Mudrarakshasa (literary study)
by Antara Chakravarty | 2015 | 58,556 words
This page relates ‘Use of Visheshokti-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.
3.18. Use of Viśeṣokti-alaṃkāra
[Full title: Use of Alaṃkāra in Mudrārākṣasa: Arthālaṃkāras, Virodhamūlaka (or Virodha-varga) (4). Viśeṣokti]
Where therein the effect is absent, though the cause is present, there is Viśeṣokti-alaṃkāra. Viśvanātha Kavirāja has defined Viśeṣokti in his Sāhityadarpaṇa thus—
This alaṃkāra is implied in many a verse in the Mudrārākṣasa entangled with other alaṃkāras. One of the instances is given bellow, Cf.—
“When the king Nanda had gone to heaven, not at all deserving that kind of death, effort was indeed made by me winning over the king Parvateśvara and after he was killed, his son, still, there was no success. It is faith, who is the enemy of the family of Nanda and not that Brāhmaṇa Cāṇakya.”[2]
Here, the repeated endeavours of Rākṣasa is the cause and his futility (tathāpi'siddhi) indicates the absence of the effect. Therefore, this portion of the verse is adorned with Viśeṣokti-alaṃkāra.
Footnotes and references:
[1]:
Sāhityadarpaṇa, X.67
[2]:
deve gate divamatadvidhamṛtyuyogye śaileśvaraṃ tamadhikṛtya kṛtah prayatnaḥ/ tasmin hate tanayamasya tathāpyasiddhi- rdaivaṃ hi nandakulaśatrurasau na vipraḥ// Mudrārākṣasa, VI.7