Text 9.16

[This illustrates a lāṭa anuprāsa of one declined word:]

प्रिया-विरहिते चित्ते सत्यम् इन्दुर् दवानलः |
दवानलः क्व वा तापम् ईदृशं तनुतेतराम् ||

priyā-virahite citte satyam indur davānalaḥ |
davānalaḥ kva vā tāpam īdṛśaṃ tanutetarām ||

priyā—the girlfriend; virahite—is without; citte—when the heart; satyam—truly; induḥ—the moon; dava—which is a conflagration; nalaḥ—a fire; dava-analaḥ—a fire which is a conflagration; kva—where?; vā—possibly; tāpam—affliction; īdṛśam—like this; tanute-tarām—better makes.

[Kṛṣṇa speaks to Subala:] When the heart feels separation from the sweetheart, the moon truly is a conflagration. Where else does a conflagration bring about this kind of affliction?

atra prathamaṃ davānala-padaṃ vidheya-param, dvitīyaṃ tv anuvāda-param iti. etaṃ padānuprāsam anye’pi manyante.

Here the first word davānala (conflagration) is part of a predicate (of the subject “moon”), whereas the second one is a subject.

Other persons call it pada anuprāsa (alliteration of a declined word).

Commentary:

The above example of lāṭa anuprāsa merely reflects the absence of the fault called kathita-pada (repeated word) (7.60; 7.76). Lāṭa anuprāsa is striking when it is combined with another form of poetical embellishment. For instance, sometimes lāṭa anuprāsa is used in the ananvaya ornament (self-comparison) (10.28). Lāṭa anuprāsa is the basis of the ekāvalī ornament (modified series) (10.216-217). On occasion, lāṭa anuprāsa constitutes an arthāntara-saṅkramita-vācya dhvani (an implied sense in which the literal sense changes to another meaning). An example is: pārṣadāḥ pārṣadā yasya, “His associates are associates” (4.82).