BHĀVANĀLAṂKĀRA: A CONTRIBUTION TO SANSKRIT POETICSAuthor(s): Arvind SharmaSource: Journal of South Asian Literature, Vol. 13, No. 1/4, MISCELLANY (FALL-WINTER-SPRING-SUMMER 1977-1978), pp. 121-124Published by: Asian Studies Center, Michigan State UniversityStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40873495 .

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Arvind Sharma

BHÃVANÃLAMKARA: A CONTRIBUTION TO SANSKRIT POETICS

A new figure of speech considered

The purpose of this short paper is clear-cut. It is to identify a new figure of speech1 which, to the best of our knowledge, has hitherto not been identified in the corpus of Sanskrit poetics. 2

The pager sets out to accomplish this purpose in three parts. In the first part the new-* figure of speech will be named, identified and exemplified. In the second part it will be distinguished from that figure of speech in the existing literature of Sanskrit poetics to which it comes closest. In the_ third part the place of the new figure of speech in the general context of alamkãraéastra will be indicated.

The "new11 figure of speech may be called bhãvanãlamkara. There is no figure of speech in Sanskrit with such a name. There is an alamkãra called vibhãvanor and another called bhxxvika, but till now, no alamkãra cailed bhãvanã has been met with. Therefore, the use of the name seems to be justified.

Bhãvanãlamlcãra may be defined thus: when something that will take place in the present, there is bhãvanã. 6 The figure is called bhãvanã because it causes the future to take place in the present. ̂

- - 8 The Raghuvamsa of Kalidãsa

- - furnishes a good example of this figure of speech.

The exemplifying verse appears in the context of Indumati1 s svayafnvara. Indumati has just chosen Aja as her husband from among all the assembled princes who were being introduced panegyrically to her by her friend Sunanda. At this point, says Kalidasa:

Then, at the conclusion of Sunanda1 s address, the daughter of the great king lessened her feeling of maidenly bashfulness and took the prince for her husband by her glance, brightened withg joy as if with the garland used in the self -elee ting marriage.

A little later Aja is garlanded indeed, but here the poet fancies that he had been already garlanded, as it were by Indumati1 s glance.

The existing figure of speech to which bhãvanãlamkara comes closest is bhãvikãlamkãra. This figure jf speech is defined in siightly different ways in the classics on Sanskrit poetics^ but for our purposes the treatment of such a leading light in the field as Visvanatha should suffice.

- - - - 12 Bhãvikãlamkãra - - -

is defined by Visvanatha -

thus: "When a wonderful object,

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- 122 -

whether, past or future, is so represented as to strike the mind as if it were present, it is termed Bhavika. "13

Visvanatha cites two verses to illustrate this figure of speech. The first one may be translated thus: "Glory be to the sage, king among yogins, of great essence, the pitcher-born Agastya, by whom those divine fish and tortoise were seen in a hollow of his hand."14 The idea is that Agastya, who is traditionally known to have swallowed up the ocean in the hollow of a hand, 15

saw in the hollow of his hands the fish and the tortoise (the two incarnations of Vishnu) . . . when he ... drank up the ocean in one handful of water. Here the wonderful thing is the seeing of the divine Fish and Tortoise in a handful of water (the sea). This wonderful thing appears as if it were present to the readers on account of the vividness and strikingness of description. 16

Visvanatha then cites another verse to illustrate the bhavika figure of speech. The verse translates as follows: "I see that there was collyrium in your eyes, and I perceive your body as going to be adorned with ornaments."!7 "Here, in the first half, a past object, bhuta, viz. collyrium, and in the second half, the future object, viz. profusion of ornaments, are represented as if they were present before the eyes. "18

On the basis of the definition and the illustrations thereof the following four features of bhavika have been identified:

(1) There is a description of something past or future.

(2) The description is of something strikingly wonderful or extraordinary (eitra or adbhuta) .

(3) The description is put in words that are perspicuous and adapted to the sense.

(4) The description of the past and future object should be such as to vividly present the object to the reflective mind of the reader. 19

How then does bhãvanã differ from bhavika? This difference can be seen clearly if we try to apply these four elements of Jbhãvika to bhãvanã. Apropos of point (1) , it will be seen that while both the alamkaras juggle the time dimension, bhãvanã only relates the future with the present whiie bhavika relates to both past and future. Next, point (2) is not necessarily involved in bhãvanã , while point (3) seems to possess a general desirability which can hardly be confined to bhavika. But it is around point (4) that the crucial difference emerges. In bhavika, the past or future object is seen as present before the eyes - it is visualized. In bhãvanã , the future object or event is seen in the present - it is actualized.20

Bhãvanãlamkãra thus stands by itself as an independent figure of speech. It seems to fit into the general framework of alamkaras as tra as an arthãlamkãra2^ of the general category called gudãrtha-pratZ tintala.22 It would, if accepted, be the seventy- eighth figure of speech_according to the listing in Sãhityadarpana92^ eighty-third in the listing of Alamkarasarvasva ,24 and 126th according to KuvalayãnandaA^

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FOOTNOTES

1. The English expression "figure of speech11 will be used in this paper as the English equivalent for the Sanskrit word alamkãra as understood in Sanskrit poetics, vide Edwin Gerow, A Glossary of Indian Figures of Speech (The Hague: Mouton, 1971), passim. For other uses of the word see "The Meaning of the Word Alamkãra" in J. Gonda, A Volvme of Eastern and Indian Studies in Honour of F. W.' Thomas (Bombay, 1939), G. C. Tripathi, "An Etymological Note on the Word Alankãra" in Dr. R. C. Dwivedi, ed., Principles of Literary Criticism in Sanskrit (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1969), pp. 29-34, etc.

2. For synoptic surveys of this corpus see S. K. De, History of Sanskrit Poetics (Calcutta: Firma K. L. Mukhopadhyay , 1960); P. V. Kane, History of Sanskrit Poetics (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1969); Krishna Chaitanya, Sanskrit Poetics (London: Asia Publishing House, 1965); etc.

3. It is possible to assert this novelty of the figure of speech being identified here because "Indian texts . . . are almost exclusively devoted to questions of concrete definition: the number of figures and related poetic categories" (Gerow, p. 24, fn. 36). As the study of poetics developed, "the number of poetic figures defined by analysis multiplied. Jayadeva (thirteenth century) gives about one hundred and Appayya DTkshita (seventeenth century) adds a score more" (Chaitanya, p. 76). "Mammata, Bhoja and Ruyyaka try to restrict the number but the scholars proved irrepressible" (Ibid., p. 77). Neither the name nor the concept of Bhavanalamkara are met with in these enumerations.

4. Gerow, p. 264.

5. Ibid.; p. 220.

6. A definitional sloka would run thus if composed in the tradition of Sanskrit poetics:

Bhavinascapyabhutasya fyarthasyavasyambhavinah

saksadbhavanam yatra bhavana parikïrtita //

7. Bhavayatiti.

8. VI. 80.

9. Gopal Raghunath Nandargikar, The Raghuvamsa of Kalic&sa (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1971), p. 188.

10. VI. 83.

11. See Heramba Nath Chatterjee, Comparative Studies in Pali and Sanskrit Alankaras (Calcutta: 4/1 Kumartuly Street, 1960), pp. 89-90.

12. Sahityadarpana X. 93-94.

13. P. V. Kane, The Sahityadarpana of Visvanatha (Bombay: Angres Wadi, Front Chawl, Girgaon Back Road, 1923), p. 306.

14. Translation by this writer.

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15. See Vaman Shivram Apte, The Practiceal Sanskrit- English Dictionary (Poona: Shiralkar and Sons, 1890), p. 10.

16. Kane, p. 307.

17. Ganganatha Jha, Kavyaprakasha of Marmata (Allahabad :_ Indian Press, 1925), p. 357. This verse has been cited by both Maimnata and Viêvanatha as an illustration of bhavika, as well as by Jayadeva, Chandraloka (Benaras: Chowkhamba Sanskrit Series, 1938), p. 107. In view of the illustration of bhãvika cited by Appayya Dikshita in Kuvalayãnanda (Bombay: Nirnaya Sagara Press, 1903), pp. 174-175, it is somewhat surprising that the Caurapancaêikã of Bilhana was not drawn upon to exemplify the bhãvika.

18. Kane, p. 307.

19. Ibid. y p. 308.

20. The expressions pratyksãyamànatva (Sãhityadarpana X.94), sãksâddarêanamvarrianam (Chandraloka V.113), shksatkhra (Kuvalayãnanda Í60) , etc.,_used for bhavikà should be distinguished carefully from sãksãdbhavanam used for bhãvanã.

21. See Kane, p. 333.

22. Ibid.

23. Ibid.j p. 324.

24. Hermann Jacobi, Schriften zur Indischen Poetik und Ästhetik (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1969), pp. 626-628.

25. Appayya Dikshita, p. 3.

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