Madhuvidya

Author(s): S D Laddu, T N Dharmadhikari, Madhvi Kolhatkar, Pratibha Pingle
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 592

(i) one of these variants is suggested by the commentary of Mallinātha. Its presence is felt in stanza 53. The first line, which is intended by Kalidāsa to explain the formation of the word kșatra, reads as : kșatát kila trāyata ity udagrah kșatrasya śabdah bhuvanesu rūdhaḥ. While commenting on this line Mallinātha starts with the derivation of the root noun ksat from the root kşan '10 injure' (hiṁsāyām) and then adds, to explain the compound, "one who protects from destruction is ksatra'' (kṣato nasāt trāyata iu ksatrah). It is thus clear that Mallinātha looks upon the two constitutents of the compound to be kşat + tra and not kşata + tra as implied by the reading of the stanza given above. Mallinātha in his commentary is completely silent about the formation of the word ksata. Hence we must say that he either overlooked the word kşata used by Kālidăsa, or had before him a different reading of the stanza, viz. kşatah kila träyata ... That in his commentary as printed today the words kșatād ity adina and kșatåt trayate also occur could be explained as an addition made by some later scribe who wanted to bring the commentary in line with the usually accepted text. That this in fact must have been the case is made clear by the fact that the scribe forgot to carry out this correction' a few lines later where we still read kşatas tränam (and not kşatât trånam) akurvataḥ, which is in conformity with the suggested reading.
(ii) Another possibility of a variant reading is felt in stanza 59 of the second canto. The stanza reads as follows : tatheti gåm uktavate dilipah... haraye svadeham upănayat ... This is naturally understood as: "To the lion who had said the words 'be it so' Dilipa offered his body". The word go has to be taken to mean 'speech, words'. But in the principal incident that is described in this canto we hear what is happening to Nandini, and in that description we come across, besides of course the word dhenu, the word go to refer to her (29, 48, 61).
It is therefore very unlikely that Kalidasa would choose to use the word go in this description in another sence 'speech'. Moreover, there is
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