Sahitya-kaumudi by Baladeva Vidyabhushana
by Gaurapada Dāsa | 2015 | 234,703 words
Baladeva Vidyabhusana’s Sahitya-kaumudi covers all aspects of poetical theory except the topic of dramaturgy. All the definitions of poetical concepts are taken from Mammata’s Kavya-prakasha, the most authoritative work on Sanskrit poetical rhetoric. Baladeva Vidyabhushana added the eleventh chapter, where he expounds additional ornaments from Visv...
Text 7.17
अविमृष्ट� प्राधान्येनानिर्दिष्टो विधेयांश� यत्र तत�. तत्र विधेयांशस्� प्राधान्येनानिर्देशः समासेन गुणी-भावाद् विधेयोत्तरम् उद्देश्योक्तेश� �. यथ�,
ṛṣṭa� prādhānyenānirdiṣṭo vidheyāṃśo yatra tat. tatra ṃśasya prādhānyenānirdeśa� samāsena guṇ�-bhāvād vidheyottaram uddeśyokteś ca. yathā,
(15) The etymology of the fault called ṛṣṭa-ṃśa (not giving proper eminence to an important aspect of the predicate) is as follows: “An aspect of the predicate is not stated as predominant.� In that regard, not stating an aspect of the predicate as predominant occurs either because it has become secondary in a compound or because the substantive is mentioned after the predicate (the latter is expounded in 7.38). For example:
tava tanvi kaṭākṣo’ya� ṣaṣṭ-bāṇo manobhuva� |
śⲹ ṛd kṛṣṇa� ṛt-darpa� yat ||
tavaЯdzܰ; tanvi—O slender woman; 첹ṭa-ṣa�—sDzԲ glance; ayam—t; ṣaṣṭ-ṇa�—the sixth arrow; Բ�-ܱ�—of Cupid (“born in the heart�); śⲹ—aڳٱ entering; ṛd—in the heart; ṛṣṇa�ṛṣṇa; ṛt—u; darpam�pride; —m; yat—bܲ.
Slender girl, this crooked glance of yours is Cupid’s sixth arrow because after it enters ṛṣṇa’s heart it makes His pride useless.
atra ṣaṣṭtva� ṇasya vidheyam, darpasya ṛttva� ca, tad-ubhaya� tathā na pratīyate, samāsena guṇ�-bhāvāt kintv anuvādya-vat pratibhāsate.
In this verse, the arrow’s being a sixth (the word ṣaṣṭ in ṣaṣṭ-ṇa) is the predicate, and so is the uselessness of pride (ṛt in ṛt-darpam). Each one appears to be a mere predicate, due to being secondary in a compound.
Commentary:
For lack of a better word, in this context the term “substantive� is used in the sense of a word which has a modifier. This means the substantive is the subject of the predicate. In Sanskrit, the subject of a predicate is not always the subject of the verb (Commentary 7.108). In this verse, the substantive is “glance� and the predicate is: “is Cupid’s sixth arrow.� Here the word “sixth� modifies “arrow�, but more importantly, “arrow� modifies “the glance.� This means the word “sixth� is an aspect of the predicate of the glance. The word “sixth� should be given prominence here because it is the focal point of the description. By being part of a karma-ⲹ compound, however, it has unduly lost its eminence because in such a compound the first word has a secondary status and the last word is predominant (Commentary 4.90). Therefore the word ṣaṣṭ (sixth) should not be compounded. The fault of ṛṣṭa-ṃśa does not occur if the predicate adjective is in a dvandva compound or if the adjective is the last word in a ٲٱܰṣa compound.
The same applies to the word ṛt (useless) in the compound ṛt-darpam. However, that is not a good example because those words do not have to be taken as a compound. They can be separated as ṛt darpam.
In a compound, this literary fault is very often seen in usage, therefore the negative particle in ṣa (faultless) in Mammaṭa’s definition of poetry (1.6) should be interpreted to mean “even if slightly faulty� (Commentary 1.6).
վśٳ Ჹ gives this example: rakṣyāṃsy api ܰ� ٳٳܳ � 峾ԳᲹⲹ me, atra 峾syeti vācyam, “[ṣmṇa speaks:] “Even the demons are unable to stand before Me, the younger brother of 峾.� Here it should be said 峾ⲹ (of 峾) (the word 峾 in the compound 峾ԳᲹⲹ should be stated separately)� (ٲⲹ-岹貹ṇa 7.4).
Śeṣarāja Śarmā expounds:
峾-sambandhitvāl lakṣmaṇasya darpa�, na khalu kevalasya lakṣmaṇasya mukhyatā kintu 峾-sambandhina iti 屹�. samāsena ayam artho na saṅgacchate’to 峾syeti vācyam,
“ṣmṇa’s pride is due to having a connection with 峾. The gist is this: By himself ṣmṇa is not foremost, rather he is foremost because of a relationship with 峾. This meaning does not come out by compounding, therefore it should be said: 峾ⲹ� (䲹Ի첹 7.4).