Personal grooming 3: The instrument

One of the most important tools in a napita's kit is the nail-parer – a sharp-edged instrument for trimming, filing, and cleaning fingernails and toenails. Shaped like a thin chisel, it is called narun (নরুন) in Bengali and naharni (नहरनी) in Hindi, the Sanskrit origin of both words being nakhaharani (नखहरणी), "nail-remover"; it also has a slew of other Sanskrit names including nakhashastra (नखशस्त्र), nakhadaarana (नखदारण), nakhakartani (नखकर्तनी), and, last but not least, the somewhat poetic nakharanjani (नखरञ्जनी) / nakharanjini  (नखरञ्जिनी), "nail-delighter"! Below is a delightful little snippet where the pun-loving author elevates this rather humble object to sublime heights – all tongue-in-cheek, of course.

Devanagari script:

अनन्तचरणोपान्तचारिणी मलहारिणी|
पुनर्भवच्छेदकरी गङ्गेव नखरञ्जनी||

– वाणेश्वरविद्यालङ्कार​

Harvard-Kyoto transliteration:

 anantacaraNopAntacAriNI malahAriNI| 

punarbhavacchedakarI gaGgeva nakharaJjanI||

– Baneswar Vidyalankar

Interpretation: The nail-parer is just like the (holy river) Ganges because the following Sanskrit adjectives apply to either of them:

• anantacaraNopAntacAriNI (अनन्तचरणोपान्तचारिणी): Ananta (अनन्त) literally means "endless", and is an appellation of Vishnu, especially in his capacity as the regent of the nadir. Hence, as a descriptor of the Ganges, anantacaraNopAntacAriNI should be translated as "she who wanders near the feet of Vishnu" – an allusion to one of the several myths that associate this sacred river with the feet of Vishnu or one of his incarnations; when it qualifies the nakharanjani, the same word should be interpreted as "she who attends to countless feet".
• malahAriNI (मलहारिणी): It means "filth-remover"; the river-goddess is said to purge all bathers / worshipers of their spiritual impurity by her grace, whereas the nakharanjani is used to clean out more mundane dirt from under human nails.
• punarbhavacchedakarI (पुनर्भवच्छेदकरी): punarbhava (पुनर्भव) is "regeneration" or "that which is regenerated", and is hence a fancy word for fingernail / toenail; chedakarI (छेदकरी) is literally "cutter" and figuratively "destroyer" / "terminator" / "interruptor". A ritual dip in the Ganges is believed to grant moksha (मोक्ष) or liberation from the cycle of birth, death and rebirth. 

Source: This epigram is found in several works produced in Bengal in the late 19th / early 20th century. The Bengali-language encyclopedia Bishwakosh (विश्वकोष; বিশ্বকোষ) and the Sanskrit-Sanskrit dictionaries Vacaspatya and Shabda-Kalpadruma quote it in their respective entries for the word नखरञ्जनी. It also occurs as Verse 240 of Udbhata Sagara Part II (which is the only source where I found the attribution to the renowned 18th century Bengali Scholar Baneswar Vidyalankar), and Verse 82 of Udbhata Chandrika Volume I.

Notes: To the best of my knowledge, the traditional Indian nail-parer nakharanjani is different from the razor called kSura (क्षुर) or khura (खुर) used by barbers to shave the scalp and facial hair. I am also not sure if the word nakharanjani in this sense occurs in older Sanskrit literature (or in Sanskrit literature produced outside the Bengal region for that matter); I do know that it is found in the compositions of eminent medieval Bengali Vaishnava poets Chandidasa (चण्डीदास; চণ্ডীদাস) and Govindadasa (गोविन्ददास; গোবিন্দদাস).