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resting on my chest! This is nothing but heaven paying me a visit. "29
These highly selective references to ornaments, in turn, agree with the predilection the author shows for certain parts of the female body; e.g., breasts and hips, as in:
vacasi bhavati sanga-tyāgam uddiśya vārttā śruta-mukhara-mukhānāṁ kevalaṁ paņditānām / jaghanam aruņa-ratna-granthi-kāñci-kalāpam kuvalaya-nayanānāṁ ko vihātuṁ samarthaḥ //147/1 “Talk about renunciation of attachments only occurs in the speech of learned men whose mouths are eloquent with learning. Who can forake the hip, girdled with knots of rubies, of lotus-eyed women ?" (Bailey 1994:17)
A well-integrated poetic personality thus emerges - one that has its definite preference points or eye-catchers, which are common and easy to notice but which imply that the living and the moving are more important than the artificial and the unresponsive.
$3.6 When the preceding observation is conveyed to him a historian with an interest in material culture may conclude that the references to artificial physical ornaments are sparse and general - there are not many' specific words denoting variety in the categories of necklaces, anklets etc.— probably because not many ornaments of the artificial physical type were known. A sholar specialising in the sociolinguistics of ancient India may conclude that the references tend to be general because Sanskrit in BH's time was a literary language not frequently employed to speak of objects of the everyday
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