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ehtagam T; ettaga S.
254
Not wishing to rob her husband who was poor but had high notions of his birth, of this delusion, the house-wife was angry at her own relatives when they arrived with pomp and splendour.
I suggest to take chaht in chahim...rakkhamt in the sense of 'delusion' (i.e. about his own greatness). Compare Skt chaya 'hallucination' in Susruta-Samhita 1.114, 13, 15 (PW: 'Schattenbild, Hallucination"). For the meaning given to rakkha-, compare the expression papaan...rakkhanto in Gatha 122, "protecting", 1.e. "not wishing to hurt" the affection (his first wife has for him)'.
chahi is restricted to and B, the other MSS having chaam. There are reasons to assume that chahim is actually a retention.. It is in any case difficult to see why, if the text originally had chaam, the latter was replaced by the more difficult form chahim (no clear explanation of the form chaht beside chaa is available; see *37). There was no necessity to do so from the point of the meaning of the word either. chahi occurred side by side with chaa.
If chahT is indeed original here, one has to explain what in this particular instance could have been behind its change into chaa. The fact that this change took place independently in the South as well as the North-Indian branch points to an external factor. In this connection the traditional interpretations of the word should be considered. (Unfortunately in Madhavayajvamisra's commentary in MS Ma nothing specific is found in relation to chahim.) Bhuvanapala (ISt., p. 42) apparently takes the word in the sense of 'complexion': vailaks (y)ena ma malinimanam Systu iti nijabahdhavebhyo as@yati, in order to prevent (the husband) from acquiring a dark complexion from embarrassment she shows anger to her own relatives'. In S (Retr., p. 360) and in E and m (Ed., p. 15) the word is glossed with mahatmyam; in G (Retr.. p. 360) with mahattvam. 'Greatness' can here only denote the image. which the husband thinks he projects. As such the meaning of these glosses comes very near to that of 'delusion' suggested above. The gloss kirti 'fame' for chaa found in DesTn. III 34 may well have been based
