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 9.13
शाब्दस् तु लाटानुप्रासो भेदे तात्पर्य-मात्रतः ॥ ९.८१cd ॥
śābdas tu lāṭānuprāso bhede tātparya-mātrataḥ || 9.81cd ||
śābdaḥ—related to a word; tu—(used to indicate a new beginning); lāṭa-anuprāsaḥ—the alliteration called lāṭa; bhede—when there is a difference; tātparya—in the syntactical connection[1]; mātrataḥ—merely.
Lāṭa anuprāsa is the repetition of a word, when there is a difference merely in the syntactical connection of the repeated word.
śabdaḥ padaṃ prātipadikaṃ ca tad-gataḥ, na tu varṇa-niṣṭhaḥ. tur bhinna-krame. śabdārthayor abhede’pi tātparya-mātrato bhede satīti yamakād bhedaḥ. lāṭa-jana-priyatvāc ca lāṭānuprāsaḥ. lāṭo’vidagdhaḥ.[2]
In this context, the term “word” denotes either a declined word or a nominal base. In lāṭa anuprāsa, the repetition relates to a word, not to the phonemes: The word tu in the sūtra is used to express a different kind of procedure. Lāṭa anuprāsa is characterized by a difference merely in the syntactical connection, even though the repeated word has no difference in sound or in meaning: This marks the distinction between lāṭa anuprāsa and yamaka (word rhyme). Lāṭa anuprāsa is so called because it is dear to the people of Lāṭa. The word lāṭa means avidagdha (not clever).
Commentary:
In lāṭa anuprāsa, the repeated word has exactly the same sense as the other one, whereas in yamaka (9.20) the repetition of sound must have a difference in meaning.
Kavikarṇapūra says lāṭa means vidagdha (clever).[3] Mammaṭa only states that Lāṭa is the name of a region. Lāṭa was the name of a country in southern Gujarat: It included what is known nowadays as Daman (in the Indian State of Daman and Diu).[4] The definition is: lāṭo deśāntare’ṃśuke, “Lāṭa is used in the senses of deśāntara (a particular country) and aṃśuka (garment, especially an old or worn-out garment)” (Medinī-kośa).
Footnotes and references:
[1]:
In this sūtra, Mammaṭa uses the term tātparya as it is defined by Kumārila Bhaṭṭa’s Abhihitānvaya-vādīs (2.3). In his elaboration, Mammaṭa explains tātparya as anvaya (syntactical connection): śabda-gato’nuprāsaḥ śabdārthayor abhede’py anvaya-mātra-bhedāt lāṭa-jana-vallabhatvāc ca lāṭānuprāsaḥ (Kāvya-prakāśa 9.81).
[2]:
[3]:
lāṭo vidagdhaḥ (Alaṅkāra-kaustubha 9.17); śabdārthayor abhede’pi tātparya-mātrabhinnatve lāṭo vidagdhas tasya priyatvāt lāṭānuprāsa ity aparair ucyate (Alaṅkāra-kaustubha 7.21).
[4]:
History, Religion and Culture of India, Volume 3, edited by S. Gajrani, India, 2004, p. 31. P.V. Kāṇe writes: “lāṭa anuprāsa, so called because it is dear to the people or poets of Lāṭa, the country about Surat” (Kane, P.V. (1995), The Sāhitya-darpaṇa, pp. 109-110).