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 10.5
Here the three varieties of the complete indirect simile are illustrated in sequence:
वदनं वर-द्युति समं सुधांशुना
गुरु-कुम्भ-युग्म-सदृशं कुच-द्वयम् ।
तव सीधु-वत् सुख-करं वचः प्रिये
तरुणी-मणिस् त्वम् इह भासि राधिके ॥
vadanaṃ vara-dyuti samaṃ sudhāṃśunā
guru-kumbha-yugma-sadṛśaṃ kuca-dvayam |
tava sīdhu-vat sukha-karaṃ vacaḥ priye
taruṇī-maṇis tvam iha bhāsi rādhike ||
vadanam—the face; vara—is the best; dyuti—whose effulgence; samam—is similar; sudhā-aṃśunā—to the moon (as the upamāna) (“its rays are nectar”); guru—heavy; kumbha—of waterpots; yugma—to a pair; sadṛśam—is similar; kuca-dvayam—pair of breasts; tava—Your; sīdhu-vat—like liquor [does]; sukha-karam—make happy; vacaḥ—speech; priye—O beloved; taruṇī—among young women; maṇiḥ—a jewel; tvam—You; iha—here; bhāsi—shine; rādhike—O Rādhikā.
O Rādhikā, Your face, which has a most excellent effulgence, resembles the moon. Your breasts are similar to a pair of heavy waterpots. O sweetheart, Your speech gives pleasure like ambrosia does. Here You shine as a jewel among young women.
atra krameṇārthī-trayam. sīdhu-vad ity atra tena tulyam iti vatiḥ.
In sīdhu-vat (like ambrosia), the suffix vat[i] is in the scope of the rule that begins tena tulyam.
Commentary:
The first sentence is an example of an indirect simile in a sentence because the word samam (similar), the word of comparison, is not compounded. The second sentence illustrates an indirect simile in a compound because the word sadṛśam (similar) is compounded. In the third sentence, the word sīdhu-vat (like ambrosia, i.e. like ambrosia does) means: sīdhur iva sukha-karaḥ (like ambrosia gives pleasure). The word sukha-kara in the text is carried forward into the meaning of the compound. The strict grammatical analysis of sīdhu-vat is: sīdhunā tulyam. Jīva Gosvāmī explains Pāṇini’s rule tena tulyaṃ kriyā ced vatiḥ (Aṣṭādhyāyī 5.1.115) as: upamāna-kriyād vatis tat-kriyā-tulya-kriyatve, “The suffix vat[i] is applied after the person or thing connected with the upamāna action (the action which is the standard of comparison) when a similarity between another action and the upamāna action is being expressed” (Hari-nāmāmṛta-vyākaraṇa 1197). This means the stated action (or mode of being) is carried forward into the meaning of the compound which has the suffix vat[i]. Pāṇini’s sūtra excludes the possibility that a quality can be carried forward into the meaning of such a compound,[1] yet the poets break this rule. For example: madhuraḥ sudhā-vad adharaḥ, “Lips are sweet like nectar” (Sāhitya-darpaṇa 10.17).
However, occasionally the usage of vat[i] or of iva (like) falls in the scope of the utprekṣā ornament (fanciful assumption). An example is: bhīta-vat, “as if He were afraid” (Bhāgavatam 10.9.9).
Footnotes and references:
Other Kavyashastra Concepts:
Other concepts within the broader category of Hinduism context and sources.
Young women, Like the moon, Panini's rule.