[[Mohan K.V 2012-11-27, 20:19:19 Source]]
सदास्वाद
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मनोजिघ्रः सपत्नीजनः, श्वश्रूःइङ्गितदैवता, नयनयोः ईहालिहःयातरः
(mano-jighraḥsapatnī-janaḥ, śvaśrūḥ iṅgita-daivatā, nayanayoḥ īhā-lihaḥyātaraḥ)
Meaning
Literally, “[My] co-wives [are] mind-smellers” (i.e so sensitive that they cansmellthoughts), “[My] mother-in-law [is] intent-worshiping” (she isdevotedto finding intent), and “[Our] guests lick in desires with just their eyes” (So thorough at identifying desires that they almost seem to lick them in with just their eyes), all meaning “They are keenly observant”.
Context
In this isthmus edition, we feature a verse by an unknown poet on the topic ofKṛṣṇa and his pastimes. Given Sanskrit’s enormous literary history, verses like theseabound,with neither a name tag nor any context, just concentrated capsules of a poet’s flash of creativity floating quietly in the floods of time. No one has any idea when they were written – any guess before the first reference is fair game; no idea of the social customs of the time; no idea if it was written on a war-front, or a bucolic countryside; no idea if gratefully written with a full belly in a strong, prosperous kingdom, or as a means to divert one’s mind from disappointments; no idea if it was intended it as a crowning jewel of a longer arc, now lost. All that stands is a deft use of Form, which provides just enough of a frame for the poem to make sense and shine.
Kṛṣṇa is at a gopi’s window, and slyly signalling at her with his eyes to come play with him. What does he know of the poor gopi’s domestic troubles?
स्वामी निश्वसितेऽप्यसूयतिमनोजिघ्रःसपत्नीजनः
श्वश्रूरिङ्गितदैवतानयनयोरीहालिहोयातरः ।
तद्दूरादयमञ्जलिः किमधुना दृग्भङ्गिभावेन ते
वैदग्धीरचनाप्रपञ्चरसिक! व्यर्थोऽयं अत्र श्रमः ॥
svāmī niśvasite’pyasūyatimano-jighraḥsapatnī-janaḥ
śvaśrūriṅgita-daivatānayanayorīhālihoyātaraḥ |
tad dūrād ayam añjaliḥ kim adhunā dṛg-bhaṅgi-bhāvena te
vaidagdhī-racanā-prapañca-rasika! vyartho’yaṃ atra śramaḥ ||
(śārdūlavikrīḍita, 19 syllables per line)
“My husband seems to catch on to even my sighs; my co-wives seem almost to smell my mind;
my mother-in-law almost divines my every intention; and the guests at the house, god, they seem to lick in my desires with just their eyes!
So, here’s mynamaskarato you from afar! Your sly signals,
My dear so clever at expressing your beauty, are in vain today.”
The more devout commentators are quick to ascribe allegorical intentions: the gopi is the jivatma, the individual soul, and Krishna the paramatma, the Supreme soul. The husband, mother-in-law and guests are the binds to this mortal world. Even though the Supreme soul himself is inviting him, the jivatma seems helpless to escape his trivial, mortal bounds. A less transcendental allegory also fits: Krishna is the good we all know we should do, the famous “important but not urgent” quadrant. The relatives are our daily woes, and it’s very possible to spend an entire lifetime fighting minor fires without ever giving a thought to things we know are for our best. Of course, there is also an interpretation which doesn’t involve Krishna at all – the poem doesn’t mention anything that can help us identify the fellow at the window nor the girl inside. The Krishna-kavis have deftly appropriated a generic love-verse for themselves! Any of the mischievousliteral meanings or any of the sanitized allegorical interpretations are perfectly fine, as long as we observe the poem with at least a fraction of the legerdemain and creativity the poet has used to describe observation :-)
Thought for today
क्षुत्-तृड्-आशा इति ख्याता तिस्रो भार्या मम प्रभो ।
तास्विदं हि तृतीयायाः प्रियायाः नर्मचेष्टितम् ॥
kṣut-tṛḍ-āśā iti khyātā tisro bhāryā mama prabho |
tāsvidaṃ hi tṛtīyāyāḥ priyāyāḥ narmaceṣṭitam ||
Perhaps the only place where observation of weaknesses could be keener than at the poor gopi’s house would be a king’s court, where the slightest misstep was fodder for eternal ridicule. What then, when the great poet Nīlakaṇṭha Dīkṣita, in a rush to collect the post-lunchtāmbūlaoffering at his own felicitation ceremony, slipped and fell in front of a large crowd, doubtless composed of several of his worst enemies? To add insult to injury, his patron king, Tirumala Nayaka of Madhurai (a very important contributor to the present Meenakshi temple there), noticed his state and asked him a jocular, pointed question. The genius ofNīlakaṇṭha Dīkṣita was how he transformed what could potentially have been an entire genre of ridicule from others into a gentle self-deprecatory verse of his own:
“Hunger, Thirst and Desire – my Lord, these are my three dear wives. This was just the mischief of my dearest one, the third.” :-)