nayana-cumbitāṃ śriyam ||

“O mind, to attain peace, contemplate for a long time on that well-known radiance: It supersedes the luster of a tamāla tree, turns the splendor of a raincloud into a servant, and is kissed by the eyes of the most excellent cows” (Rasa-gaṅgādhara).^[1]

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

atiśayokty-alaṅkṛtasya bhagavad-dhyānautsukyasya bhagavad-viṣayaka-rater vā dhvanyamānāyāḥ śānta eva paryavasānāt tad-gata-mādhuryasyābhivyañjikā racaneyam (Rasa-gaṅgādhara, KM p. 64).