[[Mohan K.V 2013-05-18, 18:22:54 Source]]
**सदास्वादरोमन्थः **
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Dear readers,
We have crossed the 100 readers mark! Thank you again for your continued support. Many of you continue to write in with your encouraging letters, and that keeps us going!
In the last Romantha, when speaking about memories being rosier than reality, we had written a thought, “गतकालः सदा पुण्यो गतकालः सदा सुखः । स्मृतिः मृत-महिष्यास्तु शतातिद्रोणदोहना ॥”. Śatāvadhāni Dr. R. Ganesh kindly wrote in to suggest that the second half can be made more idiomatic and stylistically similar to the first half: घटोध्नी हि मृता धेनुः या वन्ध्या बिभरे तनुं
The meaning stays the same: “A past time is always righteous and happy. The dead buffalo, which was barren when it lived, is remembered to have given much milk daily!”
He also commented on the “रात्रिर्गमिष्यति …” verse, and pointed out several more beautiful features we had missed: the use of the future tense for the bee (full of expectation), but using the indirect past to describe the event (nobody even witnessed it); the numerous internal rhymes and sonorous syllables; the use of the vasanta-tilaka metre, a staple suprabhata metre, for this morning tragedy; and much more! This verse is a masterpiece worth a dissertation on its own!
The idea of Fate is a very tricky one. The ruler of Mysore, Hyder Ali, was illiterate and his Dewan, Purnaiah, a renowned scholar in multiple languages. There is an apocryphal story that once, Hyder Ali was struggling to even sign an official document. Purnaiah looked hard at what he was trying to do, when Hyder Ali noticed him. He is supposed to have quoted, “Purnaiah Ji, udhar kya dekh rahe ho? Idhar dekho!” and pointed to his forehead with a smile. We too are reduced to gazing at foreheads when all manner of people from support staff to sweepers to reluctant rulers control the fate of billions. We can at least take refuge in the words of Emperor Marcus Aurelius, written nearly two millennia ago, that still give us pause whenever we overvalue mass sentiment:
“Or is it your reputation that’s bothering you? But look at how soon we’re all forgotten. The abyss of endless time that swallows it all. The emptiness of those applauding hands. The people who praise us; how capricious they are, how arbitrary. And the tiny region it takes place. The whole earth a point in space - and most of it uninhabited.”
In edition #31 on Satyavān and Sāvitrī, some of you had asked for details of the exact conversation between Sāvitrī and Yama. The relevant portion of the episode in Sanskrit: http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/mbs/mbs03281.htm
and the corresponding translation: http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03295.htm
Her 5 speeches are #20-24, #28-29, #33-35, #39-42 and #46-49.
In edition #32 about Bhaṭṭi, some of you asked about the Kakawin Rāmāyaṇa of Java. Till just a few hundred years ago, South East Asia was very strongly influenced by Indian culture. Gupta-style temples are found even today in places like Borobodur in Indonesia and Angkor Wat in Cambodia. Naturally, our literature too was held in very high regard.
Every region has a slightly modified version of the epics that gives it some importance in the epic’s structure: for example, in many parts of Karnataka there are spin-off stories from the Ramayana, that Rama and Sita visited some pond, or that Hanuman rested on some rock. Java was no different – their version of the Ramayana is similar to ours for about half the length, and after that Javanese folk tales and mythical creatures come to help Rama. “Kakawin” is the Javanese form of Sanskrit kavya. It seems very familiar – even the metres like Śārdūlavikrīḍita are common! The wiki page is a nice start: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kakawin_Ramayana and for a more in-depth comparison: http://kitlv.library.uu.nl/index.php/btlv/article/viewfile/2830/3591
For more on this topic, the following references may be consulted:
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S. Krishnaswamy’s 18-episode documentary series for Doordarshan, called “Indian Imprints”
As always, we welcome any thoughts, feedback and suggestions from you all. Please email us at kvm….@gmail.com and shree…@gmail.com
Thought for today
कर्पूर-धूली-रचितालवालः कस्तूरिका-पंक-निमग्न-नालः ।
गंगा-जलैः सिक्त-समूल-वालः स्वीयं गुणं मुञ्चति किं पलाण्डुः ?
karpūra-dhūlī-racitālavālaḥ kastūrikā-paṃka-nimagna-nālaḥ |
gaṃgā-jalaiḥ sikta-samūla-vālaḥ svīyaṃ guṇaṃ muñcati kiṃ palāṇḍuḥ ?
“You can water it with camphor, immerse it in scented musk, and anoint it with the Holy Ganga water – and yet, will an onion change its smell?”
While many of us have certainly felt this way at times, it’s clear that the idea can also be abused. But isn’t guarding that fine balance the asi-dhārā-vrata (vow to abide on the edge of a sword) of all thinking men? :-)
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