Analysis of Utprekṣā-alaṅkāra

(i) This alaṅkāra is quite efficiently handled by the playwright at the beginning of the play, when eulogising king Śāhaji I.

The king is fancied by the poet to be goddess Sarasvatī incarnate who had descended to the world since she wanted to protect and nurture the learned; as a result lord Brahmā who could not bear separation from her had to alleviate himself with the waters in his kamaṇḍala and by the cool breeze spread by the wings of his haṃsavāhana (I.13):

bhartuṃ lālayituṃ bhuvi prathayituṃ vidvajjanānāśritān
  śrīśāhakṣitipātmanā kṣitigatāṃ matvā girāṃ devatām |
āsiṣcannasakṛt kamaṇḍalujalairaṅgāni paryākulo
  dhātā vāhanahaṃsapakṣapavanaistāpaṃ kilāpohati ||

(ii) An excellent Utprekṣā is found in III.4.

The normal routine of the cock’s crow at dawn is fancied by the poet as arising out of its doubt about lillies blooming again without thinking, on feeling the rays of the early dawn sun (while the moon has set); to forestall it, the cock is imagined to be crowing in advance (III.4):

patyavastaṃ vrajati vigalaccaṣcarīkāṣjanāśruṃ trāsānmīladdaladṛśamito rāgamarkaḥ kareṇa |
drāgāliṅgedapi kumudinīmityapanyāyaśaṅkī kūkūśabdaṃ visṛjati javāt kukkuṭaḥ pūrvameva ||

(iii) The closing of the night and the setting of the moon occur simultaneously and together.

This is fancied by the poet as the act of the lover, candra, who having spent the night in the proximity of kumudas, is running now after niśā to pacify her (she is angrily going away since he had neglected the previous night) (III.5):

rāgaṃ mukhena daradarśitatārakeṇa māṃ vyaṣjatīmapi sametya kareṇa gāḍham |
āliṅgatā kumudinīti ruṣāparādri< yātāṃ niśāṃ drutamanuvrajatīva candraḥ ||

(iv) Another instance of relishable Utprekṣā is seen when Vasanta as the bridegroom and Vanaśrī as the bride are imagined to get married with pumskokila’s sweet sounds forming the wedding mantras, the red hue of the fresh and tender leaves playing the role of wedding fire, the showers of white fresh flowers forming lāja-homa and the puffed-paddy becoming the oblation into the sacred fire (IV.30):

kandarpāgamamantrapāṭhamukhare puṃskokile kānana-śrīpāṇigrahamaṅgale sati madhordevasya dīptaujasaḥ |
vahnau pāṭalakāntipallavamaye smeraḥ prasūnoktaraḥ prakṣiptasya matiṃ na kiṃ vitanute lājavrajasyādhunā ||