pañca doá¹£a ei Å›loke pañca alaá¹…kÄra
krame Ämi kahi, Å›una, karaha vicÄra
pañca - five; doá¹£a - faults; ei Å›loke - in this verse; pañca - five; alaá¹…kÄra - literary embellishments; krame - one after another; Ämi - I; kahi - say; Å›una - kindly hear; karaha - give; vicÄra - judgment.
“My dear sir, in this verse there are five faults and five literary ornaments. I shall state them one after another. Kindly hear Me and then give your judgment.
In the verse beginning with mahattvaá¹ gaá¹…gÄyÄḥ there are five literary ornaments and five examples of faulty composition. There are two examples of the fault called avimṛṣá¹a-vidheyÄá¹Å›a and one example each of the faults viruddha-mati, punar-ukti and bhagna-krama.
Vimṛṣá¹a means “clean,†and vidheyÄá¹Å›a means “predicate.†It is a general rule of composition to establish a subject first and then give its predicate. For example, according to Sanskrit grammar if one says, “This man is learned,†his composition is in order. But if one says, “Learned is this man,†the composition is not in order. Such a flaw is called avimṛṣá¹a-vidheyÄá¹Å›a-doá¹£a, or the fault of unclean composition. The subject matter to be known of the verse is the glorification of the Ganges, and therefore the word idam (“thisâ€), or what is known, should have been placed before instead of after the glorification. The subject matter already known should be placed before the unknown so that its meaning will not be misconstrued.
The second instance of avimṛṣá¹a-vidheyÄá¹Å›a-doá¹£a occurs in the words dvitÄ«ya-Å›rÄ«-laká¹£mÄ«r iva. In this composition the word dvitÄ«ya (“secondâ€) is vidheya, or unknown. Placing the unknown first to make the compound word dvitÄ«ya-Å›rÄ«-laká¹£mÄ«r is another fault. The words dvitÄ«ya-Å›rÄ«-laká¹£mÄ«r iva were intended to compare the Ganges to the goddess of fortune, but because of this fault the meaning of the compound word was bewildering.
The third fault is that of viruddha-mati, or contradictory conception, in the words bhavÄnÄ«-bhartuḥ. The word bhavÄnÄ« refers to the wife of Bhava, Lord Åšiva. But since BhavÄnÄ« is already known as the wife of Lord Åšiva, to add the word bhartÄ, “husband,†thus forming a compound meaning “the husband of the wife of Lord Åšiva,†is contradictory, for thus it appears as if the wife of Lord Åšiva had another husband.
The fourth fault is punar-ukti, or redundancy, which occurs when the verb vibhavati (“flourishesâ€), which should have ended the composition, is further qualified by the unnecessary adjective adbhuta-guá¹‡Ä (“endowed with wonderful qualitiesâ€). The fifth fault is bhagna-krama, which means “broken order.†In the first, third and fourth lines there is anuprÄsa, or alliteration, created by the sounds ta, ra and bha, but in the second line there is no such anuprÄsa, and therefore the order is broken.
