Handbook of Classical Sanskrit Rhetoric /180

124
 
A Handbook of Classical Sanskrit Rhetoric
 
भाविकं भूतभाव्यर्थसाक्षात्कारस्य वर्णनम् । कु. १४.१६१

 
स्वाभिप्रायस्य कथनं यदि वाप्यन्यभावना ।

 
अतीतानागतानां साक्षात्त्वमिव भाविकम् । अ. कौ. ८.२८१

 
भाविकमध्यक्षं स्यात्सध्वंसप्रागभावानाम् । अ-कौ. ४३
 

 
<headword>भ्रान्तिमान्</headword>
 
भ्रान्तिमान् Bhräntimaāntimān : Poetic Illusion :
 

 
√bhram ti<ktin (bhrānti) mān <matup literally means errenuous, false,

erring, mistaking etc. The figure is also called Bhraānti. Here one

thing is mistakenly apprehended as other due to close resemblance

between the two, suggested by poetic imagery. It is a kind of illu-

sion created by poetic image in which there is recognition of a dif-
ferent but similar thing instead of the real one bearing close

ferent but similar thing instead of the real one bearing close
resemblance to the unreal. The term Bhränti is perferable to
ānti is preferable to
Bhrantimaāntimān, but reputed rhetors like Mammațṭa, Visśvanātha,

Jagannātha and others called it Bhrāntimān.
 

 
In epistemology, bhrama or bhrānti denotes false knowledge

about an object. Here the object is not unreal, false or non-exist-

ing, but it is mistaken as something different from it. In the case of

the figurative expression, the mistake, error or illusion is not fac-

tual, but simply a poetic fancy. When it is really an error based on

false knowledge (for example śuktau rajatam ie someone mistakes

the oyester shell as a piece of silver), it is not a poetic figure since

such a matter-of-fact error produces no charm at all for the reader

of poetry.
 

 
In actual bhrānti, the close identity of two things (for example

oyester shell and silver or rope and snake) is based on matter-of-

fact reality, but in rhetorical statement, the error is nothing but a

poetic image.
 

 
Dandin does not recognise it as a separate figure but accepts it
ṇḍin does not recognise it as a separate figure but accepts it
as a variety of Simile termed as moha-upama (ie simile based on illu-

sion). Bhoja mentions some minor varieties of Bhräntimān and
āntimān and
finally concludes that Bhräānti-mālā, Upamā-bhrānti are not different

from Bhräānti or Bhrāntimān. This figure based on close resem-

blance between two similar object is different from Metaphor and
 
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