Part 1 - Sabdalankaras in Vasantavilasa-mahakavya

The excellence of a poem lies mainly in its richness of sentiment. But it is not proper to look upon the poem in this manner at every stage, since figurative language too, riflects the playful working of the poets immaginative mind. Great rhetoricians have included Alankras among constituent elements of poetry. haradivadalankarah tantrasthurupamadayah | | The figures of speech like Upama etc, adorn the poetry just as golden ornaments like Necklace etc, adorn young damsel. So poets have made ample use of Alamkaras in their poems to enhance their beauty and charm. The poetic figures embellish the body of poetry constituted by Sabda and Artha. Bhamaha and Dandin¹, the Alankarikas of the old school, have consider Alankaras as the invariabale elements of charm in poetry. Vamana states that beauty is Alankara, 2 and a poem appeals to the mind of a reader only if it has Alankaras.³ But excessive use of the figures of speach with special efforts would ammount to artificiality as rightly observed by

268 Anandavardana. He says that Alankaras should be used with great discretion in such a way as to subserve the delineation of Rasa. Alankaras should be such as evolved without special effort on the part of the poem. Subservience to 4 Rasa and spontaneity in evolution are the special requirements of Alazkaras, which, where falfilled, give a stamp of greatness to a poet. Kalidasa, among classical poets, has this stamp of greatness in using Alankaras. Poets after him have shown greater fascination for Alankaras to the extent of degenerating thier poems into more and more artificiality. Now a word about the place of Alankaras in a piece of poetry would not be out of place here. The word Alankara literally means Omssidia HEIGHT | i.e. that which decorates. In every day life, Alankara means ornaments which decorates the body of a person. In rehetorics, the word Alankara means poetic embellishments which add charm to poetry as neck laces, bangles etc. add charm to the beauty of the body of a lady. Bhamaha and Dandin hold that Alankaras are very essential in a piece of poetry. Bhamaha opines that an unornamented poem, though full of poetic sentiments, does not attract a reader like a beautiful but unornamented face of a lady.5 6 Dangin also felt the importance of Alankaras as a means of adding charm to poetry. The Agnipurana also has ascribed the same importance to Alankaras and has added that a poem deviod of Alankaras is like a widow. Though Vamana laid more emphasis on Riri, he did accept the importance of Alankaras. He 7

- 269 also says beauty is Alankara and a poem appeals to the mind of a reader, if it has Alankara or beauty. He opines that although Gunas make a poem charming Alankaras too add to the poetic charm³ By the time of Vamana,Alankaras were regarded as very important in a Kavya. Anandavardana was the first retorician, who strongly opposed the over importance, assribed to them. He asserted that Alankaras should not predominate in a Kavya, 10 but these should be used only if they are suitable in the culmination of Rasa. Otherwise they should be avoided.11 A poetic composition has its two aspects: a) Words which constitute its outer body and b) The connotations of these words i.e. the meaning Both of these should be well-arranged and ornamented in a composition of high poetic value. Thus Alankaras which add charm to any poetic piece, can be of two types. 1. Decorating the words i.e., Sabdalankara 2. Decorating the sense i.e., Arthalankara heng These which decorate the words entirely depend upon the words for their existence, for they cease to survive, as soon as a word is replaced by another. On the other had, the Alankaras based on meaning continue to exist with the change of letters and words.

270 Balacandra Suri may be said to be equally well versed in the science of Rhetorics, as can be seen from copious examples of various figures of speech used by him. A persual of the Vasantavilasa Mahakavya makes it evident that Balacandra has employed both the types of Alankaras in an approprite context to adorn the narrative part of the text and to attract the hearts of the readers. As a matter of fact Balacandra is no lesser than to other great poets of Sanskrit Mahakavyas. Both the Sabdalankaras and the Arthalankaras consist in a big group of figures of speech, that have been used by Balacandra Suri. To be more precise, Balacandra's use of Sabdalankanas spcially of Yamaka is considerably in large numbers of comparing to the use of the Arthalankaras. 'Balacandra Suri - Master of Yamakalankara,' which comes after discussing the use of other Alankaras. Besides using Yamaka very charmingly Balacandra Suri also shows his excellence in the use of Anuprasa: i] Anuprasa or Alliteration :According to Mammata the definition of Alliteration is as follows: "Alliteration is the similarity of letters"12 Even when the vowels are dissimilar, the sameness of consonants constitutes the similarity of letters. Anuprasa is, so called because of the :

271 excellent arrangement - Prakystanyasa which is anu (arugata) i.e. favourable to the sentiment and other element of poetry. Then, Mammata states the kinds of Alliteration : It is of two kinds; as pertaining to Cheka and Vrtti. 13 Cheka means clever persons, or those with appreciative mind. Vrts or style means the function of the particular letters which helps the suggestion of sentiment. 'Pretaining to' this refers to the Chekanuprasa and the Vrryanuprasa. What is the characteristic of these? In reply to this the author states: "That former one is the repetition of the several consonants only once" 14 Similarity of several consonants once, i.c., a single time, is the Chekanuprasa. "The latter is the repetition of even the one consonant more than once³15 Vrtyanuprasa is the similarity of one or several consonants, as the word 'even' would imply, twice or several times. In the Vasantavilasa Mahakavya, Bulacandra Suri uses all types of Sabdalankaras in very appropriative manner. First two verses of te first canto }

272 are examples of the varieties of Anuprasa; this shows that he liked to compose his verses in the form of Sabdalankaras. Now we have to discuss the Anuprasa and its varieties with suitable examples, from the Vasantavilasa Mahakavya. a) Chekanuprasa : The benedictory verse of the Vasantavilasa Mahakavya is a beautiful example to the Chekanuprasalankara : srikantanabhiprabhavananendoh kundojvala kantirivatanotu | sarasvati vah kavitavitantakumudvatimanvahamadvitiyam || 16 In this verse, there is the repetition of several consonants viz kanta kanti ndo do in the first foot and bita bita dvati dvati in the second foot are only once. Hence it is an example of Chekanuprasa. When writing on merits of the poets Balacandra describes : namapi ramadimahipatinam vijno'pi ko'jnasyata bhutale'smin | asutrayisyankavayascaritram na cedamisamudayanmanisah | | 17 Here the differant consonants viz ma ma jno jna in the first line and " na sa in the second is repeated only once, i.c., Chakanaprasa.

273 b) Vrriyanuprasa Second verse of the first canto is a suitable exmple of the Vrtyamuprasa :- ceto'ncalam cancalatam vimocya sankocya pancapi samam samiran | pasyanti yanmurddhani sasvatasri sarasvatam jyotirupasmahe tat | | 18 times. In this verse several consonants like ca nca sa ta are repeated several Like-Wise, another verse describing the form of Goddess Sarasvati is an example of Vrayanuprasa. It reads : kasmiravasavyasana sana'pi sarasvati punyavasadupetya | basatyavasyam kavitavilasarupena cidrupamukhambujesu || 19 Here consonants and are repeated several times. So also, fifteenth verse of the I Canto is an instance of Vrtyanuprasa :- kim karyamaryaih kavibhih kubhumibhujam vitatobitankitanam | kim garta ko lekadhana nisada nisadisamvarganamadriyante | | 20 Here, consonnts like ka bha ta na da were repeated again and again.

274 When writing on the good works of Creator Balacandra Suri describes the good-products of Prajapasi in the form of Vrayanuprasa Alamkara! - srikhandasakhi tarusu grahesu pusa prasunesu sahasrapatram | peyesu pathah purusesu sadhuh prajapateh saccaritani panca | | 21 Consonants are repeated here more than three times. At the time of introducing the hero and his qualities, we get another example of the same : - nale ca rame ca yudhistire ca vasikrta yaih kavayo gunaste | srivastupale sma vasanti sampratyatastadiyam kavayami kincit 1 122 Here also consonants are reported more than twice. Next, another varity of Anuprasa is taken for study, i.e., Latanuprasa c) Latanuprasa: According to the Kavyaprakasa of Mammata, definition of Latanuprasa is as follows :- "Latanuprasa is verbal, when the difference lies only in the import of words" and "This pertains to several words and single word also "23

275 Alliteration of the words as different from that of single consonants which are the same in form and meaning. But there is differance only in their syantactical relation: This is called Latanuprasa because of its being popular with the people of Lata country. Follwing is the examples of Laganuprasa used by Balacandra Suri: In the context of describing the geneology of the Calukya kings the author introduces one of the kings viz Kumarapala, in the third Canto :- nirvidikavittaparanmukho'pi nirvirikariksitivittamadat | yastyaktasaptavyasano'pi saptarajyangasavyani babhuva 11 24 Here, the alliteration of words Nirvitika and Sapta - are the same in the form and meaning but there is difference in the application (sarparya)only. Thus Balacandra Suri has made an effective use of all varieties of Anuprasalakkara, which is a prominent Sabdalankara. Another prominent Sabdalankara is Yamaka. A perusal of Vasatavilasa Mahakavya showed that Balacandra is a great master of Yamakalankara which has many many varieties. The next chapter is devoted to deal with exclusively to 'Balacandra Suri the Master of Yamakas'

Foot - Notes 1. Sabdalankaras in Vasantavilasamahakavya 1 276 1. Bhamaha, Kavyalankara, I, 33 2. Vamana, Kavyalankarasutravrtti - 1, 1 3. Ibid, I.3 4. alankarantarasyapi pratitau yatra bhasate | tatparatvam na vacyasya nasaum margo dhvanermatah | - Anandavardhana, Dhvanyaloka. II.27 5. na kantamapi nirbhusam vibhatirvanitamukham | - Bhamaha, op.cit. 1.13 6. Kavyadarsa, II. 1 1. 8. Agnipurana, 34.13 alankararahita vidhaveva sarasvati | Kavyalankara Sutravrtti, - kavyam grahyamalankarat | saundaryamalankarah | 9. Ibid, kavyasobhayah kartaro dharmah gunah | tadatisayahetavastallankarah | 10. Dhvanyaloka, II-19

1 11. Thid, II. 18 12. kale ca grahanatyagau natinirvahanaurvita | Kavyaprakasa, Ullasa, IX varnasamyam anuprasah | 13. Ibid, IX. chekavrttigato dvidha | 14. Ibid, IX. so'nekasya sakrtpurvah | 15. Ibid, IX. ekasyatyasakrtparah | |71|| 16. Vasantavilasa of Balachandra , I. 1 17. Vasantavilasa of Balachandra , 1.7 18. Vasantavilasa of Balachandra , 1.2 19. Vasantavilasa of Balachandra , 1.4 20. Vasantavilasa of Balachandra , I. 15 21. Vasantavilasa of Balachandra , I. 18 22. Vasantavilasa of Balachandra , 1.76 23. Kavyaprakasha of Mammata, IX.18 24. sabdastu latanuprasah bhede tatparyamatratah | 181 || Vasantavilasa of Balachandra , 111.28 277