Kavyanushasana Critical Study

Author(s): A N Upadhye
Publisher: A N Upadhye

Page 67

in rivers, of swans residing in each and every reservoir of water, and of gold and previous metals present in every mountain. Verses 71, 72, 73, 74 and 75 illustrate these subvarieties of the second type of poetic convention. The verse ( 71 ) from the Meghadūta of Kālidāsa describes the presence of lotuses in the Sipra river. The next verse ( 72 ) contains a description of the river Gangā which was rendered beautiful by the blue lotuses. While the Tikā ( Viveka) does not illustrate the presence of a night lotus, the author mentions in passing that illustrations of night lotuses being present everywhere can be adduced (tai HETETIQ ). Presence of gold in every mountain is evident in verse 74 where a mountain, compared by paranomastic adjectives to the ocean, is wellknown all around for its wealth of gold. Presence of gems and precious stones is described in the verse that follows ( 75 ). Here the mention of Nilāsma provides the illustration of the presence of previous stones on any and every mountain.
So far as the mention of a thing in respect of substance is concerned, the gloss refers to the poetic convention which approves description of darkness as a substance, though no substantiality of darkness is present. As a result of this, darkness is said to be capable of being held in the palm of our hand or as being pierceable by the needle. Similarly, moon-light is said to be measurable by a pot or by the cavity of a hand. This is illustrated by two verses ( 76, 77) in the Viveka commentary. A beautiful couplet from the well-known play Viddhaśālabhañjikā of Rajasekhara describes the power of intense darkness, held in a palin, makes, as it were, the quarters stick to our frame (of body ), the entire globe of earth as only traverseable by foot, and the heaven as though carried on our heads. Here darkness reduces the size of the universe, since it is so pitch dark, so dense that you can almost hold it in your palm. Darkness is so dense that it is described as Sūcīmukhāgranirbhedya i.e. fit to be pierced by the point of a needle ( 77 ). The moonlight on a full moon