3. Śārṅgadharapaddhati in Kuntaka’s treatment

Another famous anthology is Śārṅgadharapaddhati of Śārṅgadhara, the son of Dāmodara. It was written in 13^th century C.E having four thousand six hundred and eighty nine (4689) verses under one hundred and sixty three (163) sections. These sections include the topics like dhanurvedaḥ, gāndharvaśāstram, vṛkṣāyurvedaḥ, viṣāpaharaṇam, bhūtavidyā, haṭhayogaḥ etc. Approximately three hundred authors and works were cited in this anthology. This compilation contains the verses of the famous poets like Kālidāsa, Māgha, Bhartṛhari, Murāri, Amaruka, Jayadeva, Bhavabhūti etc. The subject matter and its arrangements are closely connected with the other two anthologies like Subhāṣitāvalī of Vallabhadeva and Sūktimuktāvalī of Jalhaṇa. Moreover it contains large number of same verses from Subhāṣitāvalī and Sūktimuktāvalī. The name of this text is sometimes confused with the Āyurvedic text named Śārṅgadharasaṃhitā.

One of the verses later found in the section named viyogipralāpāḥ among the 163 sections of Śārṅgadharapaddhati is as follows.

nidrānimīlitadṛśo madamantharāyā nāpyartthavanti na ca yāni nirarthakāni/
adyāpi me varatanormadhurāṇi tasyā-stānyakṣarāṇi hṛdaye kimapi dhvananti//^[1]

“With eyes closing in drowsiness, her gait slowed down by drink, that lovely one uttered such sweet expressions, neither meaningful nor meaningless, which still suggest something in my heart even now.”

Kuntaka cites this verse as the example of figurativeness of concealment (samvṛtivakratā), one of the variety of lexical figurativeness (padapūrvārdhavakratā). Here the word ‘something’ denotes the unexplainable delight by hearing the sweet voice of the damsel, which can only be experienced but not be expressed. Moreover the pronoun ‘such’ denotes the sweet voice coming in the memory of that delightful experience. The epithet ‘meaningless’ indicates that it is unexplainable but can only be experienced and also the same is expressed as ‘nor meaningless’, which really contributes extreme delight to the context and hence it helps in avoiding the incoherence (apārthakatvadoṣa).

The second verse from this anthology is as follows:-

unnidrakokanadareṇupiśaṅgitāṅgā guñjanti mañju madhupāḥ kamalākareṣu/
etacchakāsti ca ravernavabandujīva-puṣpacchadābhamudayācalacumbi bimbam//^[2]

“Bees hum sweetly in lotus lakes with their bodies reddened by the pollen of full-blown lotuses. And here shines the orb of the sun on the summit of the Eastern Mount like a flower bunch of hibiscus glowing all red.”

Kuntaka cites this verse as an example of one of the varieties of phonetic figurativeness (varṇavinyāsavakratā), where the consonants like sparśas (‘ka’ to ‘ma’) combines with the nasals (the fifth one in the series of consonants from ‘ka’ to ‘ma’) like ṅa, ña, ṇa, na and ma. Here in the end of the first line the consonants combine with the nasal ‘ṅa’ and in the beginning of the second line it combines with ‘ña’ and also in the last line the combination of consonants with the nasal ‘ma’ is also clear. In Śārṅgadharapaddhati, this verse comes under the section named the description of sun.

It is interesting to note that these two simple and beautiful verses cited by Kuntaka are later found in Śārṅgadharapaddhati. Kuntaka cited these verses for substantiating one of the varieties of his first two figurativeness named phonetic figurativeness and lexical figurativeness. This is really an encyclopedic work having numerous verses belonging to various topics.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

ibid,p.30.

[2]:

ibid,pp.75-76.