2023-03-29 18:09:37 by ambuda-bot
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HISTORY OF THE SEARCH FOR SYSTEM
37
(utprekṣā).79 The simplest language often conceals such metaphors,
their conventionality having deprived them of all poetic force-for
example, "the darkness falls" (comparing the darkness to a heavy object).
With this elemental priority of simile in poetics may be compared the
basic function of analogy (upamāna) in the philosophical systems,
particularly the mīmāmsă. According to Prabhākara, perception ceases
to be inchoate as the mind becomes aware of similarities and differences
in its content; knowledge, definite perception, is awareness so determined
in similitude; similitude is prior even to the possibility of predication.80
Likewise, poetry comes into existence as soon as simile (the peculiar
non-literal simile of poetry) adds its unique dimension of irrelevance
which determines the literal predicate of otherwise non-poetic assertion.
(ii) Hyperbole
According to Rudrața, the proposition A is B may itself be poetic
without the addition of a comparable context, provided the proposition
itself is knowingly false. As simile describes accurately by contrasting
an irrelevant context, so hyperboles¹ is an intentionally accurate or under-
standable distortion of the proper relation between the predicate and its
subject. No third term is assumed. a skyscraper so tall they had to
put hinges / on the two top stories so to let the moon go by" (Sandburg).
False: the skyscraper does not have hinges, but true: the skyscraper is
very, very tall. Under the general rubric of hyperbole, Rudrața groups
those assertions which in some way defy the canonical or assumed relation
of a predicate or quality to its subject: for instance, the notion that it is
the quality which distinguishes the subject. A range of figures explores
the quality which is so distinctive that in certain contexts it merges into
qualities of the context and so renders the subject indistinguishable:
the whiteness of a girl's sārī as she goes to the tryst in the tropical moon-
light "hides" her (tadguṇa).
...
The relation of cause and effect is not considered separately by Rudraţa
as it is by later writers (e.g., Ruyyaka); this relationship, different from
similitude, still expresses a natural cohesion between two things in terms
79 Lit. a 'disregarding': the object of comparison is "overlooked", is implicit only
in the ascription of its mode to the subject: "The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the
windowpanes ..." (T. S. Eliot). Emphatically cat-like!
80 Prabhākara's view as discussed in the Prakaraṇapañcikā of Šalikanātha, pp. 52-54;
cf. Keith, the Karma Mimamsa, p. 23; Gañgānātha Jhā, Pūrva Mīmāmsā în its Sources
(Benares, 1942), p. 96.
1 Arisaya, or atiśayokti. Like upamā, the word is used both for the genus and for
the most characteristic species, Kāvyālamkāra, chap. 9.
37
(utprekṣā).79 The simplest language often conceals such metaphors,
their conventionality having deprived them of all poetic force-for
example, "the darkness falls" (comparing the darkness to a heavy object).
With this elemental priority of simile in poetics may be compared the
basic function of analogy (upamāna) in the philosophical systems,
particularly the mīmāmsă. According to Prabhākara, perception ceases
to be inchoate as the mind becomes aware of similarities and differences
in its content; knowledge, definite perception, is awareness so determined
in similitude; similitude is prior even to the possibility of predication.80
Likewise, poetry comes into existence as soon as simile (the peculiar
non-literal simile of poetry) adds its unique dimension of irrelevance
which determines the literal predicate of otherwise non-poetic assertion.
(ii) Hyperbole
According to Rudrața, the proposition A is B may itself be poetic
without the addition of a comparable context, provided the proposition
itself is knowingly false. As simile describes accurately by contrasting
an irrelevant context, so hyperboles¹ is an intentionally accurate or under-
standable distortion of the proper relation between the predicate and its
subject. No third term is assumed. a skyscraper so tall they had to
put hinges / on the two top stories so to let the moon go by" (Sandburg).
False: the skyscraper does not have hinges, but true: the skyscraper is
very, very tall. Under the general rubric of hyperbole, Rudrața groups
those assertions which in some way defy the canonical or assumed relation
of a predicate or quality to its subject: for instance, the notion that it is
the quality which distinguishes the subject. A range of figures explores
the quality which is so distinctive that in certain contexts it merges into
qualities of the context and so renders the subject indistinguishable:
the whiteness of a girl's sārī as she goes to the tryst in the tropical moon-
light "hides" her (tadguṇa).
...
The relation of cause and effect is not considered separately by Rudraţa
as it is by later writers (e.g., Ruyyaka); this relationship, different from
similitude, still expresses a natural cohesion between two things in terms
79 Lit. a 'disregarding': the object of comparison is "overlooked", is implicit only
in the ascription of its mode to the subject: "The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the
windowpanes ..." (T. S. Eliot). Emphatically cat-like!
80 Prabhākara's view as discussed in the Prakaraṇapañcikā of Šalikanātha, pp. 52-54;
cf. Keith, the Karma Mimamsa, p. 23; Gañgānātha Jhā, Pūrva Mīmāmsā în its Sources
(Benares, 1942), p. 96.
1 Arisaya, or atiśayokti. Like upamā, the word is used both for the genus and for
the most characteristic species, Kāvyālamkāra, chap. 9.