Handbook of Classical Sanskrit Rhetoric /215

Višeşoktiḥ: Peculiar Allegation
 
with the only exception of allowing explicitly the absence or disquali-

fication of one quality. To be more clear, the excellence of a thing is

implicitly stated here by comparing it to a valued object, yet mention-

ing some extra-ordinary difference, and the special difference men-

tioned in such expressions means absence of only one quality in one

of the things. But Ruyyaka considers it as just the opposite of

Vibhāvanā and the later scholars except Bhoja have followed the

same line. According to them, Višeşśeṣokti simply means non-appearane of

effect even though there is a cause for it.
 

 
Logically cause is the immediate antecedent of the effect, and,

therefore, where there is a cause, there must be an effect following

the cause. But in the poet's world, this rule may not apply, and, in

spite of a cause the effect may not appear because there must have

been some extra-ordinary reason for which normal appearance of

the effect is hindered. This is, in brief, the basic idea of Viseşśeṣokti.

But Bhoja's definition is different from the previous one. Višeșśeṣokti,

according to him, is a statement of excellence with excess or

paucity. Vāmana's definition is quite different from those of his
predecc
predecessors and followers. Ruyyaka and Jagannātha observed that

Vāmana's Viseşśeṣokti is identical with Rüūpaka (Metaphor).
 

 
Višeşśeṣokti occurs in three ways:
 

(i) when the cause is explicitly stated,
 

(ii) when the cause is not explicitly stated and
 

(iii) when the cause seems impossible to be conceived.
 

 
But Dandṇḍin gives a separate group of its four varieties :

(i) ineffectiveness of attribute (guṇa-vaikalya),
 

(ii)
 
(iii)
 
( ineffectiv)
 
eg 1.
 
159
 
ineffectiveness of genus or distinguishing properties
eness of genus or distinguishing properties
(jāti-vaikalya),
 

(iii) ineffectiveness of action (kriyā-vaikalya) and
 

(iv) ineffectiveness of specific objects (dravya-vaikalya).
 

 
eg 1. dyūtamṃ hi nāma puruṣasya asimṃhāsanamṃ rājyam.

द्यूतं हि नाम पुरुषस्य असिंहासनं राज्यम्
 

The game of dice, to a gambler, is really a kingdom

without the throne.
 
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Original from
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN