Prescribed Poetry: Theme, Rasa and Poetic Devices
What this domain tests
Verses are set from Uttarājjhayaṇa (Uttarādhyayana), Dasaveyāliya, Sūyagaḍa and similar didactic texts, mostly in the āryā (gāthā) metre. The paper asks for the theme, the rasa and the alaṅkāra, each with a reason.
Theme
Recurring subjects: aniccatā (impermanence of the body), vairāgya, ahiṃsā and the folly of hiṃsā, the rarity of human birth (dullabha māṇusa-jamma), tapas and saṃyama, and kamma following its doer. State the theme in one Marathi sentence before explaining it.
Rasa
Śānta dominates didactic Jain verse, since its subject is the cessation of saṃsāra-dukkha; its sthāyibhāva is nirveda. Karuṇa appears where bondage is lamented; vīra where heroic endurance of tapas is praised; bībhatsa in aśubhā-bhāvanā verses on the body; hāsya only in satire of fools. Always name the rasa and then give its sthāyibhāva.
Alaṅkāra
- Upamā: marked by jaha … taha, iva, va.
- Dṛṣṭānta: the Jain favourite - an illustrative clause followed by its application, without a separate upamā marker.
- Rūpaka: upamāna and upameya identified as one.
- Anuprāsa (consonant repetition), yamaka (repeated syllable group, different sense).
- Svabhāvokti in body or season descriptions; atiśayokti in praise of kevala-jñāna.
Worked example (model verse of the type set)
jaha ambu-bindu kamala-patte ṇa rajjai, taha muni visae ṇa rajjai. Reasoning: jaha … taha marks an upamā; kamala-patta is the upamāna, muni the upameya, visaya the common dharma. Because the example runs through a whole clause and is then applied, dṛṣṭānta is also acceptable. Theme: asaṅga, non-attachment; rasa: śānta. Translation: जसा कमळाच्या पानावर पाण्याचा थेंब अडकत नाही, तसा मुनी विषयांत अडकत नाही.
Traps
- Calling every comparison an upamā when the verse in fact uses dṛṣṭānta.
- Naming śṛṅgāra because the word kāma appears; the tone in this corpus is vairāgya.
- Claiming anuprāsa for repeated vowels alone.
- Giving the rasa without the sthāyibhāva, which is where the explanation mark lies.