A History of Sanskrit Literature c16.s2.18

c16.s2.18

Mayūra in many ways may rank as a typical exponent of the Gauḍa style as pictured by Daṇḍin. He affects epithets more or less recondite but etymologically explicable, as in *açiciramahas* of the warm-rayed sun or *hemādri* of Meru. He is rich in alliterations and Yamakas, and in addition to metaphors and similes in abundance is fond of paronomasias of an elaborate kind, of bombast and exaggeration, and of the production of effects by the use of a series of harsh sounds matching the sense, and the variation of sounds within a stanza in order to mark changes of feeling. Characteristic cases are: