Text 10.64 [Samāsokti]

9. Samāsokti

परोक्तिर् भेदकैः श्लिष्टैः समासोक्तिः ॥ १०.९७ab ॥

paroktir bhedakaiḥ śliṣṭaiḥ samāsoktiḥ || 10.97ab ||

para—of another (of the aprakṛta, i.e. of the behavior of the aprakṛta^[1]); uktiḥ—the mention^[2]; bhedakaiḥ—by means of adjectives (“differentiators”); śliṣṭaiḥ—paronomastic; samāsa-uktiḥ—the ornament called samāsokti.

When something else is implied by means of paronomastic modifiers, that is samāsokti (concise statement).

aśliṣṭam api viśeṣyaṃ yadi śliṣṭair viśeṣaṇair aprakṛtam arthāntaraṃ bodhayati tadā samāsoktiḥ.

If the substantive, which is not paronomastic, makes one understand, by means of paronomastic adjectives, another meaning which is not contextual, that is samāsokti.

Commentary:

The etymology of samāsokti is: samāsena uktiḥ, “a statement with conciseness.” According to Mammaṭa, this means a dual sense is said with conciseness (with one word^[3]): sā samāsena saṅkṣepeṇārtha-dvaya-kathanāt samāsoktiḥ (Kāvya-prakāśa 10.97 vṛtti).

In samāsokti, the concepts of prakṛta (the subject of description) and aprakṛta (what is not the subject of description) are central: The prakṛta is mentioned, and the aprakṛta is implied. Thus samāsokti is characterized by a vastu-dhvani. Another important characteristic of samāsokti is that not one substantive is paronomastic. If a substantive is paronomastic, then the implied sense is in the scope of an implied simile. Thus there is no implied simile in samāsokti (Commentary 5.9).^[4]

Samāsokti is the reverse of aprastuta-praśaṃsā (indirect expression), where the aprastuta is mentioned and the prastuta (the contextual topic) is understood from it.^[5] The terms prastuta and prakṛta are synonymous. This is a recurrent theme in poetical theory. Other synonyms, which are rarely used, are: varṇanīya (the subject of description), pratipādya (the thing to be expounded), and prākaraṇika (contextual subject matter).

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

param aprakṛtam. bhedakāni viśeṣaṇāni. śliṣṭāny anekārthāni (Kāvya-pradīpa). Nāgeśa Bhaṭṭa comments: param aprakṛtam iti, aprakṛta-vyavahāra ity arthaḥ (Uddyota).

[2]:

Narahari Sarasvatī Tīrtha glosses uktiḥ (mentioning) as pratipādanam (propounding) (Bāla-cittānurañjinī).

[3]:

saṅkṣepeṇa, ekenaiva śabdena (Uddyota).

[4]:

na tu viśeṣyeti, tenopamā-dhvanau nātivyāptiḥ (Sāra-bodhinī 10.97)

[5]:

aprastuta-praśaṃsāyāṃ prastutasya gamyatvam iha tv aprastutasyeti bhedaḥ (Sāhityadarpaṇa 10.56).