Vajjalaggam

SR No.: 020873
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: M V Patwardhan
Publisher: Prakrit Text Society
Publication Year: 1969
Total Pages: 706
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 11 MB

Page 338

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is understood only by exceptionally clever people (i.e. by literary connoisseurs).
3. THE SECTION ON POETRY
273
15) The poor (unfortunate) gāthā laments when it is being learnt by uneducated rustics. It is tortured (harassed) like a cow being milked by ignorant (unpractised) milkmen.
16) Oh gāthā, you will be mutilated (disfigured) or be even degraded (corrupted or spoiled) (shortened) like a piece of sugar-cane being nibbled and munched hard and forcefully by the teeth of a rustic.
17) Not to appreciate the charm of the gathas, of songs (vocal music), of the notes of the lutes and of grown-up ladies-well, that itself is a great punishment (for those miscreants).
18) That which is done (composed or rendered) by those who do not know the metre (and also the whim of the master), ---well, that is anything but charming (fruitful, effective); what is it? The gatha or service? Or rather both the gatha and service.
3. The Section on Poetry
19) Gems in the form of poems are produced (or emerge) when the vast and unfathomable ocean in the form of the poet's mind is churned with the Mandara-rod (churning-rod-like Mandara mountain) in the form of cogitation (contemplation).
20) That alone is (real) poetry, which, beautified by words bright (effective) with (exquisite) arrangement, and full of emotional appeal, warms up every breast (heart), like the waistband (girdle) of a woman playing the role of man (in sexual intercourse), which (waist-band) brightens up the woman's feet because of its lustrous gems, which produces a tinkling sound, and which warms up (causes to glow with passion) the opponent (i.e. the partner in sexual intercourse) (or which torments the rival wife).
21) We never become satiated with the delight which springs from Prakrit poetry, from the utterances of clever people VL...18