Text 11.13

यथा वा,
नव-रत्न-मयी माला कण्ठे रामस्य सीतया ।
अत्र क्रिया-पदं गुप्तं प्रत्यक्षे’पि क्रिया-पदे ॥

yathā vā,
nava-ratna-mayī mālā kaṇṭhe rāmasya sītayā |
atra kriyā-padaṃ guptaṃ pratyakṣe’pi kriyā-pade ||

nava—new; ratna—gems; mayī—consisting of; mālā—the necklace; kaṇṭhe—on the neck; rāmasya—of Rāma; sītayā—by Sītā; atra—here (or at this time); kriyā-padam—the declined word which is a verb (or the place of the sacred ceremony); guptam—is concealed (or was protected); pratyakṣe api—although directly perceptible (or pratyakṣepi—was belittled); kriyā-pade—when the verb (or on the occasion of the sacred ceremony^[1]).

This is another example of kriyā-gupti (concealment of an action):

When the marriage ceremony was going on, the necklace of polished gems on Rāma’s neck was belittled (pratyakṣepi) by Sītā. At that time the marriage ceremony was being guarded.

atra pratyakṣepīti ca.

The concealed verb is pratyakṣepi (was belittled).

Commentary:

At a cursory look, the verse seems to mean: “The necklace of polished gems on Rāma’s neck…by Sītā; here the verb is concealed although the verb is directly perceptible (pratyakṣe’pi).” However, since the first sentence is incomplete, the verse features gupti since the verb pratyakṣepi, in the aorist tense, must be used instead of pratyakṣe’pi, a well-known term.

By the logical reasoning called kākākṣi (the eyeball of a crow), also called dehalī-pradīpa (a lamp on the threshold of a doorway), the same word can be used twice in a syntactical connection. This does not apply to gupti because the exact same meaning would not be used twice: “The necklace of freshly polished gems on Rāma’s neck was belittled (pratyakṣe’pi = pratyakṣepi) by Sītā; here the verb is concealed although the verb is directly perceptible (pratyakṣe’pi).” Further, the words “the necklace was belittled by Sītā” is a vyatireka-dhvani (implied contrast).

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

kriyā-pade vivāha-kāle (Kṛṣṇānandinī).