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MEHENDALE : Damayanti's Svayanivara
485
is described as vilajjamānā.feeling bashful. She is not like Indumati who, on a similar occasion, had almost set aside her bashfulnes (lajja tarūky. tya, Raghu. (Nandargikar's edn. ) 6. 80. And what did Indumati after all do after setting aside her bashfulness? She merely fixed her eyes on Aja (drs!yä kumāram pratyagrah! : ) to indicate her choice, and did not do any. thing to indicate her sexual submission to him.
Insler wrongly construes vastrante with the following jagrāha and therefore wants to chanage vastrante (loc.) to vastrāntam (acc.) which would then serve as an accusative complement to the verb jagrāja. Vastrānte is really to be construed with the preceding vilajjanānā. The accusative compleinent for jagrāha is srajam (and not the imaginary original reading vastrantam) which is also the accusative complement for asrajat. This is clearly shown by the use of ca (āyatalocanā srajani jagrāha skandhailesc assjac ca). Damayanti took the garland (apparently from the plate or from the hands of some one in her retinue ) and released it on the shoulders of Nala. Vilajjamanā vasarānte feelingsly in the end of the garment' means Damayanti expressed her shyness by covering her face a little within the end of her garinent. Drawing forward on the face the cnd of the garment as an act of modesty or as an expression of bashfulness is even now practised in parts of India. Understood this way the whole stanza gets casily construcd without having to do violence to the text and it gives an excellent picture of the conditiou of Damayanti. This picture has been totally distorted by Insler's suggestions,
As for the Raghuvanisa stanza VI. 83 cited by Insler, a dillercat intcr. prctation, more plausible than the one admitted so far, is possible. The stanza says : să (Indumati)... dhātrikarābliyām ... asanjayām āsa yathāpra
# If Damayantidad touched her hivi as imagined by Insler, licr both hands would not
be free to hold the garland and hang it on the shoulder of Nala. F. Bopp (Nalus Vaha.bharati Episodium, 1868, p. 31 ) also construes srajain as the accusative complement both of jagriha and asrjat (" ... Vestis.extremo prehendit ... in humneris deposuit ci scritum ...") although he uoderstands vestrante jagraha differently ( grasped in the cad of the garment "). (I am thankful to Dr. A. M. Ghatage for bringing this to my notice). But it is extremely unlikely that Damayanti would first grasp the garland in the end of her garment and thea deposit it on Nala's
shoulder. G Cf. sū vastrasalnyuddhamukhi lajja ya janasaisadi, Rimū. 6. 102.34. Those who
changed the original vostronte to vastrántam as witnessed in the two MSS, K and B4, also must have understood vilajjamānī vastrinta jagraha as feeling bashful (Damayanti) licld the end of the garment (to draw it a little forward over her face),
Madhu Vidya/486
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