Book Title: Halas Sattasai
Author(s): Hermen Tieken
Publisher: Leiden

Previous | Next

Page 242
________________ 229 The first line would refer to a specific bad omen, which, however, does not seem to be otherwise known. Admittedly, I have not been able to check śrngāratilaka 4, 5 (Gieldemeister), which according to Weber would contain 'eine gewisse Analogie zum Inhalt des Verses' (Retr., p. 356). In the second line a pun would be made on the compound kālasāra, which beside 'antilope' also means 'eye' ('having a black -- kāla -- pupil -- sāra'); and vāhāulian meaning 'troubled by a hunter' (vyādha), on the one hand, and 'troubled by tears' (bāşpa), on the other. For this interpretation Weber relied in the first place on Kulanātha's commentary: yātrāsamaye eko'pi krsnamrgaḥ pradakşiņas calan vyādhenānudruto 'pyaśāk un atvena gamanavighnań karoti; vāşpākulitań, pakşe vyādhākulitań (Abh., p. 82). Apparently the other commentaries concur. The same interpretation is found in Madhavayajvamiśra's commentary found in MS Ma. However, a closer look at the vocabulary of especially the first line might suggest quite a different idea. At least two words can be positively identified as technical terms relating to boardgames, such as Indian chess, backgammon or Caturanga. However, in the end there remains for me a problem to combine these terms meaningfully in order to make identification possible. Thus, kālasāra (Skt kālas āra) is the common term for a black (kala) piece (śāra) in the Indian boardgames. The other term is paāhiņa (pradakşiņa) in paāhiņavalaṁto; it refers to the 'clockwise' movement of certain pieces (Thieme, 1962: 205). In this connection also gam- (in gaṁtun) and val- (in valaito) are interesting. It is possible that the pair refers to particular but opposite movements. Compare Thieme's (212-3) analysis of the terms gama and cara, occurring in Balabhārata II 5, 14: 'moving clockwise' and 'moving counterclockwise', or vice versa. If val- (or perhaps we should read cal- as found in U and B, as paleographically the distinction is almost insignificant) is indeed a technical term for a movement in a specific direction, then the addition of paāniņa 'clockwise' would be redundant. Alternatively, it is possible to take gam- in the meaning 'to escape', which would in any case much better suit the content of the present Gatha: If only one black piece, (by) making a clockwise movement,

Loading...

Page Navigation
1 ... 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298