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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...

Go directly to: Footnotes.

यथ�,
दृशश� चकोर्य एवैताः कृशाङ्गि व्रज-सुभ्रुवाम् �
कृष्णास्येन्दुस्मि�-ज्योत्स्ना� पिबन्त� यद� अहर्-निशम� �

ⲹٳ,
dṛśaś cakorya evaitā� kṛśāṅgi vraja-subhruvām |
kṛṣṇāsyendusmita-jyotsnā� pibanti yad ahar-niśam ||

ṛśa�—the eyes; ǰⲹ�𳾲 cakora birds; eva—oԱ; —these ones; ṛśa-ṅg—O slender woman; vraja—of Vraja; -ܱ峾—of beautiful-browed women; ṛṣṇa-—of Kṛṣṇa’s face; indu—from the moon; smita—[in the form] of the smile; dzٲ峾—the moonlight; pibanti—they drink; yat—b𳦲ܲ; �-Ծś—day and night.

Slender woman, the eyes of the beautiful girls of Vraja are cakora birds because day and night they imbibe the moonlight of the smile of Kṛṣṇa’s moon face. (adapted from Govinda-ī峾ṛt 11.133)

Commentary:

Here the literary strikingness is based on the metaphors. Moreover, the syllogism of the Logicians is fivefold: پñ (proposition), hetu (reason), ܻ󲹰ṇa (example), upanayana (application, i.e. subsumptive correlative), and nigamana (conclusion),[1] but the ԳܳԲ of poetics is threefold: 貹ṣa, , and 󲹲Բ (ṅk-첹ܲٳܲ 8.225). In the above verse, the 貹ṣa (the thing under discussion) is the women’s eyes, the (the idea to be proved) is that their eyes are cakora birds, and the 󲹲Բ (the logical explanation) is that their eyes drink the moonlight smile of His moon face.

Footnotes and references:

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[1]:

پñ-hetu-ܻ󲹰ṇa-upanaya-nigamanāni pañcāvayavā� (Tarka-ṅg 5.9). In ձԳٲ, the fivefold syllogism is: ṣaⲹ (topic), ū-貹ṣa (preliminary hypothesis), ṃśaⲹ (doubt), Գٲ (conclusion), ṅgپ (harmonization).

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