________________
222
Satya Vrat
A sentence that Bāņa uses to describe an aspect of Sudrsti's mien, who was one the many persons who had come to meet him, on his return to his native village Pritikūtu, ruos as follows: 378 y radiation : (p. 85). It raises som: difficulty, tarnished as it is by a wee of inaccu. racy. Frequent betel-chewing impacts dark--redness to the lips. If Sudrsti had taken betel very often, his lips should have been tinged with a thick layer (avirala) of red colour. The redness could not have been slight (virala). Therefore either 3185 should be replaced by or to should be emended to 37 , P. V. Kane prefers the first course and additionally substitutes विमल for विरल. While सकदुपयुक्तताम्बूलाविनलाध.कान्तिः yields aper. fectly coherent sense, it does not appear to have bein Bāna's ontginal expression. la view of the wide practice of chewing betel in Bihar, persistently prevalent to this day, it would be better to read 37845947alattia alitafa: Sudrsti's lips were deep ied due to his habit of che. wing betel frequently.
Bāna had an cuaion to allude to the naughty and dull students who performed the religious observances reluctantly and erratically. Thev probably had no regards for such rituals. गलद्ग्रन्थदण्डकोद्गारिणि सन्ध्यां
hagrafa ofazagi? (p. 93) The naughty young ascetics were called by their teachers for evening prayers. Because of the lack of interest in the ceremony they skipped over certain parts of the prescribed texts or what their teachers pronounced for them to repeat (netra: 420E: 2791
141 garna). The old and wearied preceptors did not seem to notice their lapses or they simply ignored the pranks of their mi chevious pupils (Baag aarana). Now such indisciplined, rather rebellious, students could not be expected to listen to the evening prayer attentively (FETT Thà). Haarala, we feel, should be replaced by aszfa. It would mean that they treated the prayers with contempt. This is what they had actually been doing.
The Siikanțba janapada is credited to have sanctified the universe by its numerous merits accruing from vedic sacrifices, which even now occupy a pro ninent place in the cultural life of the region. The clause, as read in the Bombas edition --3719ta#17417T9 Hana 705afazaa: P.95). needs proper analysis. The gunas are poetically believed to be white in colour. The swans have white wings and her ce they (gunas) aru faucied to be swarms of swans. Th: exccution of varius sacrifices re ults into a plethora of virtues. So far so good. Wh le gunas are thus in accord with the
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