Setubandha

Author(s): Krishnakant Handiqui
Publisher: Prakrit Text Society Ahmedabad

Page 74

INTRODUCTION
which the sap has a toxic effect on fish (7.66)1 ; cardamom plants growing on the seashore (1.62, 63)2; and the flavouring of wine with lotus blossoms (12-14).
The process of tempering iron by dipping it red-hot into cold water is referred to in Setu 14.19. Quicksilver is mentioned in 9.68 and realgar in 7.59 and 12.5. There might be a reference to mica (abhra) in 10.49, but this reading found in Ramadasa is not followed by other commentators.
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1 The Madana plant is mentioned in works like the Dhanvantariyanighantu and Rajanighantu (Anandasrama ed., p. 39), Madanapalanighantu (Cal. ed., p. 49), and Hemacandra's Nighantu'sesa, vv. 126-7 (Ahmedabad, 1968). Phala is one of the many names of the tree; and it is called madanphal or maynaphal in Bengali, and mainphal in Hindi. It is a small horny tree with various medicinal properties, the ripe fruit being used as an emetic. Biswas, Bharatiya Vanauṣadhi (in Bengali), Vol. 2, p. 273, Calcutta Univ., 1951; Dutt, The Materia Medica of the Hindus, pp. 178, 309. Calcutta, 1922, Roxburgh adds: The fruit when ripe looks like a small yellow apple; if bruised and thrown into ponds where there are fish, they are soon intoxicated, and seen floating. If this is done during the hot season, it is said, the fish generally die, but if during the wet or cold season they recover. Fishermen sometimes follow this mode to enable them to take the fish with more ease.' Flora Indica, p. 240. Reprint. Calcutta, 1874. Hemacandra (op. cit.) gives matsyantakaphala as one of the names of the Madana tree, Pravarasena, however, says in Setu 7.66 that the fish were tossing about helplessly, being intoxicated by the sap of the broken Madana trees thrown into the sea. The information given by him seems to be based on a slightly different tradition, or perhaps on personal observation.
2 Cf. Vakpati 417: ela-surahimmi jalahi-vela-vaṇantammi.
3 Cf. Bharavi 9.51, 56; Byhat samhita 76,1 (sotpalam madhu).
4 Pravarasena calls such iron niddhoa (nirdhauta), explained by Ramadasa as nirdhautam dahottaram jale kṣiptam. This method of tempering iron is mentioned in the Ardhamagadhi canon, being called pajjana (pāyana). Abhayadeva in his comm. on Nāyādhammakahão, chap. 7 (tikkhehim nava-pajjanaehim asiehim lunanti) remarks: नवं प्रत्ययं पायनं लोहकारेणातापितं कुट्टित तीक्ष्णधारीकृतं पुनस्तापितानां जले निबोलन aia: Nāyādhamma ed. Vaidya, p. 86, Poona, 1940; Jñātādharmakathāngam, Part 1, p. 126, ed. Candrasägar, Bombay, 1951. The reference is to sharp, newly tempered sickles; i.e., these were heated and plunged in water to get the required degree of hardness. Homer likewise speaks of a big axe or an adze hissing as it is dipped red-hot in water to temper it. (Odyssey IX 391ff.). Homer uses the verb pharmassien in this sense, but the process is called also baphe (dipping) with which may be compared pajjana payana (causing or giving to drink) DN 6.11 gives pajjana. in the sense of drinking.