Love or Leave Bhartuharis Dilemma

Author(s): Ashok Aklujkar
Publisher: ZZ_Anusandhan

Page 28

अनुसंधान - १७•28
find out if any of them mention an ornament as a thing stimulating the poet directly.
36. The almost exclusive engagement with the beauty of eyes in stanzas 100 (vāmākṣi, bhrū-latā), 280 (mṛgākṣi), 287 (kuvalaya-dṛṣ), 336 (vāmanayanā) and 341(atrasta-kuranga-śāva-nayanā) should also be noted in this context.
37. The only difference in Miller 1967:61 is at this point and it is minor. Her translation there reads "and sport."
38. I have adopted the following translation by Bailey (1996:206) with changes necessitated by the grammar of the original:
"Eyes curved by her dextrous brows, side glances, affectionate words, laughs ending in coyness, playfully languorous whether moving or still. This is both ornament and weapon of woman.'
39. This naturally makes me wonder about what India of our times has done to herself with a rather vulgar interest in ostentatious jewellry seen even is the educated middle class and with the rejection of natural ornaments such as flowers in many parts of north India. How did the transformation come about if indeed there was a transformation on a large scale ?
40. Cf. Miller 1967:xxv-xxix, 1990: 12-13, particularly the remark in the former essay: "... the sententious, reflective epigrams [of Bhartrihari] are not folksy hits of wisdom in verse form. They too are dominated by strict aesthetic controls and a self-conscious idea of art." Bailey (1994:15-25, 1996:202-218) offers several sensitive and insightful analyses of the art present in BH's poems, occasional overreading apart.
41. Miller happily exploits the ambiguity of "attend upon" to connect the items connected in the original with nitamba. Cort (1983:19) provides a pun similar to that of nitamba but translates the rest more freely (albeit appropriately):
"Dispel my doubts, pandit.
Which is better?
Which is proper?
Should I frequent the flanks
of a far mountain
or the flanks of a woman
smiling in the embrace of passion?"
42. I find Miller's (1967:91 = 1990:74) translation of this stanza a
little too free.