The four atiśayoktis

A devotee asked me to elaborate on the issue of literalism so I looked up the word 'atiśayokti' (hyperbole) in the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava Abhidhāna. Haridās Dāsjī there quotes Śrīla Kavi Karṇapura's 'Alaṅkāra Kaustubha' (8.23) which I then faithfully quoted to that devotee. To cross-check my findings I asked my friend Kṛṣṇadas to give me a translation directly from the Alaṅkāra Kaustubha. This is what he wrote:

Dear Advaita,
Kavikarnapura recognizes four types of atiśayokti or hyperbole. He defines them as follows:

nigīrṇasyopamānenopameyasya nirūpaṇam. yat syāt atiśayoktiḥ sā ...

"A description of the subject of comparison by the object to which it is compared and that is swallowed up is the first type of hyberbole."

He illustrates this type of atiśayokti by the following example:

kṣitau śoṇe'mbhoje tad upari navau hema-kadalī
tarū nīcīnāgrāv iha kanaka-siṁhāsanam idam
tataḥ śūnyaṁ tasyopari sumilitaṁ koka-mithunaṁ
tataś candras tasmāt tama iti vidheḥ kā nu ghaṭanā

"On the ground there two red lotuses, above them two young banana-trees hanging down, above them a golden throne (siṁhāsan), then there is a vacuum, above which there are two cuckoos in sexual union, and then a moon and above the moon darkness. What a [indescribable] creation of the Creator is this?"

The word "swallowed" used in the definition means not expressed but recognized as it were within that with which it is identified. This kind of atiśayokti means that the poet does not use the subject of comparison, but he mentions just the thing the subject of comparison resembles, i.e. he does not use the word feet, but only speaks of red lotuses, he does not mention face, but only the moon etc. In Kavikarṇapura's example, in which Kṛṣṇa describes Rādhā's beauty, the relation between the subject of comparison (upameya) and the object to which it is compared (upamāna) are as follows:

feet = red lotuses (śoṇe'mbhoje)
thighs = young banana trees hanging down (navau hema-kadalī-tarū nīcīnāgrau)
hips = golden seat (kanaka-siṁhāsana)
navel = vaccum (śūnya)
breasts = cuckoos in sexual union (sumilitam koka-mithunam)
face = moon (candra)
hair = darkness (tamas)

... tad evānyatayā yadi. nirūpyate sā dvitīyā ...

"If it [i.e. the subject of comparison] is described by stating that it is different, it is the second type of hyberbole."

Kavikarnapura gives these two verses as examples:

anye śrutī te rasanā cā sānyā
cetaḥ satāṁ tat punar anyad eva
śrī kṛṣṇa-śīta-dyuti-nāma-līlā
rūpāmṛtaṁ yāni sadā dhayanti

"Different are the ears, different is the tongue, different are the minds of good men that always drink the nectar of Śrī Kṛṣṇa's cooling luster, name, pastimes, and form."

anyaiveyaṁ kanaka-latikā candramāś cāyam anyas
tasminn etan mada madirayor yugmakaṁ cānyad eva
anyaiveyaṁ tad upari mano janmanaś cāpavallī
rādhā-nāma sphurati manasaḥ keyam unmāthavīthī

"Different is this golden string of pearls, different is this moon, different is this pair of intoxicants in it, different is this bow of the god of love above it. What is this snare of mind that is manifested by Rādhā's name?"

... yady arthena tu kalpanā. yady asambhāvino'rthasya sā tṛtīyā

"The third type of hyperbole occurs when there is an imagination of an unreal object/meaning."

pūrṇo yadi syād aniśaṁ sudhāṁśu
sa cet kalaṅkena bhaved vihīnaḥ
cakora-peyo'pi na ced ayaṁ syāt
tvad āsya dāsyāya tadaiva rādhe

"If the moon is incessantly full and without spots, and although no Cakora-birds drink it, O Rādhe, it is fit to be a servant of your face."

... viparyaye . kārya-kāraṇayor anyā ...

"The fourth type of hyperbole occurs if the relation between the cause and the effect is inverted."

Kavi-Karṇapura's example:

aviddha eva praveśa yat kṛtā
saroruhākṣyā hṛdi kṛṣṇa vedanā
paras tato'nyena vilocanāñcalī
śareṇa viddhaṁ hṛdayaṁ tvayā'syāḥ

"The entrance made by the pain in the heart of the lotus-eyed lady is not pierced, O Kṛṣṇa. By a blade of the arrow of your glance Her heart is pierced."

Here, before the occurence of the cause in the form of wound generated by the arrow of a sidelong glance, the effect in the form of pain generated by such a wound is described. The relation between the cause and the effect is evidently disturbed.

However, it should be noted in this respect that there is also a little bit different classification and definition of atiśayokti but I won't go into their detailed comparison. Viśvanātha Kavirāja, the author of Sāhitya Darpaṇa, whom Jīva Goswāmī follows in Rasāmṛta Śeṣa, defines the hyperbole and its five types in this way:

siddhatve'dhyavasāyasyātiśayoktir nigadyate. bhede’py abhedaḥ sambandhe’sambandhas tad-viparyayau. paurvāparyātmakaṁ kārya-hetvoḥ sā pañcadhā mataḥ

"When the intro-susception is complete, it is called hyperbole. This is five-fold: as there is a denial of distinction where there is a distinction in reality, a negation of connection where there is a connection, and vice versa, and as the sequence in a causation is inverted."

ys.
Krishnadas

Later, after I asked him whether the above applies to the Bhāgavata too, Krishnadasji wrote me:

“………Bhāgavata Purāṇa is a master piece of world literature, one can find in it all kinds of alaṅkāras. However, ācāryas do not mention them, they do only if they need to point out something special. Sāhitya śāstra is the key to see how literary works are composed. Literary works use language in a special way. The language of other Purāṇas is mostly quite simple. But the Bhāgavata is something different. It is very difficult to read in the original, as you may know. It is actually the obscure use of language that makes it so special and interesting from the literary point of view (apart from the rasa of course that goes somehow hand in hand with the obscurity of the language). Intro-susception means something like assimilation or according to a dictionary "the act or process of receiving within.”