[[Mohan K.V 2014-10-13, 03:46:25 Source]]
सदास्वादः
67
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त्वत्-सम्बद्धो मम शत-गुणः सङ्गमाद् विप्रयोगे
(tvat-sambaddho mama śata-guṇaḥ saṅgamād viprayoge)
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Meaning
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“But for you, [my love] has grown a hundred times in separation!”
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Context
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This chapter’s phrase is from the Kokila-sandeśa of Uddaṇḍa-śāstrī. The poet was one of the 18 gems who adorned the court of Māna-vikrama, the 81st Zamorin of Calicut, who ruled most of Kerala around 450 years ago. Uddaṇda-śāstrī was an honorific name given to the poet, who was born as Irugupanātha in a village near Kāñcī. He traveled looking for patronage, and legend has it that when he arrived at the Zamorin’s court, he recited this verse:
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उद्दण्डः परदण्ड-भैरव! भवद्-यात्रासु जैत्र-श्रियो
हेतुः केतुर् अतीत्य सूर्य-सरणिं गच्छन् निवार्यस् त्वया ।
नो चेत् तत्-पुट-सम्पुटोदर-लसत्-शार्दूल-मुद्रा-द्रवत्
सारङ्गं शशि-बिम्बम् एष्यति तुलां त्वत्-प्रेयसीनां मुखैः ॥
uddaṇḍaḥ paradaṇḍa-bhairava! bhavad-yātrāsu jaitra-śriyo
hetuḥ ketur atītya sūrya-saraṇiṃ gacchan nivāryas tvayā |
no cet tat-puṭa-sampuṭodara-lasat-śārdūla-mudrā-dravat
sāraṅgaṃ śaśi-bimbam eṣyati tulāṃ tvat-preyasīnāṃ mukhaiḥ ||
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“O Destroyer of enemies! You should stop your victorious flags from rising up to the very path of the sun! Otherwise, seeing the menacing tiger on it, the deer on the moon will run away and then the moon will become blemishless, matching the faces of your beloveds.” In one stroke the poet praises the king’s victories and his choice of queens – with a customized verse that is very unique to him and his emblem! Mānavikrama was himself an accomplished Sanskrit poet, and rewarded this fancy and skill in śabdālaṅkāra with the title ‘Uddaṇḍa’ ‘Raised staff’ or ‘Excellent’.
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Alas, it was only a few decades later, in 1498, that a Portuguese looter was to set foot into the same court after a pure chance encounter with a skilled monsoon navigator in a tavern in Malindi, heralding five hundred years of utter ruin upon the land.
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The Kokila-sandeśa is one of the tens of imitations of Kālidāsa’s Meghadūta (which we covered earlier). The setup, plot, message, even the literary structure, are repeated to such an exact extent that one wonders if the poet saw this as some kind of proving-to-oneself, the way a student today will re-derive the proofs an ancient master first discovered. Loving hubby and wife separated? Check. Non-human messenger? Check. A two-part structure, with the first being a ruse for nature poetry by describing the path for the messenger to take, and the second a ruse for śṛṇgāra poetry in describing the beloved? Check. Mandākrānta metre? Check. Arthāntara-nyāsas (a figure of speech that makes a generalization after making an observation) sprinkled here and there? Check. Why, we’ll just be silly and ask if a particular quirky way that a place name was mentioned in the Meghadūta is copied… and the answer is yes!
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Despite such enforced congruence, it is truly amazing that the poet finds an avenue for his creativity. Venetia Kotamraju and Dr. Shankar Rajaraman have done a tremendous service to Sanskrit by translating the entirety of the Kokila-sandeśa into English for the first time; their work can be accessed at the Rasāla website, and some of Venetia’s excellent writings, where she actually retraced the path of the koel and took pictures, can be found at her blog.
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We’ll focus here on the second half of the poem, where the poet describes his beloved and the message the koel should pass on. After describing the path to her house in great detail, the poet finally gets to describing her; his joy is palpable:
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सा नेत्राणाम् अमृत-गुलिका सृष्टि-सारो विधातुः
सौन्दर्येन्दोः प्रथम-कलिका दीपिका भूत-धात्र्याः।
कन्दर्पस्य त्रिभुवन-विभोः काञ्चनी केतु-यष्टिः
शृङ्गाराब्धेः शशधर-कला जीवितं मे द्वितीयम् ॥ 2.19
sā netrāṇām amṛta-gulikā sṛṣṭi-sāro vidhātuḥ
saundarya-indoḥ prathama-kalikā dīpikā bhūta-dhātryāḥ|
kandarpasya tribhuvana-vibhoḥ kāñcanī ketu-yaṣṭiḥ
śṛṅgāra-abdheḥ śaśadhara-kalā jīvitaṃ me dvitīyam || 2.19 ||
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“She’s nectar for the eyes, the best essence of Brahma’s creation,
She’s the brightest phase of beauty’s Moon, a lamp that lights up the very earth!
She is the golden flagpole of Kāma, who rules the three worlds,
a full moon that swells the ocean of love, my second soul!”
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Every line bursts forth with a new image, as if reflecting the poet’s own mind when he thinks of her. The flagpole of Kāma (love personified) holds up his banner proudly as he conquers the three worlds – what must her beauty have been, to serve as the emblem of Kāma himself! It is of course apt for a poet named Uddaṇḍa to be very concerned with flag poles. :-)
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After quite some more description, the poet finally gets to his message. In the second verse there, imagining how she would respond, he says:
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चोलेष्वास्ते सुमुखि कुशली त्वत् प्रियः पृच्छति त्वां
कच्चित् क्षेमं भजति भवतीत्य् आत्त-वाचं भवन्तम् ।
भूयो भूयः कथय कथयेत्य् आलपन्त्य् अश्रुमिश्रैः
प्रीतिस्मेरैर् मदिर-नयना मानयिष्यत्य् अपाङ्गैः ॥ 2.48
‘coleṣu āste sumukhi kuśalī tvat priyaḥ pṛcchati tvāṃ
kaccit kṣemaṃ bhajati bhavatī’ iti ātta-vācaṃ bhavantam |
bhūyo bhūyaḥ kathaya kathaya iti ālapantī aśru-miśraiḥ
prīti-smeraiḥ madira-nayanā mānayiṣyati apāṅgaiḥ ||
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“‘Your husband, my lady, is alive and well in the Chola kingdom.
He asks of your welfare.’ – just as you start to address her,
Crying out, “Tell me more, tell me more!”,
she will honour you with tear-blurred looks that blossom in her joy.”
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As tender as the poet’s picture of his beloved is, tenderer still is his own expectation that someone’s out there, waiting for him so intently.
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Later on, a beautiful portrait of dissociation:
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कल्याणाङ्गि प्रिय-सहचरीं त्वाम् अनासादयद्भिर्
बाह्यैर् अक्षैः सह परम् अहं यामि काम् अप्यवस्थाम् ।
धन्यं चेतः पुनर् इदम् अहोरात्रम् अन्यानपेक्षं
त्वय्यामग्नं बत ननु पृथग्-भाग्यम् अप्येकजानाम् ॥ 50
kalyāṇāṅgi priya-sahacarīṃ tvām anāsādayadbhir
bāhyair akṣaiḥ saha param ahaṃ yāmi kām api avasthām |
dhanyaṃ cetaḥ punar idam ahorātram anyānapekṣaṃ
tvayyāmagnaṃ bata nanu pṛthag-bhāgyam api ekajānām ||
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“O beautiful one! I’m unable to reach you, my dearest,
through any of my senses – and yet, what a state I am in!
This mind of mine is blessed, immersed in you day and night,
thinking of you alone. How differently fate treats even those of the same origin!
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We’ll finish with a verse that has a nugget of great beauty:
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रागो नाम त्रुटति विरहेणेति लोकप्रवादस्
त्वत्-सम्बद्धो मम शत-गुणः सङ्गमाद् विप्रयोगे ।
सो ऽयं भेदो विषय-भिदया सङ्गमे त्वं किलैका
विश्लेषे तु त्रिभुवनम् इदं जायते त्वन्-मयं हि ॥ 2.67
rāgo nāma truṭati viraheṇa iti loka-pravādaḥ
tvat-sambaddho mama śata-guṇaḥ saṅgamād viprayoge |
so ‘yaṃ bhedo viṣaya-bhidayā saṅgame tvaṃ kilaikā
viśleṣe tu tribhuvanam idaṃ jāyate tvan-mayaṃ hi ||
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“It is said that is love torn apart in separation,
but my love for you has grown a hundred times.
I’ll say why: When we’re together you are but one,
but when we’re apart all three worlds are filled with you.”
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The second half is the poet’s own cute explanation for the first half. But let’s hold the first half in mind. Now consider a verse from the Meghadūta, which the hero says to the cloud:
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त्वाम् आरूढं पवन-पदवीम् उद्गृहीतालकान्ताः
प्रेक्षिष्यन्ते पथिक-वनिताः प्रत्ययाद् आश्वसन्त्यः ।
कः संनद्धे विरह-विधुरां त्वय्युपेक्षेत जायां
न स्याद् अन्यो ऽप्यहम् इव जनो यः पराधीन-वृत्तिः ॥ 1.8
tvām ārūḍhaṃ pavana-padavīm udgṛhītālakāntāḥ
prekṣiṣyante pathika-vanitāḥ pratyayād āśvasantyaḥ |
kaḥ saṃnaddhe viraha-vidhurāṃ tvayyupekṣeta jāyāṃ
na syād anyo ‘pyaham iva jano yaḥ parādhīna-vṛttiḥ ||
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“As you set out on the back of mighty winds, girls below
will look up at you with joy and anticipation [of the coming monsoon, of reunion, etc.]
Who would not rush to be with their beloveds when you come by?
Surely there isn’t even one other enslaved wretch like myself (who cannot do so)."
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The arrival of the monsoon signifies the time husbands were expected to be back from travels [for it was nearly impossible to travel then], and so the girls were overjoyed with expectation. But in the second half, the poet rues that he won’t be one of the lucky few. In fact, he seems to feel that he’s the only one enslaved thus. This feeling of an enormous burden that no other man has the misfortune to bear is acutely perceptive.
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The first half of Uddaṇḍa’s verse, and the second half of Kālidāsa’s above, reminded us of a beautifully eloquent passage in Charles Dickens’ Nicholas Nickleby:
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[Nicholas is utterly in love with a girl he’s had only a glimpse of. For a long time now, he’s been surviving only on the ‘mental picture’ of her that he’s conjured up. He’s trying everything he can within his (rather limited) means to get to know more of her, and has not been seeing too much success. After a particularly bright ray of hope dimmed, Dickens makes this comment.]
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Mystery and disappointment are not absolutely indispensable to the growth of love, but they are, very often, its powerful auxiliaries. ‘Out of sight, out of mind,’ is well enough as a proverb applicable to cases of friendship, though absence is not always necessary to hollowness of heart, even between friends, and truth and honesty, like precious stones, are perhaps most easily imitated at a distance, when the counterfeits often pass for real. Love, however, is very materially assisted by a warm and active imagination: which has a long memory, and will thrive, for a considerable time, on very slight and sparing food. Thus it is, that it often attains its most luxuriant growth in separation and under circumstances of the utmost difficulty; and thus it was, that Nicholas, thinking of nothing but the unknown young lady, from day to day and from hour to hour, began, at last, to think that he was very desperately in love with her, and that never was such an ill-used and persecuted lover as he.
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:-)
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Parting Thought
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We said husbands were expected to be back home from their travels by the monsoons simply because of the difficulty of travel; well, the verse below explores a more poetic reason – that the heart wouldn’t let them stay away:
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“भो भोः पान्थ कुतो?” “महानगरतो” “वार्ता तु काचित् श्रुता?”
“बाढं !” “ब्रूहि” “युवा पयोद-समये भार्यां विना जीवति !!”
“सत्यं जीवति ???” “जीवतीति कथिता वार्ता मयापि श्रुता ! "
“संकीर्णा पृथिवी जनाश् च बहवः किं तन्न सम्पद्यते ?” ॥
“bho bhoḥ pāntha kuto?” “mahā-nagarato” “vārtā tu kācit śrutā?”
“bāḍhaṃ !” “brūhi” “yuvā payoda-samaye bhāryāṃ vinā jīvati !!”
“satyaṃ jīvati ???” “jīvatīti kathitā vārtā mayāpi śrutā ! "
“saṃkīrṇā pṛthivī janāś ca bahavaḥ kiṃ tanna sampadyate ?” ||
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“Hello, where are you coming from?” “The big city” “Any news?”
“Oh yes!” “Tell me.” “It seems a young man there lives alone without his wife DURING THE MONSOON!”
“Whoa, lives??? Really?!” “That’s what I heard, that he lives” [In a tone of, ‘I mean, come on, is that even possible?’]
“Tch, it’s a strange world with all kinds of people. Nothing’s impossible, I guess.” [A resigned attempt at trying to make sense of a completely miraculous and unbelievable piece of news]
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This verse is amazing because one has to entirely imagine the incredulous tone, all the caps and question marks and exclamations, and even the sigh of the resigned ‘conclusion’ in the end. Without it, it seems like a prosaic conversation that doesn’t even make sense.
Living as we do in our concrete jungles, even though we never get a glimpse of what it is to truly feel the seasons, let alone be meaningfully constrained by them, we still hear faint echoes of this verse every time the afternoon sky goes dark…
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