[[Mohan K.V 2013-09-28, 19:33:46 Source]]
सदास्वादः
सनयनजलो रोमोद्भेदः सतां तम् अपोहति
(sanayanajalo romodbhedaḥ satāṃ tam apohati )
Meaning
“The tears and goosebumps of excitement of the worthy [audience] soothes it”. It is a conventional Sanskrit belief that the audience gets goosebumps by anything emotionally intense – unlike the modern sense where it’s expected only in fright.
Context
Today’s phrase is from the bhāṇa named Pāda-tāḍitaka by Śyāmilaka. A bhāṇa is a kind of comedic play with only one act and one actor playing many roles, somewhat like a stand-up comedy act. The Pāda-tāḍitaka was composed in the time of the Gupta era, about 1600 years ago. It is commonly bunched together with three other bhāṇas – Padma-prābhṛtaka of Śūdraka, Dhūrta-viṭa-saṃvāda of Īśvaradatta, and Ubhayābhisārikā of Vararuci – to form the Caturbḥāṇī. All four are bawdry comedies involving the business of courtesans, love intrigues and scenes from the ordinary life of Gupta-era India. As usual, we know very little about the authors.
It is difficult to summarize these plays in one go because their essential humour is in the plot, and the parodying of stock characters. For example, a vaiyyākaraṇi (grammarian) can’t seem to stop seeing conjugations and declensions even in the most romantic of situations! We think it best to use an approach where we revisit different portions in different, short editions. In this edition, we’ll explore just a couple of the introductory verses and the set up of the plot of the Pāda-tāḍitaka – just by themselves, they have that magical poetic spark that endures interest across millennia!
न प्राप्नुवन्ति यतयो रुदितेन मोक्षं
स्वर्गायतिं न परिहासकथा रुणद्धि ।
तस्मात् प्रतीतमनसा हसितव्यम् एव
वृत्तिं बुधेन खलु कौरुकुचीं विहाय ॥5॥
na prāpnuvanti yatayo ruditena mokṣaṃ
svargāyatiṃ na parihāsakathā ruṇaddhi |
tasmāt pratīta-manasā hasitavyam eva
vṛttiṃ budhena khalu kaurukucīṃ vihāya ||5||
“No sage has attained liberation by lamentation,
and no one’s been stopped from going to heaven because of a funny story.
So wise men should laugh heartily, abandoning snobbish airs.”
(“kaurukucī vṛtti” is a very interesting word – it evidently is an idiomatic construction, with kūra meaning ‘rice’ or ‘food’ and ‘kuca’ meaning ‘frown’ – someone who frowns even after being served, someone who’s a snob)
A critic defined puritanism to be “the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy”. Śyāmilaka would heartily agree. :-)
Today’s phrase comes from a verse that every artist would instantly want as a fridge magnet:
इदम् इह पदं मा भूद् एवं भवत्विदम् अन्यथा
कृतम् इदम् अयं ग्रन्थेनार्थो महान् उपपादितः ।
इति मनसि यः काव्यारम्भे कवेः भवति श्रमः
सनयनजलो रोमोद्भेदः सतां तम् अपोहति ॥3॥
idam iha padaṃ mā bhūd evaṃ bhavatvidam anyathā
kṛtam idam ayaṃ granthenārtho mahān upapāditaḥ |
iti manasi yaḥ kāvyārambhe kaveḥ bhavati śramaḥ
sanayanajalo romodbhedaḥ satāṃ tam apohati ||3||
“No this word doesn’t fit – let me try this other one.
Ah! let me adjust this a little – now it gives a nice sense!”
– All that exhaustion the poor poet undergoes when writing a work
is removed by the excited goosebumps of a worthy audience!
This verse is matchless in its perfection!
The one-act, one man play now begins. A hilarious scandal has just occurred in the naughty portion of the city – and every rogue seems to talking about it! Here’s how one rogue describes it:
प्रत्यक्षं हि मे तद् यद् अतीते अहनि तत्रभवत्या सुराष्ट्राणां वारमुख्यया समदनया मदनसेनिकया तत्रभवान् तौण्डिकोकिः विष्णुनागः चरण-कमलेन शिरसि अनुगृहीतः । सुष्ठु खल्विदम् उच्यते: एति जीवन्तम् आनन्दो नरम् वर्ष-शतादपि !
pratyakṣaṃ hi me tad yad atīte ahani tatrabhavatyā surāṣṭrāṇāṃ vāramukhyayā samadanayā madanasenikayā tatrabhavān tauṇḍikokiḥ viṣṇunāgaḥ caraṇa-kamalena śirasi anugṛhītaḥ | suṣṭhu khalvidam ucyate: eti jīvantam ānando naram varṣa-śatādapi !
“I saw this with my own eyes: last evening, the noble lady of Saurāṣṭra, Madanasenikā, impassioned with love, blessed the head of the venerable Tauṇḍikoki Viṣṇunāga with her lotus feet. Surely it is true what they say: Happiness will eventually find a man, even if it takes a hundred years!”
The style is very deferential – for example, in the use of highly respectful phrases like tatrabhavān, and using the passive voice laden with adjectives. It is also very erudite: the happiness line is a direct quote from the Rāmāyaṇa! This mock grand form makes the hilarity of the content even more stark: a pious Brāhmin slyly went to the house of a courtesan. As the evening progressed, she staged a mock love-quarrel and kicked him on the head. The rogues, who are aware of the world’s ways, rightly think that such quarrels are the whole point of a fun evening, and envy the Brahmin’s great fortune. But the Brahmin, whose name suggests extreme book-learning and complete cluelessness in all other quarters, sees it very differently. The rogue continues:
कुतो अस्य तानि भागधेयानि यः स ईदृशानां प्रणय-कलहोत्स्वानां पात्रं भविष्यति? स हि तस्या वेश-देवतायाः तं सम्मान-विशेषं अवमानं मन्यामानः क्रोध-परिव्यक्त-नयन-रागः प्रस्फुरित-भ्रू-कुटी-वक्रं ललाटं कृत्वा शिरो विनिर्धूय दशनैः ओष्ठम् अभिदश्य पाणिना पाणिम् अभिहत्य दीर्घं निःश्व्यस्य उक्तवान् : “हा धिक् पुम्श्चलि, अनात्मज्ञे!”
kuto asya tāni bhāgadheyāni yaḥ sa īdṛśānāṃ praṇaya-kalahotsvānāṃ pātraṃ bhaviṣyati? sa hi tasyā veśa-devatāyāḥ taṃ sammāna-viśeṣaṃ avamānaṃ manyāmānaḥ krodha-parivyakta-nayana-rāgaḥ prasphurita-bhrū-kuṭī-vakraṃ lalāṭaṃ kṛtvā śiro vinirdhūya daśanaiḥ oṣṭham abhidaśya pāṇinā pāṇim abhihatya dīrghaṃ niḥśvyasya uktavān : “hā dhik pumścali, anātmajñe!”
“Sigh, what must be the good fortune of a man to be part of such wonderful love-quarrels? But this fool, after receiving this great honor from the Princess of Courtesans, considered it an insult!! With eyes red with anger, knitting his brows, shaking his head, clenching his teeth and agitatedly slapping his hands, he shouted: “You ignorant woman! [and proceeded with a long dissertation on why his head was sacred, how it was blessed by great Brahmins and all that]”
The poor courtesan has no idea what to do now! The Brahmin huffs off in anger, and attempts to seek a scriptural procedure to cleanse himself of this impurity! The rest of the monologue describes his attempts to assemble a court of rogues to rule on his ‘case’, and the twists and turns of the court proceedings :-)
Thought for today
Misquoting scriptures is a hilarious technique that many skilled Sanskrit poets use. Some, like Pancatantra’s Viṣṇuśarma, don’t change a single syllable, but make the context so incongruous that one can only laugh out loud – for example, a donkey quoting profound sections of Sangīta-śāstra very accurately :-) Here in the Pādatāḍitaka, one fraud impresses another by his cynicism, by quoting this verse supposedly from the Mahābhārata:
यस्यामित्रा न बहवो यस्मान् नोद्विजते जनः ।
यं समेत्य न निन्दन्ति स पार्थ पुरुषाधमः ॥४९॥
yasyāmitrā na bahavo yasmān nodvijate janaḥ |
yaṃ sametya na nindanti sa pārtha puruṣādhamaḥ ||49||
“He who does not have many enemies, whom people do not fear,
whom they do not get together to scold, He, O Partha, is a useless man!”
This is a mangling of several verses from the Bhagavad-Gita, but has just the right style and right number of proper fragments to make the reader go, “Hey wait a minute, this sounds familiar, is this really in the Mahābhārata?!” :-) Another famous one in this genre is, “सर्वधर्मान् परित्यज्य … यथेच्छसि तथा कुरु” (“Renounce all Dharma… and do what you want!”, a mangling of the first pāda of 18.66 and last pāda of 18.63) :-)
In any case, poor Śyāmilaka couldn’t possibly have known that his joke would rise to become the creed of modern media stars!
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