Yasastilaka and Indian Culture

SR No.: 001609
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Krishnakant Handiqui
Publisher: Jain Sanskruti Samrakshak Sangh Solapur
Publication Year: 1968
Total Pages: 566
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Story, Literature, & Culture
File Size: 16 MB

Page 201

182
YASASTILAKA AND INDIAN CULTURE
of both; and this may be taken as a fair description of the principle underlying his own poetical style. Yet it should be remembered that Somadeva liberally uses the resources of the Kāvya style, and his verses are sometimes marked by the complexities and conventionalism associated with that style.
A few examples will suffice to illustrate the artificial conceits occasionally employed by Somadeva. In 1. 168 a king is told that his Fame, although it is an old eunuch, goes up to enjoy the starry Heaven, after enjoying all the Regions of the sky ("fame' being neuter and heaven' and regions' feminine in Sanskrit)'. The description of battle scenes in 3. 438 ff. is full of far-fetched and exaggerated conceits, and the picture of
the violent battle' in 3. 436 is made unreal by the poet's anxiety to compare it to the rainy season. An instance of how an otherwise beautiful verse is spoilt by an artificial conceit is provided by the following description of a young woman, which ends by figuring her as an enclosure for capturing Cupid, the elephant ( Book VII, section 31):
एपेन्द्रियद्रुमसमुलसनाम्बुवृष्टिरेषा मनोमृगविनोदविहारभूमिः।
एषा स्मरद्विरदबन्धनवारिवृत्तिः किं खेचरी किममरी किमियं रतिर्वा ॥ Conceits like these are a common feature of the Kāvya style in its later phases, and it must be said to the credit of Somadeva that he often shows laudable restraint and discrimination in the use of the many artifices resorted to by the poets of his age.
Citrālamkāras are absent in our work, and even slesa or word-play, which adds to the intricacy of Somadeva's prose, is but rarely used in his verse ; and only a few examples of it can be recorded. There is a pun on kharadanda in 3. 430, and the expression sadāna has four meanings in 3. 312. The epithets in the verse quoted below (1. 174) are simultaneously applied to three different things : dancing, dalliance with women and the royal court.
चञ्चत्कुन्तलचामरं कलरणत्काञ्चीलयाडम्बरं भ्रूभङ्गार्पितभावमूरुचरणन्यासासनानन्दितम् । खेलत्पाणिपताकमीक्षणपथानीताङ्गहारोत्सवं नृत्यं च प्रमदारतं च नृपतिस्थानं च ते स्तान्मुदे॥
Elaborate Rūpakas are sometimes met with; for example, in 3. 380, 381, wherein the women companions of Yasodhara in his summer sports are successively figured as frows of woodland groves' and 'pools of water'.
अलककिसलयानां भ्रलतालाधिनीनां मयनमधुलिहानां चारगण्डस्थलीनाम् । कुचकुसुमचयानां स्त्रीवनश्रेणिकानामवनिषु कुरु केलीः किं नृपान्यैर्वनान्तः ॥
1 उपभुज्य यद्दिशस्ते नपुंसकं वृद्धमपि यशः सर्वाः। द्यामुपभोक्तुं यातं तरलिततारां तदाश्चर्यम् ।।