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...

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Text 9.29 [Śleṣa]

Śleṣa

वाच्य-भेदेन भिन्ना यद् युगपद्-भाषण-स्पृशः ।
श्लिष्यन्ति शब्दाः श्लेषोऽसाव् अक्षरादिभिर् अष्टधा ॥ ९.८४ ॥

vācya-bhedena bhinnā yad yugapad-bhāṣaṇa-spṛśaḥ |
śliṣyanti śabdāḥ śleṣo'sāv akṣarādibhir aṣṭadhā || 9.84 ||

vācya—in the literal meaning; bhedena—by a difference; bhinnāḥ—different; yat—if (yad = yadi); yugapad—is simultaneous; bhāṣaṇa—of pronunciation; spṛśaḥ—they whose touch; śliṣyanti—unite (become one); śabdāḥ—words; śleṣaḥ—śleṣa; asau—that; akṣara-ādibhiḥ—because of a phoneme, and so on; aṣṭadhā—eightfold.

If words that are different on account of a difference in the literal meanings are uttered simultaneously, they unite. That is a śleṣa (literal double meaning). It has eight varieties, because of the phonemes, and so on.

artha-bhedena śabda-bheda iti nyāyāt. tena bhinnā api śabdā yadi yugapad-uccāraṇena śliṣyanti tyajanti svarūpa-bhedaṃ tadā śleṣaḥ. sa ca varṇa-prakṛti-pratyaya-liṅga-vacana-vibhakti-pada-bhāṣābhir aṣṭa-vidhaḥ.

This is based on the principle that words are different on account of a difference in meaning (by rule, one word cannot have more than one applicable literal meaning). Therefore, when words, though mutually different only on account of a difference in the literal meaning, unite by a simultaneous utterance, they give up a dissimilarity of form; that is a śleṣa (lit. embrace, union).

Śleṣa has eight varieties, with regard to either: (1) the phoneme (varṇa), (2) the word base (prakṛti) (either a nominal base or a verbal root), (3) the suffix (pratyaya), (4) the gender (liṅga), (5) the number (singular, dual, or plural) (vacana), (6) the case ending (vibhakti), (7) the declined word (pada) (esp. in the analysis of a compound), or (8) the language (bhāṣā).

Commentary:

The ornament of sound called śleṣa is also called śabda-śleṣa because it is “a union of words” which sound the same and which have different meanings. The verbal root is śliṣ āliṅgane (4P) (to embrace). For instance, in the sentence: kṛṣṇaś candana-candra-śītala-svabhāvo bhavati, “Kṛṣṇa’s nature is cool like sandalwood paste and like the moon (or like camphor),” the word candra is a śleṣa because the word candra which means ‘moon’ and the word candra which means ‘camphor’ have united, and both meanings are literal since no meaning is blocked by the context and so on.[1] In this example, the word candra is a prakṛti-śleṣa (double meaning because of two nominal bases). Mammaṭa established the theory that in such an example there are two words candra, each of which has a different sense. It is not that there is one word candra that has two applicable literal meanings, since the rule is that Denotation cannot be used twice for the same word (2.30). If it is understood that there are two words candra, then Denotation is applied one time after the first word candra to obtain the first meaning and one time after the second word candra to obtain the second meaning.

The validity of this rule becomes obvious when a double meaning arises because of the phonetic combination with adjacent letters of another word. For example, in the sound tudantīkṣaṇa (9.30), a double meaning arises because one word is tudantī and the other is tudanti. The two words coalesced into one sound at the time of pronunciation. However, for convenience’s sake, in jargon we say “the word candra” and so on, even when two words candra are referred to.

Footnotes and references:

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[1]:

The definition is: candraḥ karpūra-kāmpilla-sudhāṃśu-svarṇa-vāriṣu, “Candra means camphor, the kāmpilla plant, the moon, gold, and water” (Medinī-kośa).

Other Kavyashastra Concepts:

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Discover the significance of concepts within the article: ‘Text 9.29 [Slesa]’. Further sources in the context of Kavyashastra might help you critically compare this page with similair documents:

Bhasha, Shlesha.

Other concepts within the broader category of Hinduism context and sources.

Candra, Shabdashlesha, Eight varieties, Verbal root, Case ending, Gender, Suffix, Number.
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