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 10.178
यथा वा,
नव-जलधर-धामा कोटि-कामावतारः
प्रणय-रस-यशो-रः श्री-यशोदा-किशोरः ।
अरुणद् अरुण-दीर्घापाङ्ग-भङ्ग्या कुरङ्गीर्
इव निखिल-कृशाङ्गी रङ्गिणि त्वं क्व यासि ॥
yathā vā,
nava-jaladhara-dhāmā koṭi-kāmāvatāraḥ
praṇaya-rasa-yaśo-raḥ śrī-yaśodā-kiśoraḥ |
aruṇad aruṇa-dīrghāpāṅga-bhaṅgyā kuraṅgīr
iva nikhila-kṛśāṅgī raṅgiṇi tvaṃ kva yāsi ||
nava-jala-dhara—[is like the luster] of a fresh raincloud; dhāmā—whose luster; koṭi—are millions; kāma—of Cupids; avatāraḥ—He whose incarnations; praṇaya-rasa—to śṛṅgāra-rasa; yaśaḥ-raḥ—who bestows glory; śrī-yaśodā—of Śrī Yaśodā; kiśoraḥ—the teenager; aruṇat—has caught; aruṇa—reddish; dīrgha—broad; apāṅga—of the sidelong glances; bhaṅgyā—with the play; kuraṅgīḥ—female deer; iva—like; nikhila—all; kṛśa-aṅgīḥ—the thin-bodied girls; raṅgiṇi—O passionate girl; tvam—you; kva—where?; yāsi—are going.
Yaśodā’s teenager, whose luster is like the sheen of a new monsoon cloud, who embodies millions of Cupids, and who gives glory to śṛṅgāra-rasa, has caught all the doe-like slender girls by means of the crooked moves from the wide reddish corners of His eyes. Passionate girl, where do you think you’re going? (Alaṅkārakaustubha 1.20)
atra sarvathā-gantavyatvābhiprāyāṇi tāni. ekasyaiva bahu-viśeṣaṇa-vinyāsaś camatkārīty asyālaṅkāratā.
Here the adjectives of Kṛṣṇa (translated in the form of clauses) have this purpose: “You should go meet Kṛṣṇa in any way you can.” Parikara is an ornament proper because inserting many adjectives for one noun generates astonishment.
Commentary:
This is Mammaṭa’s example:
mahaujaso māna-dhanā dhanārcitā dhanur-bhṛtaḥ saṃyati labdha-kīrtayaḥ |
na saṃhatās tasya na bheda-vṛttayaḥ priyāṇi vāñchanty asubhiḥ samīhitum ||“[A spy speaks to Yudhiṣṭhira:] The archers are very powerful. They have a wealth of pride. They are honored with riches. They made their reputation in war. And they neither get together nor disagree with one another. They are ready to lay down their lives to fulfill his wishes” (Kirātārjunīyam 1.18) (Kāvya-prakāśa verse 519).
According to Nāgeśa Bhaṭṭa, the implied sense is that the king who employs those archers is hard to defeat.[1]
In usage, sometimes parikara takes the form of the svabhāvokti ornament (a description of the nature). This is another example:
tam adbhutaṃ bālakam ambujekṣaṇaṃ catur-bhujaṃ śaṅkha-gadādy-udāyudham |
śrīvatsa-lakṣmaṃ gala-śobhi-kaustubhaṃ pītāmbaraṃ sāndra-payoda-saubhagam ||
mahārha-vaidūrya-kirīṭa-kuṇḍala-tviṣā pariṣvakta-sahasra-kuntalam |
uddāma-kāñcy-aṅgada-kaṅkaṇādibhir virocamānaṃ vasudeva aikṣata ||“Vasudeva saw an amazing boy: His eyes resembled lotuses. His four arms held eminent weapons: the conch, the mace and the cakra. He had the mark of Śrīvatsa. On His neck, the Kaustubha was dazzling. His garments were yellow. His splendor was more charming than the hue of rainclouds. His immeasurable head hair mingled with the effulgence of His two earrings and of His crown, which was studded with the highly valuable Vaidūrya gem, and He was especially resplendent with His magnificent girdle, armlets, forearm ornaments, and so on.” (Bhāgavatam 10.3.9-10)
Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa comments: adbhutatva-bodhakāni viśeṣaṇāny ambujekṣaṇam ity-ādīnīti parikaro’laṅkāraḥ, “The adjectives beginning from ambujekṣaṇam (He has lotus eyes) inform about the wonderment. That constitutes the parikara ornament” (Vaiṣṇavānandinī 10.3.9-10).
However, Śrīdhara Svāmī indicates that the kāvya-liṅga ornament (explanatory reason) occurs in that way:
adbhutatve hetu-garbhāṇi viśeṣaṇāny ambujekṣaṇam ity-ādīni,
“The adjectives, beginning from ambujekṣaṇam, contain reasons which explain the wonderment” (Bhāvārtha-dīpikā 10.3.9-10).
Sometimes parikara is simply the fact that many adjectives are used for one noun. Kavikarṇapūra follows that methodology. Ruyyaka, however, says the essence of parikara is an implied sense.[2] Viśvanātha and Jagannātha follow him. Jagannātha says the difference between parikara and kāvya-liṅga is that in kāvya-liṅga there is no implied meaning.[3] He adds that even one adjective can constitute parikara if that adjective serves a purpose.[4] In that sense, parikara signifies epithet.[5] He gives an example: vīci-kṣālita-kāliyāhita-pade svarloka-kallolini, tvaṃ tāpaṃ tirayādhunā bhava-bhaya-vyālāvalīḍhātmanaḥ, “O river from the heavenly regions, O you by whom the feet of Kāliya’s enemy are washed with waves, now kindly dispel my distress. I am licked by the snake of fear of material life” (Rasa-gaṅgādhara, KM p. 386). Here the adjectival compound vīci-kṣālita-kāliyāhita-pade (O you by whom the feet of Kāliya’s enemy are washed with waves) suggests the idea that by the Ganges’ influence the snake of fear of material life will go away.
Jagannātha shows that in parikara sometimes the implied meaning is a second-rate implied sense of the vācya-siddhi-aṅga variety[6] (an aspect in the accomplishment of the literal sense) (5.10):
vihāya saṃsāra-mahā-maru-sthalīm alīka-dehādi-milan-marīcikām |
kṛpā-tarāṅgākula man-mano-mṛgo vigāḍhum īśa tvayi gāḍham īhate ||“O Lord who abounds in waves of mercy! Rejecting material life, a great desert where mirages in the form of an unreal material body and so on are met, the deer of my mind wishes to deeply plunge in You” (Rasa-gaṅgādhara).
Here the idea that He is an ocean, implied from the adjective kṛpā-tarāṅgākula (O You who abound in waves of mercy), is an aspect of the accomplishment of “plunging”, a literal meaning of the text.[7]
This is a different kind of example:
ayi lāvaṇya-jalāśaya tasyā hā hanta mīna-nayanāyāḥ |
dūra-sthe tvayi kiṃ vā kathayāmo vistareṇālam ||“Dear ocean of loveliness, alas what can we possibly say about the condition of that woman with fish eyes when you are far away? There is no need to elaborate” (Rasa-gaṅgādhara).
The ākṣepa ornament (hinting by negating) is prominent here, but Jagannātha shows the verse in the section on parikara to illustrate that one highly significant noun for each person gives life to the whole statement.[8] The implied sense is that a woman with fish eyes is a match for a man who is an ocean of loveliness. In his absence she is like a fish out of water.
Footnotes and references:
[1]:
[2]:
[3]:
viśeṣaṇānāṃ sābhiprāyatvaṃ parikaraḥ || tac ca prakṛtārthopapādaka-camatkārivyaṅgyatvam. ata evāsya hetv-alaṅkārād vailakṣaṇyam, tatra vyaṅgyasyānāvaśyakatvāt. upapādakatā copaskāraka-niṣpādaka-sādhāraṇī. vyaṅgyasya guṇatvāc ca na dhvanitvaṃ vyapadiśyate (Rasa-gaṅgādhara, KM p. 386).
[4]:
atra vimarṣiṇī-kārādaya āhuḥ, “viśeṣaṇānāṃ bahutvam atra vivakṣitam, sābhiprāyaviśeṣaṇa-bahutva-kṛta eva cātra vaicitryātiśayaḥ. eka-viśeṣaṇaṃ tu doṣābhāva-mātrasyāvakāśaḥ” iti tad asat, viśeṣaṇānekatvaṃ hi vyaṅgyādhikyādhāyakatvād vaicitrya-viśeṣādhāyakam astu nāma, na tu prakṛtālaṅkāra-śarīram eva tad iti śakyaṃ vaktum (Rasa-gaṅgādhara, KM p. 387); iti prāg-ukte ekasyaiva viśeṣaṇasya camatkāritāyā apahnavanīyatvāt (Rasa-gaṅgādhara, KM p. 387).
[6]:
ayaṃ ca vākya-siddhy-aṅga-vyaṅgya-garbhatvenopaskāraka vyaṅgya-garbhatvena dvidhābhavan vyaṅgyasya vācyāyamānatva-tad-viparyayābhyāṃ caturdhā (Rasa-gaṅgādhara, KM p. 390). Here Jagannātha says that parikara can involve a first-rate implied sense. His example of that is the above citation: caturthaḥ “vīci-kṣālita-kāliyāhita-pade” ity atra ca bodhyaḥ (Rasa-gaṅgādhara, KM p. 390).
[7]:
[8]:
atraikaika-viśeṣaṇa-mātreṇaiva sakala-vākyārtha-sañjīvanāc ca (Rasa-gaṅgādhara, KM p. 387). The vocative lāvaṇya-jalāśaya (ocean of loveliness) is actually the parikarāṅkura ornament (highly significant noun) (11.40). Jagannātha does not list the parikarāṅkura ornament. It is understood that he considers it a subvariety of parikara (Commentary 11.40).