Mudrarakshasa (literary study)
by Antara Chakravarty | 2015 | 58,556 words
This page relates ‘Use of Sahokti-alamkara’ of the English study on the Mudrarakshasa: an ancient Sanskrit dramatic play (Nataka) authored by Vishakhadatta which deals with the life of king Chandragupta. This study investigates the Mudra Rakshasa from a literary perspective, such as metrics, themes, rhetorics and other poetical elements. Chandragupta ruled the Mauryan Empire during the 4th century BCE, hence this text can also be studied as a historical textbook of ancient India.
3.13. Use of Sahokti-alaṃkāra
[Full title: Use of Alaṃkāra in Mudrārākṣasa: Arthālaṃkāras, Sādṛśyamūlaka (or Sādṛṣyagarbha) (10). Sahokti]
When a single expression by the force of a term denoting conjunction, signifies two facts, it is Sahokti, provided hyperbole is at the basis of it. When a word conveying, by the virtue of the power of denotation, a meaning connected with one thing, also conveys a meaning connected with another thing by the force of some words like saha, sārdhaṃ, śākaṃ etc., it is none other than Sahokti.[1]
In this context we can observe the following verse—
mitraṃ mamedamiti nivṛtacittavṛttiṃ viśrambhatastvayi niveśitasarvakāryaṃ/
tātaṃ nipātya saha bandhujanāśrutoyairanvarthato’pi natu rākṣasa rākṣaso’si//[2]“O Rākṣasa! Literally too you become a rākṣasa (a demon) indeed, having, along with the tears of his relatives since you caused my father to be killed, when he, with his mind perfectly at ease at the thought you were his friend, and had credulously entrusted all his affairs to you.”
Here, asrutoyaiḥ saha tātaṃ nipātya makes the verse an instance of Sahokti.
Footnotes and references:
[1]:
sahārthasya balādekaṃ yatra syādvācakaṃ dvayoḥ/ sā sahoktirmūlabhūtātiśayoktiryadā bhavet// Sāhityadarpaṇa, X. 54
[2]:
Mudrārākṣasa, V.7