Avadānakalpalatāにおける〈寂静〉の〈情〉について

The Kashmiri poet Kṣemendra (ca. 990–1066 CE) devotes the thirty-ninth chapter of his Avadānakalpalatā (Av-klp) to the legend of a heretic named Kapila, who was reborn as a sea monster as a result of his actions in his former lives. In his Aucityavicāracarcā, a treatise upon poetic propriety, Kṣemendra expressly declares that the predominant sentiment (rasa) of the Av-klp is peaceful (śānta). However, one can hardly ignore the fact that the poet takes pains to suggest a variety of sentiments suitable to the characters and themes he depicts in the Av-klp. This paper aims to address how the poet suggests a peaceful sentiment in his version of the legend of Kapila.
A glance at the text of verses 101–107, which tell us that Kapila attained the stage of stream-enterer (srota-āpatti), reveals the words satyadarśin (“one who sees the truth”) and bhaktyā praṇanāma (“[Kapila] prostrated himself with devotion”), which are used to describe the determinant (sthayibhāva) and the symptom (anubhāva) of a peaceful sentiment, respectively. Moreover, a closer examination of the text shows that Kṣemendra avoids using words inappropriate to the context where the same sentiment is suggested.
In verse 107, Kṣemendra notably uses a simile in which a sea monster (makaraḥ) and a group of people (janakāyaḥ) are compared to a blade of grass (tṛṇam). The words makaraḥ and janakāyaḥ are masculine in gender, whereas the word tṛṇam is neuter. According to poetic theorists, a poet must construct a simile so that the standard of comparison can agree in gender, number, and case with the subject of comparison. It is generally accepted by poets that in a drama, stress is placed upon the suggestion of a sentiment rather than upon the observance of poetic rules. Interestingly, in verse 51 of the Caṇḍīśataka, a poem dedicated to the goddess Caṇḍī, the poet Bāṇa (seventh-century CE) employs a simile in which an enemy (aris) is compared to a blade of grass (tṛṇam) without observing the rules of grammatical agreement. The subject matter as well as stylistic features lead us to infer that in the verse in question, the poet suggests a mixture of two different sentiments, i.e., the furious (raudra) and the heroic (vīra), which points to the possibility that from the ninth-century CE onwards at the latest, poets attached greater importance to the suggestion of a sentiment than to the observance of poetic rules in a poem.
Consideration of these points brings us to the following conclusion: (1) Kṣemendra, observing poetic propriety, implicitly suggests a peaceful sentiment through the words used to describe the determinant and the symptom of the same sentiment. (2) In verse 107, Kṣemendra, who grants pride of place to the suggestion of a sentiment, uses a simile not constructed within the confines of the rules established by poetic theorists, following the example of his predecessors.