Shringaraprakasha 9.p1.3

9.p1.3

Here, its endowedness with poetic ornaments such as punning (śleṣa), simile (upamā), and vivid presentation (pratyakṣa), and with poetic qualities such as coalescence (śleṣa), lucidity (prasāda), and tenderness (saukumārya), is to be observed. Thus, in the ones to be mentioned hereafter, the poetic qualities and poetic ornaments should also be deduced wherever applicable. And no fixed rule is established by dramatists. In the dramatic limb-subdivisions (sandhyaṅga), however, the employment of poetic qualities and ornaments is not strictly required. Where a description of diverse meaning is expressed with punning syllables, / one should know that to be the characteristic called 'stringing of syllables' (akṣarasaṅghāta). As in the seventh act of the Abhijñānaśākuntala: (Entering with a clay peacock in her hand, an ascetic woman:) "Sarvadamana, look at the beauty of the bird (śakuntalāvaṇya)!" The boy: (looking about) "Where is my mother?" Both: (laughing) "Deluded by the similarity of names, he is devoted to his mother!" The King: (to himself) "What, is Śakuntalā the name of his mother?" Where an unestablished fact is established by equating it with established facts, / that smooth and punning [device] possessing manifold meanings is called 'elegance' (śobhā). As in the first act of the Ratnāvalī: Yaugandharāyaṇa: "Bringing someone from another island, from the midst of the ocean, or even from the edge of the quarter of the sky, / Fate, having turned favorable, unites them instantly. / Otherwise, where is the reaching of a plank in the ocean by the daughter of the king of Siṃhala, sought in marriage out of faith in an ascetic's prediction, when the ship was wrecked, and where is her rescue in that condition by a merchant of Kauśāmbī returning from Siṃhala, and her bringing here through recognition of the ornament of a jeweled necklace? In every way, fortunes smile upon our master." In this context: Because of an exhibition through a sentence endowed with an equivalent meaning, / facts are established by the skillful: that is commemorated as 'illustration' (udāharaṇa).