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 7.55
सन्धेर� वैरूप्यं त्रिधा, विश्लेषोऽश्लीलत्व� कष्टत्वं चेति. क्रमेणोदाहरणान�,
sandher vairūpya� tridhā, viśleṣo'ślīlatva� 첹ṣṭtva� ceti. krameṇodāharaṇāni,
(4) The fault called visandhi (awkward phonetic combination) means a distortion of a phonetic combination. It is threefold: śṣa (disjoined), śī (unpleasant), and 첹ṣṭ (harsh). Examples are given in order. This verse shows an instance of śṣa-visandhi,
dalite utpale ete ṣiī amalāṅgi te |
balād ākarṣatas tanvi mama īṣaṇa-ṣa�-貹岹 ||
dalite—which have opened; utpale—two lotuses; ete—t; ṣiī—two eyes; amala-ṅg—O you whose body is spotless; teЯdzܰ; —by force; 첹ṣaٲ�—the two attract; tanvi—O slender woman; mama—m; īṣaṇa—in the form of eyes; ṣa�-貹岹—two bees (“it has six legs�).
Slender girl, you have an immaculate body: These two eyes of yours, two blown lotuses, forcefully attract the two bees of my eyes. (adapted from ٲⲹ-岹貹ṇa 7.8)
atra pragṛhyādi-hetuka� sandhi-viśleṣo’sakṛd eva.
Here a disjunction of the phonetic combination, caused by the ṛhⲹ, occurs more than once. This is one subdivision of śṣa-visandhi. The other subvariety is exemplified in the second half: mama īṣaṇa, where the phonetic combination was not done, by the will of the writer, out of fear of breaking the meter: This other kind is a fault even if it happens only once.
Commentary:
The term ṛhⲹ is given to the letters ī, ū, and e, when one of them is the ending of a noun or of a verb in the dual number: īd-ūd-ed dvi-Բ� ṛhⲹm (ṣṭī 1.1.11). When a ṛhⲹ occurs, the phonetic combination with a following vowel is not done, by the rule: pluta-pragṛhyā aci nityam (ṣṭī 6.1.125) (īd-ūd-etā� dvi-vacanasya maṇīvādi-varjam, Hari-峾峾ṛt-첹ṇa 60). The usage of the ṛhⲹ is faulty if it occurs more than once. Again, Mammaṭa shows his disapproval of the alliteration of a vowel.