Wednesday, April 27, 2016

The destroyed haystack

Devanagari text:
दलिते पलालपुञ्जे वृषभं परिभवति गृहपतौ कुपिते|
निभृतनिभालितवदनौ हलिकवधूदेवरौ हसतः||
 गोवर्धनाचार्य

Harvard-Kyoto transliteration:

dalite palAlapuJje vRSabhaM paribhavati gRhapatau kupite|
nibhRtanibhAlitavadanau halikavadhUdevarau hasataH||
 govardhanAcArya

Loose translation: When the farmer discovered that his haystack was undone and started punishing his bull in a fit of rage (assuming the latter to be the culprit), his wife and his younger brother glanced at each other's faces surreptitiously and smiled.

Source: Aryasaptashati (आर्यासप्तशती) Verse 302. As the name suggests, this work is a collection of 700 independent verses all written in the arya (आर्या) meter by Govardhana Acharya under the auspices of Lakshmana Sena (लक्ष्मणसेन) of Bengal in the 12th century CE.

Notes: In case you didn't get it, the poor bull was innocent – it was the wife and her brother-in-law who had just had a literal romp in the hay while the clueless cuckold was away!

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