War and Peace Mirroring One Another in Sanskrit Poetry

One of the prominent features of Indian poetry is represented by its extensive use of figures of speech (śabdālaṃkāra). The most common among these figures are based on the association of two different images, which are compared with one another (as in the simile, upamā), or identified (as in the metaphor, rūpaka), or conveyed simultaneously by a single word through puns (as in the double entendre, śleṣa). As a rule, the images which are associated with warlike activities, on the one hand, and those connected with peacetime scenes, on the other hand, belong to separate sets, i.e. they are not directly associated with one another in these figures of speech However, this is not so much as a rule, but more a practice or habit on the part of poets and, as such, it is not always strictly followed. The purpose of this article is to draw attention to a number of stanzas in which this practice is disregarded and, as a result, contrasting images which are typical of wartime and peacetime activities are brought together unexpectedly and placed alongside one another in similes, metaphors or double entendres