Agnipurana 343
English (machine translation) 343
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Contents
343.1
Agni said: / The embellishment of meanings is regarded as a figure of sense; / without it, even beauty of words is not charming.
343.2
Devoid of figures of sense, eloquence is like a widow. / Nature, similarity, poetic fancy, hyperbole,
343.3
peculiar causation, contradiction, and reason are eightfold together [with these]. / The intrinsic nature of entities is termed their own form.
343.4
It is declared to be of two kinds: innate and adventitious; / the innate is natural, and the adventitious is occasional.
343.4.p1
[Footnote]
343.4.p2
1. "vidhureva" in manuscripts kha and ṭa. / [Page 224]
343.5
Similarity is community of attributes; it is of four kinds: / simile, metaphor, connected expression, and corroboration.
343.6
A simile is that in which, between the standard of comparison and the object compared, / existence and connection with a shared commonality is intended to be expressed.
343.7
Depending upon some measure of conformity, worldly interaction proceeds. / With respect to the counter-entity, it is of two kinds: compounded and uncompounded.
343.8
From the analytical resolution of the expression, it is compounded; otherwise it is the latter. / By means of a word indicating simile and by means of the word denoting the object compared,
343.9
and through analytical resolution of both, it is threefold; through the latter, compounded form, it is threefold. / Thus differentiated, similes clearly become eighteen.
343.10
Where a common property is explicitly stated or even implied, / these, through the prominence of the property or the object, are both similes of property and of object.
343.11
Where two subjects of attributes are compared equally to each other, / that is mutual simile; from their being otherwise than conventional,
343.12
that is inverted simile; through exclusion, it is restrictive simile; / but through applicability elsewhere as well, it becomes unrestrictive simile.
343.13
It is an aggregative simile from stating an abundance of other qualities; / even when there is similarity of many properties, distinction is intended to be expressed.
343.14
That which is stated as superiority is indeed simile of contrast; / where the comparison is made with many similar things, that is multiple simile.
343.14.p1
If there are different attributes for each standard of comparison, that is a garland-simile;
343.15
a comparison made through the alteration of the standard of comparison is a simile of transformation.
343.16
Superimposing something impossible in the three worlds onto the counter-entity,
343.16.p1
[Page 225]
343.16_2
that comparison which is made by a poet is known as a simile of wonder.
343.17
Superimposing the counter-entity, declaring identity with it / for the object compared is a simile of delusion; it is an utterance involving error.
343.18
From the non-determination of the truth of both subjects of attributes, it is a simile of doubt; / from the determination of the object compared after doubting, it is a simile of certainty.
343.19
Through sentence-meaning itself, there is a simile of sentence-meaning derived from a standard of comparison; / through comparison with oneself, it is an extraordinary commonality.
343.20
Where the object compared of one becomes the standard of comparison for another, / if it proceeds progressively, then it is a sky-simile.
343.21
Praise, censure, imagined, similar, / and partially similar: simile should be known as fivefold previously [in another classification].
343.22
When the nature of the object compared is represented by the standard of comparison / upon observing equality of attributes, the wise know that as metaphor.
343.23
Metaphor is indeed simile with difference concealed. / Connected expression is the statement together of things having equal attributes.
343.24
Corroboration arises through similarity or through a subsequent [general statement]. / When the behavior of a sentient or non-sentient entity, being presented in one way,
343.25
is imagined in another way, they call that poetic fancy. / The declaration of a property of an entity that transcends worldly boundaries
343.26
is hyperbole; it is of two kinds: through possibility and impossibility. / Where there is an exhibition of deficiency in qualities, genus, action, and the like,
343.27
solely to show excellence, that is called statement of distinction.
343.27.p1
[Footnote]
343.27.p2
1. "pavanopamā" in manuscript kha; "gamanopamā" in manuscripts ka and ṭa. / [Page 226]
343.27_2
When, by setting aside an established cause, some other cause
343.28
or naturalness is to be conceived, that is peculiar causation. / The reconciliation through reasoning of two things that are incompatible,
343.29
because it is preceded by contradiction, is remembered as contradiction. / A reason is that which establishes a matter intended to be proved.
343.30
That too arises twofold: producing and indicating. / That named 'producing' operates before and after the birth of the effect,
343.31
and is known as antecedent and consequent in those two distinctions; / either from the relation of cause and effect, or from inherent nature as a determinant,
343.32
there is a division of the indicator, as from the observation of a river-flood and the like; / for the rule of invariable concomitance exists because of the observation of invariable concomitance.
343.32.p1
Thus ends the three hundred and forty-third chapter in the great Agni Purāṇa, on Poetics, titled "Exposition of Figures of Sense".
343.32.p3
Now begins the three hundred and forty-fourth chapter.
343.32.p4
Figures of Sound and Sense
Other recensions (1)
- Agnipurāṇa (Nag Publishers edition, Delhi) — Sanskrit
Linked texts (1)
- Agnipurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit