Gaudavaho

Author(s): Vakpatiraj, Narhari Govind Suru, P L Vaidya, A N Upadhye, H C Bhayani
Publisher: Prakrit Text Society Ahmedabad

Page 477

180
Gaüdavabo
326. Kamsa seized the new-born daughter of Yaśodā exchanged for the child Krsna delivered by his mother Devaki and smashed her on the slab of stone kept for this purpose outside the prison-house. The child, however, flew to the heaven, although so smashed. The goddess, wearing a string of human mouths dripping with blood (HSH), possesses a body, which, as the Poet imagines, is all flabby, dislocated and disjointed by reason of the fact that Kamsa had smashed her body earlier.
327. Selling of human flesh is looked upon as an act of heroism, calculated to give success in an undertaking of importance. We find Mādhava, the hero of Bhavabhūti's drama 'MālatiMadhava', going over to the cemetery and announcing the sale of human flesh (HETHİH) thus —
भो भोः श्मशाननिकेतना: कटपूतना: । अशस्त्रपूतं निर्व्याजं पुरुषाङगोपकल्पितम् ।
famild FETHİRT TETİ TAHGH I Hrosato V–12.
Cf. also देवीश्मशाने वीराः सिद्धये महामांसविक्रयं कुर्वन्तीति कौलागमादिषु SHEH I Com.
328. The fresh piece of bone, full of gravy, excites the appetite of the goddess and makes her mouth water. The goddess is pictured by the Poet as holding the bone in her hand and rolling her tongue over the upper and lower rows of her teeth.
329. maat — The divine mother (htaat). The Com. takes it to mean Cāmundā. ATHHIST of Hemacandra mentions this word as meaning ATGT: or 'Divine mothers ’. VII. 10.
330. Even trees in the courtyard are supposed to do worship of the Goddess by offering blood in the form of sap from their arms viz. branches, when hacked by means of axes by the people.
332. f5Q - Fear, terror. Jeft34 - afsa, faaifa-slaughtered. 6793793 - 1794 *78197 - cloth dyed in red juice.
333. A dead body is supposed to be the vehicle of the goddess. Cf. FaTEAT STCOTTH: 1 For the dead body to serve this purpose, it has to make itself capable of bearing her weight (ETT2017 ) and has, therefore, to infuse strength in itself (37091) by acquiring the facility of breathing even in its condition of a corpse ! A fantastic idea!