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 10.71
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]:
Other Kavyashastra Concepts:
Concepts being referred within the main category of Hinduism context and sources.
Moral teaching, High position.