Svasti

SR No.: 007006
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Nalini Balbir
Publisher: K S Muddappa Smaraka Trust
Publication Year: 2010
Total Pages: 446
Language: English, Hindi
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 16 MB

Page 137

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SVASTI-Essays in Honour of Prof. Hampa Nagarajaiah
The second half of this stanza was translated by Jacobi: "As Nandana is among parks, so is the Omniscient most famous through his knowledge and virtue." Probably that is what the poet had wanted to say, and Jacobi might have read the variant setthe for settham in his copy of the text and then interpreted ṇandaṇa-m (the -m- being inserted to avoid the hiatus) as a nominative; ähu then would have been inserted as a parenthesis "as they say" (the same construction in v. 21a hatthisu erävaṇa-m ähu nãe). Nevertheless setthe in v 18c as the predicate in the first line belongs to nandana, there is no Prakrit equivalent of Jacobi's "so" (like taha) in v. 18d; and bhüipanne, the subject in v. 18d does not mean "omniscient".
This is not the place for analyzing the grammatical style throughout the whole series of similes, butthese brief comments may suffice to show that v. 18 does not appropiately join to v. 17c.d. This hard transition may be further evidence of scholastic interpolation and possible loss of the poet's original words, for which scholastic interpolation may
have been substituted. -
thaniyam va saddāņa aṇuttaram u camde va tārāṇa mahāṇubhāve/ gandhesu va candanam ähu settham, evam muṇīņam apaḍinṇam ahu // 19 "As thunder is the loudest of sounds, as the moon is of high dignity among the stars, (as) among perfumes sandal is called the best, so among monks (he) is called incomparable".
jahā sayambhu udahīna seṭṭhe nägesu vā dharaṇindam ähu seṭṭham/ kho'odae vă rasa-vejayante tahovahāne muni vejayante // 20
"As (the ocean on which sleeps) Svayambhū is the best of seas, or as among the nāgas Dharanendra is called the best, or (as) the Kṣododa-Ocean (is) the Indraflag of juice, so by his practice of asceticism the monk (Mahāvīra) is an Indraflag."
hatthisu erdvana-m ähu näe siho migānam salilāna gangā/
pakkhisu vā garule veņudeve nivvāṇa-vādīṇ' iha ṇāyaputte //21
"Among elephants Airāvana, as they say, is the leader (and: "famous", cf. v. 18a), the lion (is the leader) of animals, of rivers (it is) the Ganga, of birds (it is) Garuda, the Veņudeva; of them, who teach the Nirvana (it is) this here, the Nāyaputra."
21 In Prakrit, the word naya, of course, as a homonym has the meaning of jñāta and of naya(ka) as well. 22 The compound nirvāṇavādin has, to date, not been verified in dictionaries of Sanskrit or Middle Indian, as far as I know; the Agama Sabdakoşa mentions our stanza, Say. 1, 6,21 only.