________________
FEBRUARY, 1889.)
SOUTH INDIAN SANSKRIT LITERATURE.
45
Vaishnavas and Saivas respectively. In this. avatára or incarnation, half is Hari (Vishņu) and balf Siva (Hara). This is most ingeniously represented in the above verse as Hari stealing away half of Siva. And in the incarnation of Siva as Arddhanåriśvara, half of him is himself and half Pârvati. This is what is meant by the other half of Siva being stolen by Parvati, as the poet cleverly represents it. And of course, when the two halves that make up one Sira disappeared, Siva himself disappeared.
Some orthodox Saivas sometimes criticise the last line of the first verse f a fana: and say it is irreligious of the king, to have spoken about the god as having died. But they make things right by representing that the words fuit and at: can also be separated as FTTT and अमत:. And by the rules of the Vyakarana (हसिप || and अतो गणेशिवः मतः and शिवोअभृतः both become respectively शिवोमृतः॥ In शिवो अमृतः Siva does not die, but only undergoes & sort of poetical death for the occasion; only in the mouth of the Brahmaņ mendicant.
CURIOSITIES OF SOUTH INDIAN SANSKRIT LITERATURE.
BY PANDIT 8. M. NATESA SASTRI, M.F.L.S.
I.-Punning Verses The following two verses, one on Siva and one on Vishņu, are looked upon in Southern India as among the best examples of puns upon words in Sanskrit.
Siva, in his incarnation of Naţêsa, was always going astray with strange women. One night he returned home very late and knocked at the door of the goddess, when the following questions and answers passed between them
कस्त्वं धूली प्रविश भिपजां वेश्म वैधं न जाने स्थाणुले न वदति तरुनीलकंठः प्रमुग्धे । कैकामकां वद त्वं पशुपतिरबले नैव तीक्ष्णे विषाणे
इत्येवं शलकन्याप्रतिवचनजडः पातु मां पार्वतीयः ।। which may be rendered thus :
Parvati.-"Who is it that knocks at the door? Sida.-Sur,
Pârvati-If you are suit go to the doctor's house for treatment, as I do not know medicine.
Siva.--I am Sthanu, my dear. Parvati.--Sthåņu! Trees do not speak.. Siva:--No; I am Nilakantha Parvati.-It so let me hear one of your léká notes: Siva.--No; my dear! I am Pasupati
Parvati.-Then bow is it that I do not see your sharp home.. (Sivs was confused by the natural interpretation given to each of his names by Parvati.) May that lord of Pârvata who stood confused and unable to reply to the questions of the daughter of the king of mountains, protect me!"
The pans here lie in the words 8axi, Sthanu, Nflakantha and. Pabupati. Each of these four means Siva and also a person suffering from stomach-ache, a piece of wood, the peacock, and the bull as the lord of the cattle (cow). When Sivs says that he is salt, Parvati interpreting the word to mean a person buffering from belly-ache, wants her husband to go to the doctor's house as she had not stadied medicine. Sivs then says that he is Sthâņu; and as that word means also 'wood' she wonders and says "if you are & Sthanu you could never have spoken, as trees do not speak." Then Siva has recourse to a third name of his which also unfortunately means a peacock. The word is Niiskaptha. Then Pârvati teases the god and wants to hear one of his kékas—the special name, in Sanskrit, of the peacock's notes all Nflakanthas sing kkas. Once more Siva tells his wife that he is Pasupati which also means a ball.
