Text 10.181

अत्र श्लेषेणापि निगूहनं मन्यन्ते.यथा,

atra śleṣeṇāpi nigūhanaṃ manyante.yathā,

In vyājokti, experts say the concealment can occur by śleṣa. For instance:

hastenādya priya-sakhi lasat-puṣkarābhena dūrāt kṛṣṇehāhaṃ mada-kala-dṛśā kampitāṅgī vikṛṣṭā |
nīcair jalpa bhramati purato bhrānta-citte gurus te hūṃ kālindī-pulina-vipine dīpra-dantīśvareṇa ||

hastena—with a hand (or with a tusk); adya—today; priya-sakhi—O dear female friend; lasat—resplendent; puṣkara—lotus flower; ābhena—[the hand,] which is like (or lasat-puṣkara-ābhena—[by an elephant,] which had the splendor of a resplendent tip of a tusk^[1] (or by Kṛṣṇa, who had splendor because of the resplendent tip of his ‘tusk’); or [the tusk,] which has the splendor of a resplendent lotus); dūrāt—from afar; kṛṣṇena—by Kṛṣṇa (or black); aham—I; mada-kala—are highly intoxicated (or ruttish^[2]); dṛśā—whose eyes; kampita—was trembling; aṅgī—I whose body; vikṛṣṭā—I was pulled; nīcaiḥ—lowly; jalpa—please talk; bhramati—[the elder] is going around; purataḥ—in front; bhrānta-citte—O you whose heart is perplexed; guruḥ—an elder person; te—related to you; hūm—hmm; kālindī-pulina—near the shore of the Yamunā; vipine—in the forest; dīpra—blazing (ferocious); danti-īśvareṇa—by a king of elephants.

[A gopī said:] “Hey girlfriend, today Kṛṣṇa, whose eyes reveal His intoxication, took me far away with His hand, a duplicate of a resplendent lotus. My body was made to shake.”

[Her friend replies:] “Shhh, speak softly, bewildered girl. Your elders are going around here.”

[She continues:] “Hmm, as I said, in the woodland by the Yamunā’s shore a big elephant grabbed me with its trunk.” (Uddhava-sandeśa 61)

iha gāḍhotkaṇṭhayā vyaktaṃ vastu-śleṣeṇa saṃvṛtam.

Here, what became manifest because of great emotional attachment was covered with a double meaning on the whole idea.

Commentary:

The verse features a delayed śleṣa (double meaning). The words hasta (hand; tusk), puṣkara (lotus; the tip of an elephant’s tusk), ābhā (like; or the splendor), and kṛṣṇa (Kṛṣṇa; black) are paronomastic in the scheme of śabda-śleṣa, whereas the other words are paronomastic in the scheme of artha-śleṣa. In her last sentence, the main speaker added the word dīpra-dantīśvareṇa (by a big elephant), so that all her previous words became paronomastic modifiers of it.

The second interpretation of the whole verse turns out as follows:

“Hey girlfriend, today, in the woodland by the Yamunā’s shore, a big, black elephant grabbed me with its trunk, whose tip was resplendent. My body shook because the elephant’s eyes were ruttish.”

Viśvanātha Kavirāja’s variety of apahnuti, at the end of Commentary 10.61, is similar. However, the above verse shows that in vyājokti there is no denial.

Footnotes and references:

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[1]:

puṣkaraṃ kari-hastāgre vādya-bhāṇḍa-mukhe jale |
vyomni khaḍga-phale padme tīrthauṣadhi-viśeṣayoḥ ||(Amara-koṣa 3.3.185)

[2]:

madotkaṭo mada-kalaḥ (Amara-koṣa 2.8.35).

Other Kavyashastra Concepts:

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Discover the significance of concepts within the article: ‘Text 10.181’. Further sources in the context of Kavyashastra might help you critically compare this page with similair documents:

Krishna, Shlesha, Double meaning.

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