lustre, splendour (Monier Williams).
Maitrī Upaniṣad VI. 7 says "bha is so
called as it illuminates these worlds." It has been used in neuter gender
because it qualifies 'jyotis'.
There is a sāman known as 'bhakāra' wherein all
the consonants are replaced with bh, keeping the vowels intact.5 That the
consonant 'bh' should have been selected for this purpose bears testimony
to the special importance of this consonant as it stands for light.
2. 'Hamsa' occurs in several Upanișads; the most relevant occurrence
is in
Kathopanişad II.5.2, where hamsa is mentioned as one of the synonyms
of 'ātman'.
3. '
Bharata' here stands for ātman and not the sage
Bharata.
4. Bhāratī is another name of Saraswatī and occurs in Rgveda (VIII.
6.9).
The verse containing the above four words is placed in the very
beginning of the chapter on raga. If it is taken to embody mangalacarana, its
relevance to rāga is not obvious (See Vol. III).
5. Here '
Bharata' stands for the sage who is the author of
Nāṭyaśāstra.
6,7. 'Dhvani' basically means sound; a 'type of sound' or 'special
sound 'could mean 'a melodic form 'which is called 'dhun' in Hindi.
8,9. The general
lakṣaṇa pertains to a category like jāti or rāga and
special
lakṣaṇa pertains to the 'individuals' within a category.
10. A rūdha word is that where the etymological meaning is not
relevant; only the conventional meaning operates.
11. Aśvakarņa literally means 'the ear of a horse', but it is used for
a fracture of the bones that resembles the ear of a horse.
12. Yaugika means combinational. Mandapa is a compound
meaning one who drinks 'manda' or the scum of boiled rice or any grain,
stands for an open hall or pavilion. Really speaking, the
but it
combinational meaning does not operate here.
13.
Yogarūdha is a type of word where both combination and
convention operate. The classic example is that of pankaja, which means
'that which is born in mud', but is restricted to lotus, although many other
things are born of 'mud'.
14. 'Sūkṣma' literally means small or subtle; here we have interpreted
it as being short in time, because 'small' in a temporal context would
naturally mean 'short in time'.
15. 'Kampa' has been translated here as shake according to English
idiom, although literally it could also be rendered as 'tremor'.
16. ' Pāṇi' means 'hand', but here 'hand' could not be relevant to the
context, not even the figurative usage of 'hand' in tāla as a synonym of
