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...

उदाहरणम्,
तवाधरौष्ठे क्षतम् अञ्जनं च मम व्यथार्तं मलिनं च चेतः ।
पीतस् तया ते वदनासवस् त्वं मत्तः कुतो’नर्थ-परम्परेयम् ॥

udāharaṇam,
tavādharauṣṭhe kṣatam añjanaṃ ca mama vyathārtaṃ malinaṃ ca cetaḥ |
pītas tayā te vadanāsavas tvaṃ mattaḥ kuto’nartha-parampareyam ||

tava—Your; adhara-oṣṭhe—on both lips; kṣatam—has appeared; añjanam—eyeliner; ca—and; mama—my; vyathā—due to pain; ārtam—disturbed; malinam—sullied; ca—and; cetaḥ—mind; pītaḥ—was drunk (i.e. sipped); tayā—by that girl; te—of Yours; vadana—of the mouth; āsavaḥ—the liquor; tvam—You; mattaḥ—intoxicated; kutaḥ—why?; anartha—of bizarre events; paramparā—succession; iyam—this.

This is an example (a gopī speaks to Kṛṣṇa):

There is eyeliner on Your lips, but it is my mind which is blackened and disturbed by pain. That girl sipped the liquor of Your lips, but it is You who are intoxicated. How has this series of bizarre events come about? (Alaṅkāra-kaustubha 8.251)

bhinnādhāratvād iyam ekādhārād virodhād bhidyate.

The difference between asaṅgati and virodha (contradiction) is that in asaṅgati, a cause and its effect occur in different substratums whereas in virodha the substratum is the same.

Commentary:

Nāgeśa Bhaṭṭa says asaṅgati is essentially the same as the fourth variety of atiśayokti, characterized by a change in the sequence between a cause and its effect, yet asaṅgati is distinct owing to the strikingness of those occurrences in separate substratums.[1] Pīyūṣa-varṣa Jayadeva gives an example: tvad-bhaktānāṃ namaty aṅgaṃ bhaṅgam eti bhava-klamaḥ, “The body of Your devotee bows, and the weariness of material life breaks” (Candrāloka 5.79).

Paṇḍita-rāja Jagannātha illustrates asaṅgati based on śleṣa,

dṛṣṭir mṛgī-dṛśo’tyantaṃ śruty-anta-pariśīlinī |
mucyante bandhanāt keśā vicitrā vaidhasī gatiḥ ||

“The eyes of the doe-eyed woman reach the end of her ears (or the vision of the doe-eyed woman is well-versed in the scriptures). Her hair is loosening from her braid (or her hair is liberated from bondage)” (Rasa-gaṅgādhara, KM p. 440).

Since her eyes are well-versed in Vedānta, the effect should be that her eyes become liberated from bondage, yet that effect occurs somewhere else.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

ity atra kāla-bhede’py asaṅgater iṣṭatvāt. kārya-kāraṇayoḥ paurvāparya-viparyayarūpātiśayokteś ca pṛthag-vaicitrya-kāritvena samāveśa eva yukta iti bhāvaḥ (Uddyota 10.124).

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