Studies in the History of Sanskrit Poetics v2.c79.17

v2.c79.17

9 It is difficult to translate some of these terms, for there are no equivalents for them in European Rhetoric, and therefore attempts at such translation are as a general rule avoided here. The poetic figure dīpaka may be generally explained as a figure in which two or more objects, some relevant and some irrelevant, having the same attributes, are associated together; or, in which several attributes, some relevant and some irrelevant, are predicated of the same object. It is called dīpaka or the "illuminator" because it is like a lamp which, when employed for illuminating one object, illuminates others.