[[Mohan K.V 2015-07-13, 03:41:28 Source]]
सदास्वादः
77
एकस्मिन् शयने पराङ्-मुखतया वीतोत्तरं ताम्यतोः
(ekasmin śayane parāṅ-mukhatayā vītottaraṃ tāmyatoḥ)
Meaning
“Lying on the same bed, turned away from each other, suffering in silence…” Smells like some domestic trouble!
Context
This chapter’s phrase is from the Amaru-śataka, one the most famous collections of love-poetry in Sanskrit. We’d featured it in one of our earliest chapters, and are picking it up from there.
Sometimes, orders being obeyed can be very disheartening — for the one giving orders! A girl complains to her friend:
कथम् अपि सखि क्रीडा-कोपाद् व्रजेति मयोदिते
कठिन-हृदयस् त्यक्त्वा शय्यां बलाद् गत एव सः ।
इति सरभसं ध्वस्त-प्रेम्णि व्यपेत-घृणे जने
पुनर् अपि हत-व्रीडं चेतः प्रयाति करोमि किम् ॥
katham api sakhi krīḍā-kopād vrajeti mayodite
kaṭhina-hṛdayas tyaktvā śayyāṃ balād gata eva saḥ |
iti sarabhasaṃ dhvasta-premṇi vyapeta-ghṛṇe jane
punar api hata-vrīḍaṃ cetaḥ prayāti karomi kim ||
“Yeah ok, so I got angry and told him, ‘Get out!’
– but that stone-hearted fellow actually left!
He’s so unthinking, unromantic, insensitive…
and yet my shameless heart reaches for him! What do I do!”
There are two possible ways to read this, all hinging on the crucial reason for the anger, “krīḍā-kopād”. If we take it as face value, to mean ‘mock anger’ or ‘playful anger’, the verse is a straightforward complaint: “I was only mock angry, but he didn’t understand and actually left. He’s so dumb, but I still love him…”
A far superior reading, we think, arises if we consider that the speaker isn’t really telling the truth. Why might that be? First, ‘katham api’—‘somehow’—she doesn’t want to dwell on why exactly, as if it isn’t important. ‘krīḍā-kopād’ sounds very convenient now, doesn’t it? She probably really got angry, but is trying to whitewash it, first by ‘katham api’ ‘Yeah ok, so, …’ and then by adding the plausible ‘krīḍā-kopād’. The first line then is a tiny bit of a concession – as if mumbled in a low voice – but the next two try valiantly to pin the blame back on the lover: “Yeah ok I got angry…But then he … and he… he’s so…”! The last line then becomes a beautiful rounding of the circle. The classic nindā-stuti!
एकत्रासन-संस्थितिः परिहता प्रत्युद्गमाद् दूरतः
ताम्बूलानयन-च्छलेन रभसाशेल्षो ऽपि संविघ्नितः ।
आलापो ऽपि न मिश्रितः परिजनं व्यापारयन्त्यान्तिके
कान्तं प्रत्युपचारतश् चतुरया कोपः कृतार्थी-कृतः ॥
ekatrāsana-saṃsthitiḥ parihatā pratyudgamād dūrataḥ
tāmbūlānayana-cchalena rabhasāśelṣo ‘pi saṃvighnitaḥ |
ālāpo ‘pi na miśritaḥ parijanaṃ vyāpārayantyāntike
kāntaṃ pratyupacārataś caturayā kopaḥ kṛtārthī-kṛtaḥ ||
“She stood up [as if out of respect] just as he was approaching – that way they couldn’t sit together;
She then rushed off on the pretext of getting the tāmbūlā – his wish to hug her right there was foiled;
She kept calling one or the other servant to instruct them on work, so he couldn’t even make sweet talk
– under the guise of such courtesy, she vented all her anger!”
Ouch! Give us those kicks and screams any day!
Even after all such fights, some moments make it all worth it. Here’s the (second) most beautiful verse of the collection, describing the exact moment when anger dissolves:
एकस्मिन् शयने पराङ्-मुखतया वीतोत्तरं ताम्यतोः
अन्योन्यस्य हृदि स्थिते ऽप्यनुनये संरक्षतोर् गौरवम् ।
दम्पत्योः शनकैर् अपाङ्गवलनान् मिश्री-भवच्-चक्षुषोर्
भग्नो मान-कलिः सहास-रभसं व्यासक्त-कण्ठ-ग्रहम् ॥
ekasmin śayane parāṅ-mukhatayā vītottaraṃ tāmyatoḥ
anyonyasya hṛdi sthite ‘pyanunaye saṃrakṣator gauravam |
dampatyoḥ śanakair apāṅgavalanān miśrī-bhavac-cakṣuṣor
bhagno māna-kaliḥ sahāsa-rabhasaṃ vyāsakta-kaṇṭha-graham ||
“Lying on the same bed, turned away from each other, suffering in silence,
Both wanting to reconcile, but both trying to save face:
Quietly, softly, their side-glances accidentally met, and then their eyes –
and in an instant, the villain Pride was destroyed in their laughter and hearty embraces!”
What a masterpiece! The couple is referred to in ṣaṣṭhī dual case in the first 3 lines – meaning-wise, it gives the feeling of a buildup to a climax (literally, ‘Of those who had turned away and suffering in silence, of those who wanted to reconcile but who were trying to save face, of those whose side-glances met…villain Pride was destroyed!’); sound-wise, the transition at the end of the third line from an elongated ‘o’ to the mahāprāṇa ‘bha’ is pure genius – ‘cakṣuṣo…or bhagno mānakaliḥ!’ it really sounds like Pride is torn apart in that one syllable! We’ve translated ‘māna-kali’ as ‘the villain Pride’. It could as well be ‘the quarrel of pride’ or ‘lover’s quarrel’. We prefer the personified form of ‘kali’ as something that is slain in the moment!
Parting Thought
From statecraft to relationships (sadly), the dynamics of power seem to be lurking only an inch beneath the surface. The Mahābhārata offers some advice:
मृदुम् अप्यवमन्यन्ते तीक्ष्णाद् उद्विजते जनः ।
मा तीक्ष्णो मा मृदुर् भूस् त्वं तीक्ष्णो भव मृदुर्भव ॥
mṛdum api avamanyante tīkṣṇād udvijate janaḥ |
mā tīkṣṇaḥ mā mṛduḥ bhūḥ tvaṃ tīkṣṇaḥ bhava mṛduḥ bhava ||
“People treat softness with contempt, but are agitated by sharpness.
Therefore, be neither [all the time] – be both.”
How might one do this? The US President Theodore Roosevelt had a famous maxim: “Speak softly and carry a big stick”.
Please join the Google Group to subscribe to these (~ weekly) postings:
<https://groups.google.com/group/sadaswada/subscribe?hl=en