Part 5q - Alaṃkāra (17): Vibhāvanā or peculiar causation

When an effect is said to arise without a cause, it is Vibhāvanā, which is two-fold according as the reason is mentioned or not.^[1] The twofold divisions of Vibhāvanā are-Uktanimitta and Anuktanimitta. It may be mentioned here that as an effect is bound by the rule of presence and absence with a cause, it is impossible that an effect can come into existence, without its cause. But if, under some striking mode of speech, it is stated that the effect does come into existence in the absence of its wellknown cause, there is Vibhāvanā. The effect in such a cause is due to some other cause, which is not well-known i.e. aprasiddha. As for example, in the verse, tanotu bhūtiṃ^[2] ……., it has been stated that the fire of the third eye of Lord Śiva blazed even without any fuel and that fire burnt to ashes Cupid, the god of love. By that, the Lord became, as if, the stage-manager (sūtradhāra) for the tear of Ratī, the wife of Kāmadeva. Herein, Ratī cried without the cause of tear smoke, hence the verse under consideration serves as an example of the figure Vibhāvanā.^[3] Some other examples of this figure found in the Śrīkaṇṭhacarita are- jñānānapekṣiṇyapavargavīthī^[4] ……., divyendrajālātiśayajñametaṃ^[5].…., puṣpodgamairābharaṇaprayogaṃ^[6] ……., also XII. 36, 49; XIII. 27; XVIII. 45.