Text 10.211 [Pratyanīka]

50. Pratyanīka

प्रतिपक्षम् अशक्तेन प्रतिकर्तुं तिरस्क्रिया ।

pratipakṣam aśaktena pratikartuṃ tiraskriyā |

yā tadīyasya tat-stutyai pratyanīkaṃ tad ucyate ||10.129|| pratipakṣam—the opposing party; aśaktena—by one who is unable; pratikartum—to retaliate (to injure); tiraskriyā—a disrespectful action; yā—which [disrespectful action]; tadīyasya—of something related to that [opposing party]; tat—that (the opposing party); stutyai—for the sake of praising; pratyanīkam—the ornament named pratyanīka; tat—that; ucyate—is called.

When somebody unable to take revenge on their enemy does harm to someone related to that enemy and this results in effecting the superiority of the enemy over the one who does harm, that is pratyanīka (indirect rivalry).

tiraskārakam api vipakṣaṃ sākṣāt tiraskartum aśaktena kenacid yā vipakṣotkarṣārthā vipakṣīyasya tiraskriyā tat pratyanīkam. (The translation of this was incorporated above.)

Commentary:

Mammaṭa explains the derivation of the term pratyanīka. In short, anīka means “army” and pratyanīka means “a substitute of an army,” i.e. a hostile person who is indirectly related to the enemy army. As in real life someone who is unable to harm a powerful army tries to harm an ally of that army, so in the pratyanīka ornament someone who is unable to attack his adversary attacks someone who is connected with that adversary.^[1] The purpose of the ornament is to exalt the adversary, who cannot be attacked. Owing to a similarity with the pratyanīka of real life, in poetics the meaning of the term pratyanīka involves figurative usage (since there is no representative of an enemy army in the ornament).^[2]

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

nyak-kṛti-param api vipakṣaṃ sākṣān nirasitum aśaktena kenāpi yat tam eva pratipakṣam utkarṣayituṃ tad-āśritasya tiraskaraṇam tat anīka-pratinidhi-tulyatvāt pratyanīkam abhidhīyate. yathā, anīke, abhiyojye tat-pratinidhī-bhūtam aparaṃ mūḍhatayā kenacid abhiyujyate tatheha pratiyogini vijeye tadīyo’nyo vijīyate, ity arthaḥ (Kāvya-prakāśa 10.129). Jagannātha writes: pratipakṣa-sambandhinas tiraskṛtiḥ pratyanīkam || anīkena sadṛśaṃ pratyanīkam. […] sādṛśye’vyayī-bhāvaḥ (Rasa-gaṅgādhara, KM p. 493).

[2]:

anīkaṃ sainyaṃ tasya pratinidhiḥ pratyanīkam. tat-sādṛśyād alaṅkāro’pi pratyanīkam iti vyapadeśam alabhata (Ekāvalī 8.61 vṛtti). “So the word pratyanīka is applied by lakṣaṇā to the figure.” (Kane, P.V (1995), The Sāhitya-darpaṇa, p. 292)