Monday, March 21, 2016

Double entendre 2

This little gem is another example of the apahnuti (अपह्नुति) or "say-and-deny" class of verses that uses puns to misguide the reader.

Devanagari text:
 सीत्कारं शिक्षयति व्रणयत्यधरं तनोति रोमाञ्चम्|
नागरिकः किमु मिलितो न हि न हि सखि हैमनः पवनः||
 धर्मदास
Harvard-Kyoto transliteration:

sItkAraM zikSayati vraNayatyadharaM tanoti romAJcam|
nAgarikaH kimu milito na hi na hi sakhi haimanaH pavanaH||
 dharmadAsa

Loose translation: 
Woman 1: He instructs me to hiss, scars my lips, and gives me goosebumps.
Woman 2: Would that be your secret lover, when he makes love to you?
Woman 1: Not at all, dear friend, it is the winter breeze!

SourceShaarngadharapaddhati (शार्ङ्गधरपद्धति) Verse 524. This anthology was compiled in 1363 CE by Shaarngadhara (शार्ङ्गधर), the royal preceptor of 'Hammirabhupati (हम्मीरभूपति) of Sakambhari (शाकम्भरी)', i.e. the Rajput king Hammir Dev Chauhan. It is in this compendium that the attribution to Dharmadasa is found.

The couplet under consideration has found its way into later anthologies like the Subhashita Ratnakara and the Subhashita Ratna BhandagaraIt is also quoted as an example of the apahnuti figure of speech in several treatises such as Alankara Shekhara (अलङ्कारशेखर) of Keshava Mishra (केशवमिश्र) and Kuvalayananda (कुवलयानन्द) of Appayya Dikshitar (अप्पय्यदीक्षित), both belonging to the 16th century.

Notes: The wordplay works here because all Sanskrit words for 'wind' (in particular, pavana, that is used here) are in the masculine gender. 

The variant kiM milito (किं मिलितो) instead of kimu milito (किमु मिलितो) in the second half is also frequently encountered.

3 comments:

  1. My favorite verse of the type :) From Vidyākara's collection.

    "dhvastaṃ kena vilepanaṃ kucayuge? kenāñjanaṃ netrayor?
    rāgaḥ kena tavādhare pramathitaḥ? keśeṣu kena srajaḥ?" ।
    "tenāśeṣajanaughakalmaṣamuṣā nīlābjabhāsā sakhi"
    "kiṃ kṛṣṇena?" "na yāmunena payasā kṛṣṇānurāgas tava" ।।

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