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...
Text 11.17 [Ullekha]
अथार्थालङ्काराः,
athārthālaṅkārāḥ,
Now the additional ornaments of meaning are expounded:
63. Ullekha
ekasya bahudhollekhād ullekhaṃ kavayo viduḥ ||11.5ab||
Poets know that ullekha (angles of description) is so called because one entity is described in many ways.
yathā, mallānām aśaniḥ ity ādi.
An example of ullekha is in the verse that begins mallānām aśaniḥ.
Commentary:
The ornaments from here to text 11.38 are taken from Sāhitya-darpaṇa. Ruyyaka introduced them in poetical theory. Viśvanātha Kavirāja says ullekha has two varieties: The description has many angles either because of the difference of the perceivers or because of different objects.[1] Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa gives two examples in that order. The aforesaid verse (7.155) features the first variety of ullekha because one entity, Kṛṣṇa, is viewed differently by different persons: “In the battle arena, Kṛṣṇa, who was accompanied by His elder brother, was perceived by the people there as follows: To the wrestlers He was a thunderbolt, to the men of Mathurā He was the best of men, to the women He was Cupid in person, to the cowherds He was their relative, to the unrighteous kings He was their punisher, to His parents He was their child, to Kaṃsa He was his own death, to ignorant people He was the Universal Form, to the yogīs He was the Absolute Truth, and to the Vṛṣṇis He was their topmost Deity” (Bhāgavatam 10.43.17).
Paṇḍita-rāja Jagannātha shows this verse as an example of ullekha-dhvani (an implied ullekha) of the first variety:
smayamānānanāṃ tatra tāṃ vilokya vilāsinīm |
cakorāś cañcarīkāś ca mudaṃ varatarāṃ yayuḥ ||“Seeing the coquettish woman with a smiling face at that time, the cakora birds and the bees felt tremendous pleasure” (Rasa-gaṅgādhara).
This is implied: To the cakora birds, her face is a moon, and to the bees her face is a lotus. Thus here the ullekha-dhvani is combined with a bhrāntimān dhvani (implied mistaken perception).[2]