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...

यथा वा,

yathā vā,
hṛdi bisa-latā-hāro nāyaṃ bhujaṅgama-nāyakaḥ
  kuvalaya-dala-śreṇī kaṇṭhe na sā garala-dyutiḥ
|
malayaja-rajo nedaṃ bhasma priyā-rahite mayi
  prahara na hara-bhrāntyānaṅga krudhā kim u dhāvasi
||

hṛdi—on the chest; bisa—of whole lotus plants; latā—of stems; hāraḥ—a garland; na—not; ayam—this; bhujaṅ-gama—of snakes (“they move crookedly”); nāyakaḥ—the leader; kuvalaya—of blue water lilies; dala—of petals; śreṇī—a series; kaṇṭhe—on the neck; na—not; —that [well-known sheen]; garala—of poison; dyutiḥ—the sheen; malaya-ja—of sandalwood (“originating from Malaya”); rajaḥpowder; na—not; idam—this; bhasma—ash; priyā-rahite—who am devoid of the beloved; mayi—in Me; prahara—strike; na—not; hara—of Hara; bhrāntyā—with the delusion; anaṅga—O Cupid; krudhā—with anger; kim—why; u—at all; dhāvasi—you run.

This is another example of niścaya. [Kṛṣṇa speaks:]

A garland of lotus stems is on My chest; it is not a king of snakes. A multitude of petals of blue water lilies in on My neck; there is no sheen of poison. This is sandalwood paste on My body; there is no ash. O Cupid, why at all do you angrily rush at Me? I am not with My beloved. Do not strike Me by mistaking Me for Śiva. (Gīta-govinda 3.11) (Sāhitya-darpaṇa 10.39)

atra bhujaṅgādy upamānaṃ niṣidhya bisa-latā-hārādy upameyaṃ sthāpyate. na cāyaṃ niścayānta-sandehaḥ, saṃśaya-niścayayor vyadhikaraṇatvāt.

In this verse, the upameyas, beginning from the garland of lotus stems, are established by negating the upamānas, beginning from the snake.

Niścaya is not the niścayānta variety of sandeha, because in niścaya the doubt and the certainty are not in the same substratum (here the seeming doubt belongs to Cupid and the certainty to Kṛṣṇa).

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