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...

विधु-बद्ध-महा-मोदा बुद्धिस् ते सागरा इव ।
अतुलं बत गाम्भीर्यं स्थैर्यं च दधते भृशम् ॥

vidhu-baddha-mahā-modā buddhis te sāgarā iva |
atulaṃ bata gāmbhīryaṃ sthairyaṃ ca dadhate bhṛśam ||

Like the oceans, your intelligence, whose great joy is connected with vidhu (Kṛṣṇa), has an incomparable profundity and much stability.

eṣūkti-vaicitryād ubhayānuyāyī dharmaḥ pratītaḥ.

In these examples, the poetic expression is such that an attribute is perceived to belong to both the upameya and the upamāna.

Commentary:

Here the intelligence (feminine singular) is compared to oceans (masculine plural), yet there is no discrepancy because all the modifiers are paronomastic: (1) On the side of the intelligence, the word vidhu means Kṛṣṇa, whereas on the side of the oceans it means the moon, (2) On the side of the intelligence, the word modā is in the feminine first case singular, whereas on the side of the oceans it is in the masculine first case plural (modāḥ); this is a liṅga-śleṣa (double meaning based on the gender) and a vacana-śleṣa (double meaning based on the number), (3) On the side of the intelligence, the verb dadhate is made from the verbal root dadh dhāraṇe (1A) (to have), whereas on the side of the oceans the verb dadhate is made from the verbal root [ḍu]dhā[ñ] dhāraṇa-poṣaṇayoḥ (3U) (to have; to foster); this is a prakṛti-śleṣa (a double meaning on the word base) and a vacana-śleṣa (double meaning based on the number), and (4) The words gāmbhīrya (profundity) and sthairya (stability) are instances of artha-śleṣa.

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