Kavyanushasana Critical Study

SR No.: 001713
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: A N Upadhye
Publisher: A N Upadhye
Publication Year: 1987
Total Pages: 558
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Literature, & Kavya
File Size: 10 MB

Page 84

Now Hemachandra gives three verses (55, 56 and 57). The first of these verses means that the mythical bird Cakravaka, living as he does constantly under the fear of separation from his beloved as soon as the night descends, goes about asking all the birds as to whether they know of any place, somehow, where the Sun does not set. The second verse (56) describes Lord Siva's appearance and invokes him. The poet refers to Siva's grotesque form because he wears white serpents, yellow, matted hair with the waters of the Ganges flowing here and there, and the crescent Moon, and a throat as dark as the bluethroated bird and holds the dreadful Pinaka bow. The last
verse (57) selected from the Sisupalavadha of Magha describes the irony of bad luck because under its influence creatures experience strange consequences as, when the Sun rises and the Moon sets, the night lotuses lose their beauty, the day-lotuses bloom beautifully, the owl becomes sad while the Cakravāka bird is over-joyed. Now, Hemachandra introduces a novel kind of verse-filling exercise by means of taking the first lines of the first verse (55), the second line of the second verse (56) and the fourth line of the third vrese (57) and frames a three-lines Samasya and then fills the third line as, e.g., verse 58 which means: "Have you ever seen or heard an indescribable place here where the holder of the Pinaka bow, with floods of the Gangeś water roam about in his dark and tawny, matted hair, resides? (Why ?) I wish to go there (Why ?) This is the strange condition of those struck by ill-fate!" (This means, I want to go away to a place where the effect of ill-fate does not exist.) Now, here in this new verse, though only one line belongs to the imitator poet, still it does not appear to be 'stealing' or 'borrowing'; on the contrary, the combination of three disparate lines, unconnected by any single idea, scattered in three different verses, with a single, new line, produces a special charm or strikingness for the sensitive mind.
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