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...
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Text 8.21
के कस्येत्य� आह,
ke kasyety āha,
Which phonemes and so on suggest which ṇa? In that regard he says:
ūԾ vargāntya-� sparśā ṭa-vargā ra-ṇau ū |
avṛttir madhya-vṛttir ܰ ṭa ٲٳ ||8.74||
ūԾ—at the beginning (lit. on the head); varga—of the group; antya—t last one; �—which get; 貹ś�—t 貹ś (lit. the touches) (the twenty-five consonants from k to m); ṭa-var�—devoid of the ṭa group; -ṇa and �; ū—sǰ; ṛtپ�—devoid of a compound; madhya-ṛtپ�—a medium-sized compound; —o; ܰ—i ܰⲹ (sweetness); ṭa—t construction; ٲٳ—i that way.
In ܰⲹ, the phonemes are the 貹ś, except the ṭa group, with the corresponding nasal placed before, as well as a short r, and a short �. Either there is no compound or there is a compound of medium length. The phonetic combinations are in that way.
śirasi nija-vargāntima-yܰ� ṭa-ṭha-ḍa-ḍha-varjitā� kādayo māntā�, repha-ṇa-kārau hṛsntāv iti varṇāḥ. asamāso madhya-samāso veti samāsa�. ٲٳ ܰⲹvatī 貹Գٲ-yoge racanā ܰⲹsya vyañjikā.
The phonemes are the consonants from k to m�except �, ṭh, �, and ḍh�connected with the last one of their respective group, which is placed first; as well as a short r, and a short �. The style compounding is either the absence of a compound or a medium-sized compound. “The phonetic combinations are in that way� means the construction in connection with another word has ܰⲹ (sweetness, melting). That construction is suggestive of the real ܰⲹ.
Commentary:
The sweet phonemes are as follows: ṅk, ṅkh, ṅg, ṅgh, ñc, ñch, ñj, ñjh, nt, nth, nd, ndh, mp, mph, mb, mbh, mm, single short r, and single short �. Sometimes the anusra occurs instead of the sound �, and so on. For instance, �ṛṣṇa� kuru� is the same as �kṛṣṇa� kuru.� They are optional forms. ʲṇḍٲ-Ჹ Բٳ adds the phonemes ṃ� and ṃs to the list.[1]
The word ṇa (phoneme) does not always translate as the word ‘letter� in English because sometimes two letters make one phoneme (speech-sound).[2] In addition, the anusra (�) is a phoneme, and so is the visarga (�).
The phonetic combinations which are part of the construction of ܰⲹ are phonetic combinations which make one of the above phonemes. For example, when the two words alam and kuru join to make the form ṅkܰ (adorn), there is a generation of a sweet phoneme (ṅk).[3]
Nāgeśa Bhaṭṭa says and ṇ� are excluded from the list of sweet phonemes. Regarding the compounding, he says a medium-sized compound is a compound of either two, three, or four words. Moreover, when many phonemes which are not part of the above list repeatedly occur in the context of śṛṅ and so on, that is a fault in the construction of ܰⲹ.[4] However, there is no fault when the soft phonemes are used in ܰⲹ. On the contrary, the soft phonemes assist the construction of ܰⲹ in the melting of the heart. Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa referred to them earlier (8.3). Mammaṭa defines them in the next chapter (9.11). Sometimes the construction of softness is used by itself (Commentary 8.30). The most important soft phoneme is the letter l. Other important soft phonemes are: k, g, gh, jñ, t, d, dh, n, p, b, bh, m, y, v, s, h, and anusra (�). In the construction of softness, there is no conjunct consonant.[5]
Footnotes and references:
[1]:
atas traya eva ṇ� iti mammṭa-bhaṭṭādaya�. tatra ṭa--varjitānā� varṇānā� prathama-tṛtīyai� śabhir antasthaiś ca ghaṭitā naikaṭyena prayuktair anusra-parasaṇai� śuddhānunāsikaiś ca śobhitā vakṣyamāṇai� sāmānyato viśeṣataś ca niṣiddhai� saṃyogādyair acumbitā, avṛttir ṛd-vṛttir racanānupūrvyātmikā ܰⲹsya vyañjikā. […] anye tu varga-sthānā� pañcānām aviśeṣeṇa ܰⲹ-vyañjakatām āhu� (Rasa-ṅg, KM pp. 64-65). Here Բٳ also says the sounds yy, ll, lv, and so on, are sweet.
[2]:
For example, the sound nt is one sweet phoneme made of two letters (two original phonemes), but bh, for instance,is only one phoneme: In Sanskrit, the phonemes kh, gh, ch, jh, th, dh, ph, and bh each are only one letter.
[3]:
[4]: