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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
(SEPTEMBER, 1894.
[This classification is not mentioned in the Sahitya-darpana. It depends not on the inner but on the outer nature of a woman, and is frequently enlarged on by later writers. The Tantras are full of this classification, women of a particular external nature being necessary for certain of the obscener rites. The Bhasha-bhúshana does not give the distinguishing marks of each class, and those usually given are more or less ladicrous, and are manifestly incomplete as definitions. Mallik Muhammad sums up the classification in a few lines in his Padumarati, and the following abstract of what he says (vv. 501 and ff.) may be given for the sake of completeness.
(1) The Pailmini. The best kind of woman. She has the odour of lotus, thus atracting bees. She is not very tall or very short, very lean or very stout. She has four things long (hair, fingers, eyes and neck), four hight (teeth, breasts, forehead and navel), four thin (nose, loins, waist and lips), and four smooth (cheeks, pyge, wrists and thighs). Her face is like the moon. Her gait that of the swan. Her food is milk, and she is fond of betel and flowers. She has sixteen-sixteenths of all graces.
(2) The Chitrini. The next best kind. She is clever and amorous, and beautiful as a fairy (apsaras). Never angry, always smiling. Her husband is happy with her, and she is faithful to him. Her face is like the moon. Her complexion fair as a waterlily. Her gait that of a swan. She eats milk and sugar, and of them she eats but little. She is fond of betel and Howers. She has fourteen-sixteenths of all graces.
(3) The Sankhini. She eats little but is strong. Her bosom is smooth, her loins are thin, and her heart is full of pride. When she is very angry, she will go so far as to kill her beloved, and never looks forward to the consequences of her actions. She is fond of wearing ornaments herself, but cannot bear to see them on another woman. She walks with a loose gait and her body is covered with down. She loves to eat fat flesh, and hence ber bronth is evil smelling. Her embraces are fiercely passionate..
(4) The Hastini. Her nature is that of an elephant. Her head and feet smooth and her neck is short. Her bosom is lean and her loins large. Her gait is that of an elephant. She cares not for her own liusband, but is always longing for other women's men. She is greedy and wanton, nor cares for purity. She perspires freely drops viscid as honey. She has neither fear nor modesty in her heart, and must be driven with a goad.]
[Note. - In the Bhisha-Thúshana, the word for heroine' is correctly spelled ndyika, in the Sanskrit fashion. In Hindi the word is often spelled nayakd, which looks like bad Sanskrit. The case is, however, not so. It is a good Hindi word. The word náyiká became first, quite regularly, nůžka. The i after a long vowel may be written in Hindi, as ya. Hence an optional form of naika is náyaká.]
Text.
Trividha náyika-varnana. Svakiya vyáhí náyika
parakiya para-ráma Sô samanya náyiká
ja ki dhan só. kúma 11 10 11 Translation.
The Three-fold Classification of Heroines. [Sahitya-darpana, 96-111. The classes correspond to each of the three-fold classification of Heroes given above (v. 8).]
(1) Svakiya, Ono's Own. She is the faithful wife of the Hero.
(2) Parakiya, Another's. She is either the wife of another man, or an unmarried girl under her parents' guardianship. She is subdivided into six species to be subsequently described (vv. 13-15).]
