History of Sanskrit Poetics c6.8.1

c6.8.1

Śunaḥśepa whose story is developed in the Ait. Br. Beautiful similes are found by the hundred in the Ṛg. Vide Prof. H. D. Velankar's exhaustive treatment of similes in the 4th and 5th Maṇḍalas of the Ṛg. in J.B.B.R.A.S. vol. 14 pp. 1-47 and vol. 16 pp. 1-42, ‘Figures of speech in the Ṛgveda’ Annals of B. O. R. I. vol. 17 pp. 61-83 (translated from A. Bergaigne's Article) and pp. 259-288 by Mr. A. Venkatasubbiah; Abel Bergaigne's ‘La Syntaxe des comparaisons Vediques’ (1886) translated in Annals B.O.R.I. vol. XVI pp. 232-261 by Mr. A. Venkatasubbiah, ‘Figures of speech in Ṛgveda’ by Mr. P. S. Sastri in Annals B.O.R.I. vol. 28 pp. 34-64. The Ṛgvedic poets not only indulge in such figures of speech as Upamā, Atiśayokti and Rūpaka (as in Ṛg. III. 27. 15, IX. 64. 1 वृषा सोमः), but they appear to have had some ideas about a theory of poetics, as the following brief statement will show. They are fond of the repetition of the same letters or words which create an appearance of what is called anuprāsa in later times, e.g. रक्षाणो अग्ने तव रक्षोभी रारक्षः (IV. 3. 14), प्रतार्थने प्रतरं न आयुः (IV. 12. 6), अब्जा गोजा ऋतजा अद्रिजा ऋतम् (IV. 40. 5), वयमग्ने वनुयाम त्वोता वसवो (V. 3. 6); repetition of the same word at the beginning of several pādas in IV. 23. 3-5 or in several pādas as in Ṛg. IV. 40. 5 हंसः शुचिषद्वसुरन्तरिक्षसद्धोता वेदिषदतिथिर्दुरोणसत्’; Ṛg. V. 27. 4) ददच्चा सनि यते ददन्मेधामृतायते) and Ṛg. 76. 2 दिवाभिपित्वेडवसा गमिष्ठा प्रत्यवर्ति दाशुषे शंभविष्ठा);