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ABORI: Amṛtamahotsava Volume
"Seeing that her friend separated from her lover cast a discrete glance10 at the mango-tree in bloom, the confidantes bent down the aśoka-tree and kicked the mango-tree, why then?"
The commentator offers an answer because, as he says, " in this case, the essential meaning is not written in the verse. It is in the heart". The sight of the mango-tree in blossom increases the lonely lady's pain. Her friends know it and this is the reason why they kick the mango-tree out of anger. The well-known literary convention is that when kicked the aśoka-tree bears flowers and indicates the lovers' happiness. If the aśoka-tree is bent, it means the lady's lover will come back. The commentator calls this an instance of rāgadveşa-hrdyam.
Seeing the beggar staring at (her) with eyes wide open, immediately, the young wife exhibited two jati-flowers and placed them on (her) head, why then?"
pecchantam animis'accham pecchia vahuães jhatti bhikkhaaram, damsia kayai[m] si se katto do jäi-kusumaini ? (VMM IV. 13).
The commentator explains the lady's intention. By showing the jätiflowers, she indicates that her birth is as pure as they are. There is also a reason for the number two. She means that her family is pure on both paternal and maternal sides. This gesture is thus a sign of her negative reply to the beggar's overtures.
The formal structure of these stanzas is perhaps not so well characterized as it was in the bhanievviyās. Yet the common features are enough to allow the recognition of a small class.11
3. sazivihanaya
The analysis of this type will show how the boundary between riddle and true poetry of the muktaka-type may disappear. The stanza is no longer formulated as a question.
40
On dara (glossed as iṣat in the "auto-commentary" of the VMM), see PSM s. V. ardha, adhā.
41
atra bhavaḥ sloka-madhye likhito nāsti. kimtu hṛdi vartate, p. 41. 48 To be read
43 To be read.
44
45
ai bhanasu tam alajjams paraloya-viruddhayam imam kaum, ghore tamammi ṇarae gantavvam sambali-vaṇammi (KM 176. 26*).
Other possible representatives of this class would be VMM IV. 11 (in Sanskrit); VL 611 GRK 265; VL 617 GRK 270; GRK 273. V. 1. alajja, vecative.
