Text 10.83 [Atiśayokti]

12. Atiśayokti

निगीर्याध्यवसानं तु प्रकृतस्य परेण यत् ।
प्रस्तुतस्य यद् अन्यत्वं यद्य्-अर्थोक्तौ च कल्पनम् ॥ १०.१०० ॥
कार्य-कारणयोर् यश् च पौर्वापर्य-विपर्ययः ।
विज्ञेयातिशयोक्तिः सा ॥ १०.१०१abc ॥

nigīryādhyavasānaṃ tu prakṛtasya pareṇa yat |
prastutasya yad anyatvaṃ yady-arthoktau ca kalpanam ||10.100||
kārya-kāraṇayor yaś ca paurvāparya-viparyayaḥ |
vijñeyātiśayoktiḥ sā ||10.101abc||

nigīrya—after the swallowing; adhyavasānam—introsusception; tu—(used to express a new beginning;); prakṛtasya—of the contextual entity (the upameya); pareṇa—by the other (the upamāna); yat—which; prastutasya—the contextual entity’s; yat—which; anyatvam—being another; yadi-artha-uktau—when there is a mention of the sense of “if”; ca—and; kalpanam—the imagination; kārya-kāraṇayoḥ—between effect and cause; yaḥ—which; ca—and; paurva-aparya—in the sequence; viparyayaḥ—the reversal; vijñeyā—is to be understood; atiśaya-uktiḥ—the ornament called atiśayokti; sā—that.

Atiśayokti (statement of supereminence) has four varieties: (1) An introsusception, where a standard of comparison (upamāna) absorbed the contextual thing (prakṛta), (2) The entity which is the subject of description is said to be of a different kind, (3) The imagination is stated with the word “if”, and (4) A change in the normal sequence between a cause and its effect.

antar-nigīrṇasyopameyasya yad upamānena nirūpaṇaṃ sātiśayoktiḥ prathamā. yac ca tad eva vastv idam anyad eveti nirūpyate sā dvitīyā. yadi-cec-chabdābhyāṃ yady-arthasyoktau yāsambhavārthasya kalpanā sā tṛtīyā. hetoḥ śīghra-kāritāṃ vaktuṃ kāryasya yā prāg uktir eka-kālatā vā sā caturthī.

There are four kinds of atiśayokti. The first one is: The upamāna is mentioned by itself, since it swallowed the upameya. The second one is: One thing is described in terms of having a distinct nature. The third one is: There is an imagination of an impossible thing and the word yadi (if) or cet (if) is used. The fourth one is: To indicate the quickness of the efficacy of the cause, the effect is said to occur either before its cause or at the same time the cause occurs.

Commentary:

The most common atiśayokti is the first variety: The upameya is subsumed by the upamāna. Therefore in usage the term atiśayokti refers to this type of atiśayokti. An example is: “He walks with lotuses,” which means that His feet are the form of lotuses. Paṇḍita-rāja Jagannātha explains the etymology: viṣayiṇā viṣayasya nigaraṇam atiśayaḥ, tasyoktiḥ, “The absorption of the upameya by the upamāna is an excellence (or an excess) (atiśaya). Atiśayokti is a statement of that” (Rasa-gaṅgādhara, KM p. 307). A complete introsusception only occurs in the first variety of atiśayokti, according to Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa (2.16).