Text 9.12

केषाञ्चिद् एता वैदर्भीप्रमुख्या रीतयो मताः ॥ ९.८१ab ॥ केषाञ्चित्—[इन् थे ओपिनिओन्] ओf सोमे पेर्सोन्स्; एताः—थेसे ओनेस् (थे थ्रेए किन्द्स् ओf वृत्ति अनुप्रास); वैदर्भी—इस् वैदर्भी; प्रमुख्याः—wहोसे fओरेमोस्त् ओने; रीतयः—थे स्त्य्लेस्; मताः—अरे चोन्सिदेरेद्.

keṣāñcid etā vaidarbhīpramukhyā rītayo matāḥ || 9.81ab || keṣāñcit—[in the opinion] of some persons; etāḥ—these ones (the three kinds of vṛtti anuprāsa); vaidarbhī—is Vaidarbhī; pramukhyāḥ—whose foremost one; rītayaḥ—the styles; matāḥ—are considered.

In the opinion of some, these ones are thought of as the rītis, the foremost of which is Vaidarbhī.

etās tisro vṛttayaḥ kramād vaidarbhī-gauḍī-pāñcāly-ākhyā rītayaḥ kaiścid ākhyāyante. rītir nāmāṅga-saṃsthāna-viśeṣa-vad guṇa-hetuko varṇa-vinyāsa-viśeṣaḥ, sā ca guṇa-grantha-grastatvād iha na lakṣitā.

These ones, the three modes of vṛtti anuprāsa, are called Vaidarbhī, Gauḍī, and Pāñcālī by some scholars.

A rīti (style) is based on the guṇas and is a specific placement of phonemes. It resembles a special positioning of bodily limbs. Since it was included in the section on the guṇas, the concept of rīti is not expounded here.

Commentary:

Each rīti derives its name from a region credited with a particular style of composition. In the first centuries of the first millennium, the compositions in the region of Gauḍa (Bengal) was said to abound in ojas guṇa. The Pāñcālī corresponds to komalā vṛtti anuprāsa.^[1] The hidden purpose of the concept of rīti is to validate the mix of mādhurya and ojas, and so on.

The notion of rīti is confusing because each poetical rhetorician has a different opinion on the topic. Mammaṭa’s three subdivisions of vṛtti anuprāsa were invented by Udbhaṭa. Here Mammaṭa specifically says that Vāmana’s Vaidarbhī is the same as Udbhaṭa’s upa-nāgarikā.^[2] That is imprecise because Vāmana’s Vaidarbhī contains all of Vāmana’s guṇas.^[3] Viśvanātha Kavirāja reconciles the matter by agreeing with Mammaṭa in principle and by not referring to Vāmana’s definition of Vaidarbhī. Moreover, Viśvanātha follows Rudraṭa by adding a fourth rīti, called Lāṭī, which is a style between the Vaidarbhī and the Pāñcālī.^[4] Kavikarṇapūra, however, says the Pāñcālī is used (with phonemes of his intermediary ojas) when the meanings are mostly sweet,^[5] whereas the Lāṭī is exclusively soft, without a conjunct consonant.^[6] Viśvanātha and Kavikarṇapūra also disagree regarding the style of compounding in those two rītis.

In truth, the construction of softness (soft phonemes, no compound and no conjunct consonant) should be classed as a secondary type of construction of mādhurya-guṇa. Even Mammaṭa’s example of komalā vṛtti anuprāsa (Commentary 9.11) is not a pure construction of softness because the alliteration of a single r, in the first half, is in the scope of upa-nāgarikā.

The other four styles (Bhāratī, Sātvatī, Kaiśikī, and Ārabhaṭī) (Nāṭya-śāstra 1.41-4; 6.24) are in the scope of dramaturgy (Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu 4.9.42).

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

mādhurya-saukumāryopapannā pāñcālī, “Pāñcālī has the guṇas called mādhurya and saukumārya” (Kāvyālaṅkāra-sūtra 1.2.13).

[2]:

etās tisro vṛttayaḥ, vāmanādīnāṃ mate vaidarbhī-gauḍī-pāñcāly-ākhyā rītayo matāḥ (Kāvya-prakāśa 9.81).

[3]:

samagra-guṇopetā vaidarbhī, “Vaidarbhī is the rīti that has all the guṇas” (Kāvyālaṅkārasūtra 1.2.11).

[4]:

lāṭī tu rītir vaidarbhī-pāñcālyor antare sthitā || (Sāhitya-darpaṇa 9.5)

[5]:

kathā prāyo hi yatrārtho mādhurya-prāyako guṇaḥ |
na gāḍhatā na śaithilyaṃ sā pāñcālī nigadyate || (Alaṅkāra-kaustubha 9.11)

[6]:

samantataḥ, śaitilyaṃ yatra mṛdulair varṇair lādibhir utkaṭam, sā lāṭī syāl lāṭa-janapriyānuprāsa-nirbharā (Alaṅkāra-kaustubha 9.17)