Indian Antiquary Vol 18

SR No.: 032510
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: John Faithfull Fleet, Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 454
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 19 MB

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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[FEBRUARY, 1889.
The witty arrangement of the names of the dead persons confused the king. He seriously began to think that, when Bhakkaņda dies, Bhậpati, i.e. he himself, must die next. So he pardoned Bhukkaņda. This verse is quoted as an instance of ready wit, though there is not much logic in it.
LEGEND VII. In the Maisar Darbar, during the days of Krishnaraja Udaiyar, a certain Pandit concluded a verse with the words of Praha 1-"She looks with her eyes a little shut," and wished his fellow Pandits to patch up the verse on the condition that the verse was to be natural and treat of a thing without sentiments of love. One of the Pandits rose up and said:
गहनेषु करीषवांछया विचरती किल तिन्वणीफलं ।
परिचयॆ पुलिंदसंदरी दरमीलन्नयना विलोकते ॥ "While searching for cakes of dried cattle-droppings in the forest, a pulinda (hunter) woman comes across a tamarind fruit and when tasting it, she looks with her eyes a little shut."
The allusion here is to the fact that, when anything acid is eaten, the nerves of the cheeks and the eyes contract and make the eater half shat his eyes for a second or two. The peculiarity of the above verse is that it is without sentiments of love, as is always the case when women in Sanskpit literature are represented as looking with half-shut eyes.
LEGEND VIII. King Bhoja was seated one day among the learned Pandits in his assembly, when a poor Bråhman presented himself before his majesty. Mendicants can be distinguished by their very faces, so the king said to him Hrafer!“Whence have you come, O Brahman
P T at 791 "I have come from Kailasa, 0 king." Then his majesty asked him-Free get a "Is Siva there doing well then ?" And our Brahman hero replied Tarta. "No, There is none there. Siva is dead and gone."
The king was apparently startled and wishing to confound the Brahman asked him "What had become of the several things which were in Siva's person if he had died P" Whereon the Brahman repeated the following verse which is unparalleled for its beauty among such effusions :
अर्दू दानववैरिणा गिरिजयाप्य ,हरस्याहृतम् देवेत्थं दिवि भूतले पुरहराभावे समुन्मीलात । गंगा सागरमंबरं शशिकला नागाधिपाः भ्भातलम्
सर्वज्ञत्वमधीश्वरत्वमगमत्त्वां मां च भिक्षाटनम् ॥ “Half of Siva was taken away by the enemy of the Dânavas (Vishņu); the daughter of the mountain (Pârvati) too took away half of Hara (Siva) to her own body. Thus the conqueror of Tripura, the great Siva, was swallowed up in the heavens (by Vishņu) and on the earth by Pârvati, and became a cypher. He had the Ganges on his head; she went to the ocean as her lord. He had the moon-disc on his head; she went to the sky. He had several serpentlords (as his ornament); they went to the nether world. He had the mastery of learning and the lordship of wealth; they came to you, O King! And lastly, Siva was a mendicant; and he bequeathed his mendicancy to me."
Thus replied the Brahmaņ, most truely accounting poetically for the way in which Siva disappeared, and hinting very cunningly that, because Bhoja was a wealthy and learned king, he had come there to beg. The king, who wished to confound the Brahman by dragging him into unnecessary questions, was himself confounded. He rewarded the Brahman amply, and sent him away.
In the above verse, the half of Siva being taken away by Vishạn is merely a poetical fiction. There is a god Hari-Hara, sometimes called Vishạn and sometimes Siva, by the