Text 9.37 [Citra-kāvya]

Citra-kāvya

तच् चित्रं यत्र वर्णानां खड्गाद्य्-आकृति-हेतुता ॥ ९.८५cd ॥

tac citraṃ yatra varṇānāṃ khaḍgādy-ākṛti-hetutā || 9.85cd ||

Citra-kāvya (picture poetry) is a composition in which the phonemes are the cause of a diagram such as a sword.

yatra sanniveśa-viśeṣeṇa sthitā varṇāḥ khaḍga-cakrādy-ākārān prakāśayanti tac citraṃ nāma.

That in which the phonemes, being located as a specific arrangement, manifest a shape, such as a sword or a wheel, is called citra.

Commentary:

Citra is the general name for the third category of poetry (1.12). Ānandarvardhana thought that citra-kāvya is automatically third-rate poetry (Commentary 1.12). Thus here Mammaṭa says citra signifies citra-kāvya (amazing poetry).^[1] The word citra means “amazing” and “picture”. Kavikarṇapūra used the term citra-kāvya, which has the sense of “picture poetry”.^[2] However, Narahari Sarasvatī Tīrtha says citra is an ornament which takes the form of a verse.^[3] Viśvanātha Kavirāja says it is an ornament of sound.^[4] In truth, it is more like an audiovisual ornament. Further, most often a poet does not imply a correlation between a meaning in a verse and the shape of the diagram in which the verse is written.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

sanniveśa-viśeṣeṇa yatra nyastā varṇāḥ khaḍga-muraja-padmādy-ākāram ullāsayanti tac citraṃ kāvyam. kaṣṭaṃ kāvyam etad iti (Kāvya-prakāśa 9.85).

[2]:

atha śabdālaṅkāra-prastāve prāptāvasaratayā citra-kāvyam api pradarśyate (Alaṅkārakaustubha 7.75).

[3]:

atha citrālaṅkāraṃ lakṣayati, tac citram iti. yasmin padye varṇānāṃ sanniveśa-viśeṣeṇa khaḍgādy-ākṛti-hetutā tat citram iti yojanā (Bāla-cittānurañjinī).

[4]:

asya ca tathā-vidha-lipi-sanniveśa-viśeṣa-vaśena camatkāra-vidhāyinām api varṇānāṃ tathā-vidha-śrotrākāśa-samavāya-viśeṣa-vaśena camatkāra-vidhāyibhir varṇair abhedenopacārāc chabdālaṅkāratvam (Sāhitya-darpaṇa 10.13).