Jain Journal 1980 04

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 76

APRIL, 1980
This ingenious etymological explanation goes with what Pt. S. R. Sharma, who kindly introduced me into the Silpaprakasa in Puri, told me, when I asked him about the meaning of dalamalika, though he did not give such a detailed explanation.
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I, however, continue to stand by my translation of dalamalika-'carving of a female who performs a garland in line with the branch of a tree' on account of the following reasons: malika itself is well established in Sanskrit in the sense of 'garland maker', 'gardener', cf. in modern Indian languages 'mali'. From this a feminine form malika can easily be accepted. Malika is also recorded in dictionaries in the sense of 'garland', cf. Monier Williams, PW, Apte, etc. I would also like to refer to the famous passage in the 1st act of Kalidasa's Abhijanasakuntalam where Anasuya mentions the creeper no-malia (Skt. nava-malika) under the name of vana-josini (Skt. vana-jyotsna), the selfselecting bride of the mango tree. Sakuntala remarks upon that: The union of this couple-the creeper and the tree-has taken place at a wonderful moment, the Vanajyotsna is in its youth with its new blossoms and the mangotree appears to be capable of enjoyment on his tender sprouts.
If we only replace nava-malika by malika-'the female performer of a garland' of our Silpaprakasa the striking resemblance of the underlying concept of the two passages becomes apparent. There are also examples among the basreliefs in Bharhut where a salabhanjika-dalamalika appears under a mangotree!
35 Journal of the Indian Society of Oriental Art, Vol.III, No.2, Dec. 1935, pp. 110-124.
Dohada means a pregnancy desire of a woman for particular objects, e.g. the longing to sleep on a bed of flowers, which the mother of Malli-kumari the 19th Jaina Tirthankara had, (cf. Malli-Jnata, 8th chapter in Nayadhammakahao, No.31, 32 of my edition) Mallinatha's commentary on Kalidasa's Meghaduta II, 18 (raktasokas dohadacchadmanasyah) observes : strinam sparsat priyangu vikasati-by the touch of women the Priyangu creeper puts forth blossoms, bakulah sidhugandusasekat-Bakula through the sprinkling of a mouthful of liquor, padaghatad asokas-Asoka through the kick of their feet, tilkakurabakau viksanalinganabhyam-Tilaka and Kurabaka through their glance and embrace, mandaro narmavakyad-Mandara through their pleasure talk, patu-mrdu-hasanac campako-Campaka through their smart and tender laughing, vaktra-vatac cuto-Cuta through the breath of their mouth, gitan nameru vikasati-Nameru puts forth blossoms through their songs, ca puro nartanat karnikarah-and Karnikara through their dancing in front of it. The idea, indicated in the above quoted stanza, that plants and trees put forth blossoms through direct or indirect contact with women is not limited to India. Honore de Balzac undertook to translate rare parchments containing an ancient ecclesiastical trial of the year A.D. 1271, conducted at Tours, from mediaeval French into French. This trial was published among his Les Cent Contes Drolatiques in 1837 under the title The Succubus included in the second ten tales. In this trial a Moorish woman was accused by the Inquisition to be obsessed of a diabolic spirit. One of the witness against her, a day labourer, confessed to the ecclesiastical judge and swore to have been by the windows of the dwellings of the Moorish woman green buds of all kinds in the winter, growing as if by magic, especially roses in a time of frost and other things for which there was need of great heat; but of this he was in no way astonished, seeing that the said foreigner threw out so much heat that when she walked