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152
Minoru Hara
Makaranda
VII
To sum up the result of our investigation.
Though the contexts we have dealt with above are not always uniform, some being comical and others rather serious, we may classify them in several categories :
(1) Some are economic and practical, the sära being the house of the father-in-law (śvaśura-mandira), and a son (tanaya).
(2) Some are secular : sāra being wealth (vibhava) and success (sri).
(3) Some are hedonistic and erotic, sāra being gambling and women, (stri).
(4) Some are philosophical, sāra being philosophical insight (tattvajñāna and sāttvikī buddhi).
(5) Some are moral, sāra being to keep one's promised words. (6) Some are cultural, sāra being poetical composition (kāvya-karaṇa).
(7) Some are religious, sāra being detachment (vairāgya) and serving gods.
(8) Some are social, sāra being association with good men (satāṁ sanga).
(9) Some are altruistic, sāra being serving others (para-hita, paropakarana).
We notice here that those items which we have picked out of the examples mostly correspond to the Hindu ideals of human life purusārtha (trivarga, or caturvarga), that is, dharma, artha, kama and moksa. Furthermore, this idea of finding sara in asāra samsāra is akin to that of janma-sāphalya (fruitfulness, or the significance of birth as a human being).26
Annotations :
1. Cf. asāro saṁsāro bhanguraṁ sarīram, sāray'abbha-vibbhamas jīviyam tadi
vilasiyānugāri jovvanam, kimpāga-phalovamā bhogā... (Jacobi p. 14, lines 21ff.) janma-marana-roga-soga-pauro asāro saṁsāro (Jacobi p. 35, lines 34ff.)
