V. RAGHAVAN - SAHRDAYANANDA club on seeing two persons on an ass, Dikṣādanda, the brahmacarin and another mendicant, Naişthikananda, and the exchange between them and his wife; he flings his club at them, taking their ass to be his own missing one. He then decides to report to the Kotwal the loss of his ass, when he sees on another ass a pair of ladies, one of them in maledress, and the two hugging each other. 20 The Kotwal arrives on his own ass and surrounded by his retinue. He sends for the judge, Dharmadhikarin, to make an enquiry. Enter Dharmadhikarin, he being called Rasa-pratibandhaka, the impediment to Rasa-realisation with two pupils of his, named Väkyārthaparibhraşta and Gunapakarṣa, i.e.inconclusive or uncertain import and the absence of gunas appropriate to the context i.e. dosa or literary flaws. Both of them are known to be hindrances to the understanding of a piece of expression (Abhidheya-artha-pratiti- pratibandhaka). The symbolism, from the side of poetics, could be easily understood. In the further dialogues of the teacher and the two pupils, Gunas like Ojas, Prasada and Madhurya and Dosas like Sruti-katu figure. The Kotwal now enlightens us that it was at the behest of the Dharmadhikarin that he had sent round the city the two pairs on asses for the sake of making public their guilt and now asks the Dharmadhikarin what final punishment is to be meted out to them. The Dharmadhikärin, Rasapratibandhaka declares that not only these, but all those who consider themselves sahrdayas and are eager to enjoy rasa should be sent round on ass-back. The pupil Väkyarthaparibhrasta represents that according to the theorist Lollaţa, Rasa is in the actor too and therefore, there is not much point in punishing spectators of drama with ass-ride. Dharmadhikärin now calls Vyanjana characterising her as a debaucherous woman, and orders that she must first be punished. V. RAGHAVAN - SAHRDAYANANDA Vyanjana protests that without Abhidha, she was nothing (or makes no sense): abhidhāyaḥ sambandham vina aham nirarthika. Behind the curtain, Abhidha and Lakṣană overhear this. Abhidha remarks that Vyanjana has ruined her Vrtti (profession as well as significatory capacity). Lakṣaṇā asks her not to raise her voice as Dharmadhikarin might seize them both. Along with the crowd of people like Sruti-katu the Dosa, they keep looking on. 21 It is suggested by the Kotwal that the Dharmadhikarin Rasapratibandhaka may himself be punished with a clean shave of the head. Dharmadhikarin looks nonplussed, at his two sisyas. At this point, pushing the crowd aside, the Alankarika enters, calling forth Vyanjana as the very life of those immersed in rasa: Ayt vyanjane! tvam sahrdayopajivyasi... ..rasarāsau * nimajjamānānām vyanjana jivitāyate. Vyanjana says that she suspects Rasapratibandhaka was really a foreigner (Dvipantariya). Alankarika agrees and says that as Rasapratibandhaka ordered that everybody should be sent round on ass-back, he, Rasapratibandhaka, is the first to deserve that honour. Everybody, including the Kotwal, is happy and they jump. Smarting at this, Rasapratibandhaka wants to tear the book in his hand to pieces. V The situation which is critical for Rasapratibandhaka is suddenly relieved by the announcement of a woman-fiend, a Dakini called Vyanjanamala. We have to be brief about the nature and make-up of this character, as they are obscene, Vyanjana here meaning the sexual index. Obviously the inventive skill of the poet had failed him here. What he wanted to represent symbolically is perhaps the
