Mudrarakshasa (literary study)
by Antara Chakravarty | 2015 | 58,556 words
This page relates ‘Use of Arthantaranyasa-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.
3.25. Use of Arthāntaranyāsa-alaṃkāra
[Full title: Use of Alaṃkāra in Mudrārākṣasa: Arthālaṃkāras, Gūḍhārthapratitimūlaka (or Guḍhārthapratitī-varga) (1). Arthāntaranyāsa]
When a general proposition is strengthened by a particular or a particular by a general one, and when effect is justified by a cause or vice versa, either under a similarity or a contrast, there is Arthāntaranyāsa, which is thus eightfold.
Viśvanātha Kavirāja has rightly defined thus, Cf.—
sāmānyaṃ vā viśeṣeṇa, viśeṣastena vā yadi/
kāryaṃ ca kāraṇenedaṃ kāryeṇa ca samarthyate// sādharmyeṇetareṇārthāntaranyāso’ṣṭadhā tataḥ/[1]
A good number of verses are ornamented with Arthāntaranyāsa-alaṃkāra in the Mudrārākṣasa. Such as, cf.—
“O illegitimate woman! Are all kings on the earth died, that you have selected Candragupta, a base-born as your lord? Or the brain of a woman is naturally unstable like the lip flowers of Kāśa in appreciating the merits of man.”[2]
All women in the world fail to appreciate the merits of proper person. So does Rākṣasa feel because his master Nanda was deserted by Lakṣmī (the royal fortune). Here Rākṣasa states a general proposition explaining the occurrence referred to in the first two lines. Therefore, this is a good example of Arthāntaranyāsa.
Again, cf.—
“How can that Rākṣasa, who even now serves his masters that disappeared like seeds unscratched, enter as long as he is sound in body, into an alliance with enemies. Of this much was not indeed considered by the barbarian, his mind being devoid of discrimination, did not think. Or, of one struck by fate, the intellect in its entirety becomes perverse.”[3]
In this verse the first three lines speak of the thoughtlessness of Malayaketu and therefore failure to grasp things correctly. The last line is a generalization: all who are adversely struck by Fate have an understanding that makes them have a perverted view of things. The figure of speech contained in the verse therefore is sāmānyena viśeṣasya samarthanaṃ type of Arthāntaranyāsa.
Likewise Act I.18, 22; II.11, 18; IV.18, 22; V.2; VI.7; VII. 3, 14, 18 are nice examples of Arthāntaranyāsa-alaṃkāra in Mudrārākṣasa.
Footnotes and references:
[1]:
Sāhityadarpaṇa, X.61
[2]:
[3]:
Ibid., VI.8