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 10.129
क्रमणोदाहरणानि,
kramaṇodāharaṇāni,
Examples are shown in order:
dāvas tavāyaṃ tuhinādri-vāyuḥ
saroruhaṃ sañcarad-uṣma-sampat | svāntaṃ nikṛntanti pikāni kāmaṃ varāmbaraṃ hālahalaṃ kim etat || dāvaḥ—conflagration; tava—to you; ayam—this; tuhina—cold; adri—from the mountain; vāyuḥ—the wind; saraḥ-ruham—a lotus (“it grows in a pond”); sañcarat—effusing; uṣma—heat; sampat—an affluence; sva-antam—the heart; nikṛntanti—shred; pikāni—the cuckoos; kāmam—at will; vara—of the lover; ambaram—the clothing; hālahalam—is the hālahala poison; kim—what?; etat—is this.
To you, the wind from the Malaya Hills is a conflagration, a lotus has profuse heat, the cuckoos freely turn your heart into shreds, and
your lover’s clothing is hālahala poison. What is going on?
atra vāyu-saroruha-pikāmbara-śabdā jāti-vācinaḥ. dāvoṣmakṛntana-hālahala-śabdāḥ kramāj jāti-guṇa-kriyā-dravya-vācinaḥ. eṣu pratiyugmaṃ mitho virodha iva bhāsate.
In this verse, “The wind from the Malaya Hills is a conflagration” is a contradiction between a category and another category; “A lotus has heat” is a contradiction between a category and a quality; “The cuckoos shred it” is a contradiction between a category and an action; and “The lover’s clothing is hālahala poison” is a contradiction between a category and a unique thing. Among them, the connection between each one seems like a contradiction.
Commentary:
A unique thing (dravya) is a thing which does not belong to a category (jāti). This is Paṇḍita-rāja Jagannātha’s illustrative verse of the four contradictions involving a category:
kusumāni śarā mṛṇāla-jālāny api kālāyasa-karkaśāny abhūvan |
sudṛśo dahanāyate sma rākā bhavanākāśam athābhavat payodheḥ ||“To the beautiful-eyed woman, flowers were arrows, lotus stems were hard like iron, the full-moon night acted like fire, and the sky of the house became a lake (for her to drown in)” (Rasa-gaṅgādhara).
“Flowers were arrows” is a contradiction between a jāti and another jāti. “Lotus stems were hard like iron” is a contradiction between a jāti and a guṇa. “The full-moon night acted like fire” is a contradiction between a jāti and a kriyā. “The sky became a lake” is a contradiction between a dravya and a jāti. In every instance, from the viewpoint of logic there must be an explanation to resolve the contradiction. Here the contradictions are resolved by the fact that the woman is feeling the pang of separation from her lover.[1]