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Bhrigara in Sanskrit Literature
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Albrechi Wezler daksind to Visvamitra, but is also able to clear his debts with this Rşi only with the price he gets by selling his wife, Saivya and his son to a brahmin and in the end selling himself also as servant to a candela. He is then forced to work at a cremation ground in the most abject state for more than a year when the corpse of his son, bitten by a snake, is brought there by the mother, the former queen. At first the parents do not recognize each other (ef. 8, 175: sa fdit rorudarım bharyam nabhyajanat tu parthivoh..... and 176: sapi tam cărukesantam pura drspa jaralakam / nabhyajanan napasula sukuvrkso. pamam nepam // ), but soon both of them become aware of the horrible truth and fall into a swoon. When they regain consciousness, the queen, after having fainted a second time, exclaims (202-203):
with the actual state, and this is done in an artistically skilful manner in verse 203 by making. Saivya expressly state that she looks in vain for what formerly used to indicate her husband's special dignity and might, viz. the insignia of royalty, and clearly blurigara, too, is one of these. For what else should be the reason for mentioning the abluisekapatra along with the umbrella, the chowrie and the fan?
5.4. The observation that, particularly in Nibandha texts, the expression kalasa is often met with instead of bhrig dra (cf. $ 4.2.3 above) permits us to present still another piece of evidence. The Krtyakalpataru contains also what is called a "cilinaridhi", and one of the effects ascribed to this ritual is the following one (198.3 f.):
ha rajan jätasantapam itthom mám daaranitolat ufthapya nadya paryankam aroheti kim uyate il nady a pasyami te chatram bhrigaram athava punah / camaram vajanım capi ko 'yomt vidhiviparyayah II
This is aptly rendered thus by Pargitet: "Ah, king. Why dost thou not now raise me, who am thus afflicted, from the ground and tell me to mount to thy couch ? I do not see this day thy regal umbrella, nor yet thy golden" vase, thy chowrie or fan; what is this revolution ?"
camaran kalasom Sankham satapatra vitanakam
bhavet tu siddhikāmasya napasya phaladayakam 11. Enumerated as it is together with other "utensils for use', which are clearly ensigns of royalty and are mentioned here for none but this very reason, the vessel called kalasa cannot but have the same emblematic function; It, too, is one of the cilnas of the king, and thus indirectly confirms the result achieved with regard to the blirigara. For, whatever the exact relation between the kalasa and the bhrigara in terms of the history of Indian arts and crafts, there should no longer be any doubt that if in fact two different vessels, i. e. vessels of different shape, are referred to by these expressions, one of them has taken the place of the other in the course of time, although their function has remained the same and this function was
The "contrariety of fate", the total change in Hariscandra's circumstances is described by the author by contrasting his former
142. Crverse 8.127 . for the description of Hariscandra when working at the
cremation ground. 143, Note that the parallel in the Dertbhägareta, Skandha 7, adhysya 26 verse 42 old
runs thus: nadya pafranite chiar siqasanam arhdpivall. 144. The Märkandeya Purana transl, with noles by F. E. Pargiter (BF 125). Calcutta
1904, p. 53. 145, Obviously Pargiter still took blyilgära to mean "golden vessel"; cf.
146. Cf. also verse 8.204 ff. 147, Cl. also the section called cineşu devipajavidhi in the Viramitrodaja (cf. $ 4.2.2.
p. 442; both these Nibandha works assert that they are quoting from the
Devipurna. 148, On the conch seeg. Dip, 11.32 and 12.2 (cf. $ 4.2.3); as for the canopy see
$ 3.2 and e. 8. Yuktika. 79 verse 98 ff. vitana-laksanami).
