Text 10.71

उदाहरणम्,
को’त्र भूमि-वलये जनान् मुधा तापयन् सुचिरम् एति सम्पदम् ।
वेदयन्न् इति दिनेन भानुमान् आससाद चरमाचलं ततः ॥

udāharaṇam,
ko’tra bhūmi-valaye janān mudhā tāpayan suciram eti sampadam |
vedayann iti dinena bhānumān āsasāda caramācalaṃ tataḥ ||

kaḥ—who?; atra—here; bhūmi—of Earth; valaye—on the circle; janān—people; mudhā—uselessly; tāpayan suciram eti sampadam—prosperity; vedayan—to make one understand; iti—this; dinena—in a day; bhānumān—the sun (“it has rays”); āsasāda—reached; carama-acalam—the last mountain (the western horizon); tataḥ—after that.

“Who in this world obtains long-term properity while uselessly tormenting people on Earth?” To make one understand this, the sun, in a day, reached the Western Mountain. (Sāhitya-darpaṇa 10.51)

atra raver dinenāstādri-prāptiḥ kriyā sā svarūpasya mudhā paratāpana-rūpa-sva-hetoś ca sambandhaṃ jñāpayati.

In this example, the action is the sun’s attaining the Western Mountain in one day. That action makes one understand a connection between its cause, in the form of uselessly tormenting people, and its very nature (attaining the Western Mountain in one day).

Commentary:

This is Mammaṭa’s example:

unnataṃ padam avāpya yo laghur helayaiva sa pated iti bruvan |
śaila-śekhara-gato dṛṣat-kaṇaś cāru-māruta-dhutaḥ pataty adhaḥ ||

““When a lowly thing attains a high position, it will easily fall.” To signify this, the dust on mountaintops blown by a mild wind falls to the ground.”

Mammaṭa explains:

atra pāta-kriyayā patanasya lāghave sati unnata-pada-prāpti-rūpasya ca sambandhaḥ khyāpyate,

“Here the dust’s action of falling establishes a connection between the action of falling (its nature) and its cause in the form of the attainment of a high position by a lowly person” (Kāvya-prakāśa, verse 438 vṛtti).

This category of nidarśanā is the nidarśanā of the ancient poetical rhetoricians: For them, nidarśanā (illustration) is so called precisely because it illustrates a moral teaching.^[1] Mammaṭa simply reworded Vāmana’s definition.^[2]

The above verse by Viśvanātha Kavirāja is an adaptation of Bhāmaha’s example:

ayaṃ manda-dyutir bhāsvān astaṃ prati yiyāsati |
udayaḥ patanāyeti śrīmato bodhayan narān ||

“The dim sun desires to set in order to enlighten the wise that a rise precedes a fall” (Bhāmahālaṅkāra 3.34).

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

arthāntara-pravṛttena kiñcid tat-sadṛśaṃ phalam |
sad asad vā nidarśyeta yadi tat syād nidarśanam || (Kāvyādarśa 2.348). kriyayaiva viśiṣṭasya tad-arthasyopadarśanāt |
jñeyā nidaraśnā nāma yatheva-vatibhir vinā || (Bhāmahālaṅkāra 3.33).

[2]:

kriyayaiva sva-tadarthānvaya-khyāpanaṃ nidarśanam (Kāvyālaṅkāra-sūtra 4.3.20).