3.19. Use of Viṣama-alaṃkāra

[Full title: Use of Alaṃkāra in Mudrārākṣasa: Arthālaṃkāras, Virodhamūlaka (or Virodha-varga) (5). Viṣama]

When the qualities or the actions of a cause and its effect are opposed to each other, when an effort fails and some evil result follows, or when there is an association between two things that are incompatible there is Viṣama. Cf.—

guṇau kriye vā cetsyātāṃ viruddhaṃ hetukāryayoḥ//
yadvārabdhasya vaiphalyamanarthasya ca sambhavaḥ
  virūpayoḥ saṃghaṭanā yā ca tadviṣamaṃ mataṃ//^[1]

Viśākhadatta, the author of a political drama like Mudrārākṣasa has got sufficient space to incorporate Viṣamālaṃkāra in it.

As in act I, when Nipuṇaka, a spy of Cāṇakya with a yamapaṭṭa came to Cāṇakya and stated some verses about Yama, the God of death in a symbolic way, cf.—

“Our life is always based on the devotion of Yama, even terrible. We live by that Yama who kills all people.”^[2]

Here devotion to Yama, the God of death, even terrible, brings forth Viṣamālaṃkāra. Generally, Devotion means respect to someone entangled with love; and that, who is terrible can’t be loved or devoted from the heart. Again living by Yama who kills all the people also has some sense of contradiction. Thus the incompatibleness of these two things results in Viṣama.

Other two great examples of Viṣamālaṃkāra can be seen side by side in the second act while Rākṣasa was listening from Virādhagupta about the failure of the plans of the former. Cf.—

“The potent poison maid, the killer of single individual, that was reserved by me to kill Candragupta, like the powerful missile, the one man slayer, which was kept in reserve by Karṇa in order to kill Arjuna, did for the lasting benefit of cursed Viṣṇugupta, as of Viṣṇu, came in contact with king Parvataka, like Hiḍimbā’s son that was, but his own victim.”^[3]

Again, Cf.—

“The poison maid, who was employed by me to kill Candragupta, killed Parvataka, who was the owner of his half of the kingdom. And persons, who were appointed by me to kill him by weapon and poison, are made to suffer death by those very means. Just see my all the schemes are blesses to Candragupta.”^[4]

In both the above verses the tricks that are taken by Rākṣasa to harm Candragupta become the blessings for the later. Therefore, the schemes that results in the other way creates the sense of Viṣama-alaṃkāra herein.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Sāhityadarpaṇa.69,70

[2]:

puruṣasya jīvitavyaṃ viṣamādbhavati bhaktigṛhitāt/ mārayati sarvalokaṃ yastena yamena jīvamaḥ// Mudraraksasa,I.18

[3]:

karṇenaiva viṣāṅganaikapuruṣavyāpādinī rakṣitā hantuṃ śaktirivārjunaṃ balavatī yā candraguptaṃ mayā/ sā viṣṇoriva viṣṇuguptahatakasyātyantikaśreyase haiḍimbeyamivetya parvatanṛpaṃ tadvadhyamevāvadhīt// Mudraraksasa,II.15

[4]:

kanyā tasya vadhāya yā viṣamayī gūḍhaṃ prayuktā mayā daivātparvatakastayā sa nihato yastasya rājyārdhahṛt ye śastreṣu raseṣu ca praṇihitāstaireva te ghātitā mauryasaiva phalanti paśya vivadhaśreyāṃsi mannītayaḥ// Mudrārākṣasa, II.16