Indian Antiquary Vol 62

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, S Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarka
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 85

APRIL, 1933]
KASHMIRI PROVERBS
Heli pethuk shaqdar. The guard just at the time the crop has begun earing. (Said of a person who takes no pains to earn money for himself, but feeds on others' earnings. Warming his hands in other peoples' sunshine.)
Kakawanay che kani shrapan. Partridges alone oan digest a stone. (A strong person has a good appetite.)
Kâh gov doyanas kahi doki chok. Hash chăm zâm chăm kva cum eukh ? Eleven cows are milked, after eleven days I get a little milk; I have got a mother-in-law [and] sister-in-law : what peace have I got?
(Mothers-in-law and sisters-in-law are notorious for ill-treatment, of their daughters-in-law.)
Kalidasas chu panani vizi wunan. Kalidasa falls into error in his own case. (I.e., a wise person sometimes makes
& bad mistake.)
Kalidasa, who was at he court of King Bhoja of Malvå about the end of the tenth century A.D., is said to Lave gone to Ceylon to 89e the king of that island, named Kumaradasa. This king was a good poet and had sent a copy of his own poem Janaki. harang as a present to King Bhoja. This poetic work pleased Kalidasa very much, and he became anxious to make the personal aoquaintance of the author. He went to Ceylon and there he was staying in an old woman's house. King Kumaradasa used to pay frequent visits to Matara, and when he was there he always stayed in a certain beautiful house. During one of these visits he wrote two lines of unfinished poetry on the wall of the room where he had lived. Under it he wrote that the person who could finish this piece of poetry satisfactorily would receive a high reward from the king. Kalidasa happened to see these lines when he came to this house in Mâtara, and he wrote two lines of beautiful poetry under the unfinished lines of the king. He was in hope that his friend, king Kumaradása, would be well pleased with this and would recognizo his friend's poetry. But the unfortunate poet had not the pleasure of getting either reward or praise from the king, because the authorship of the lines was claimed by a woman in the same house, who had seen Kalidasa writing them. She secretly murdered Kalidasa and claimed the reward, stating that the lines were her own. But nobody would believe that the woman could have written such poetry, which could have only been the work of a real poet. The king, when he saw the lines, said that nobody but his friend Kalidase would be able to understand him so well and to complete in such an exoellent way the poetry which he (the king) had written, and he asked where Kalidasa was, so that he might hand over to him the promised reward. Nobody knew where he was. At last search was made everywhere and, to the great sorrow of every one, his body, which had been hidden, was found. One can hardly imagine how sad King Kumâradasa was when he beard that Kalidasa had been murdered, for he had loved him much both as poet and as friend. A very grand funeral pyre was erected, and the king lit the pyre with his own hands. When he saw the body of his dear friend consumed by the flames, he lost his senses altogether through his great grief and, to the horror of all the people assembled, he threw himself on the funeral pyre and was burnt with his friend (see page 147 of Stories from the History of Ceylon by Mrs. Higgins).
Kavas ta kani myul karun. To make the crow and the stone join together. (Said of an unexpected oocurrence.)