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 10.32
क्रमेणोदाहरणम्,
krameṇodāharaṇam,
Examples are shown in order (this verse and the next illustrate svarūpa utprekṣā, imagining the nature):
jṛmbhānubandha-vikasad-vadanodarāṇāṃ candraḥ kareṇa kṛpayena kumudvatīnām |
nirbāṣpa-gāḍha-virahānalam[1] ujjvalantam aṅgāra-puñjam iva karṣati bhṛṅga-saṅgham ||
jṛmbha—to yawn; anubandha—due to beginning; vikasat—open; vadana-udarāṇām—whose mouths (“hollow of the face”); candraḥ—the moon; kareṇa—with its rays (or hands); kṛpayā—out of mercy; iva—as if; kumudvatīnām—of night lotuses; nirvāpya—after extinguishing; gāḍha—intense; viraha—of separation; analam—fire; ujjvalantam—blazing; aṅgāra—of charcoal; puñjam—a pile; iva—like; karṣati—extricates; bhṛṅga—of bees; saṅgham—a multitude.
As if out of compassion, the moon extinguishes with its rays the fire of intense separation felt by night lotuses, whose mouths open because they begin to yawn. The moon thus extricates the ensnared bees, which look like piles of charcoal. (Alaṅkāra-kaustubha 8.60)
Commentary:
At first Kavikarṇapūra implies that the bees entered the lotuses before dawn. When the sun rose, the night lotuses closed and the bees were trapped. After sunset, the moonrays became prominent, therefore they made the night lotuses open. The verse as a whole is an utprekṣā. Specifically, the svarūpa utprekṣā is: Bees look like piles of charcoal. And the expression “as if out of compassion” is a hetu utprekṣā (fanciful imagination of a reason). In addition, implied utprekṣās are: (1) The moon as if extinguishes with its hands (kara) the lotuses’ fire of intense separation, and (2) The imagined piles of charcoal are as if the end result of the lotuses’ fire of separation.
Further, the idea that lotuses have mouths is the first variety of the atiśayokti ornament (introsuspection) (10.84) because here a mouth signifies the cup of a lotus flower. Similarly, the fire of separation is technically an atiśayokti, since “the fire” stands for “the pang”, yet it is a common poetic expression.