Transformations

Today's quote is a product of a society in which it was not uncommon for an upper-caste man to take multiple wives, some of whom were underage; so, I apologize in advance if it offends or distresses anyone.

Devanagari text:

अतिवत्सला सुशीला सेवाचतुरा मनोऽनुकूला च|
अजनि विनीता गृहिणी सपदि सपत्नीस्तनोद्भेदे||

– गोवर्धनाचार्य

Harvard-Kyoto transliteration:

ativatsalA suzIlA sevAcaturA mano*nukUlA ca|
ajani vinItA gRhiNI sapadi sapatnIstanodbhede||

– govardhanAcArya

Loose translation: The (older) housewife suddenly became overly affectionate, good-tempered, adept in serving (her husband), and humble – in short, a woman after her husband's own heart – as soon as her (much younger) co-wife started developing full breasts.

Source: 12th century Aryasaptashati (आर्यासप्तशती) Verse 2.

Imperfections

Rama and Sita are the leads of one of the most popular and enduring literary creations of humankind, the epic Ramayana. The climax of the main narrative is Rama's defeat of the rakshasa king Ravana (who had abducted Rama's wife Sita) with the help of an army of vanaras, who can best be described as a race of anthropomorphic tailed primates. This story has been told and retold over millennia across national borders in multiple languages, and most authors have extolled the flawless physical beauty and the impeccable character of each half of the couple. However, if we are to believe the following two verses, the female denizens of the vanara kingdom did discover a shortcoming in each of them that they found quite distressing.

Rama's defect:
Devanagari text:

रामोऽयमस्माकमतीवमोदनः कपिप्रियाणां गुणरूपचेष्टितैः|
हृद्यैरतुल्यातिशयैः सहानुजः किन्त्वस्य नास्मान्सुखयत्यपुच्छता||

Harvard-Kyoto transliteration:

ramo*yamasmAkamatIvamodanaH kapipriyANAM guNarUpaceSTitaiH|

hRdyairatulyAtizayaiH sahAnujaH kintvasya nAsmAnsukhayatyapucchatA||

– Anonymous

Loose translation: This Rama, accompanied by his younger brother, immensely delights us, the wives of simians, with his good qualities, handsome features, and conduct, which are heart-touching and beyond compare; what does not impress us at all is his lack of a tail.

Source: Quoted as an example of comical poetry in Kavyakaustubha, "the magical gem of poetry", an 18th century treatise on rhetoric by Baladeva Vidyabhushana, a prominent figure in Gaudiya Vaishnavism.

Sita's defect:
Devanagari text:

या एव सीतां ददृशुस्तदानीं रूपं मनोज्ञं प्रशशंसुरस्याः|
पश्चात् सुपुच्छं त्वनवेक्ष्य जग्मुः परं विषादं कपियोषितस्ताः||

Harvard-Kyoto transliteration:

yA eva sItAM dadRzustadAnIM rUpaM manojJaM prazazaMsurasyAH|

pazcAt supucchaM tvanavekSya jagmuH paraM viSAdaM kapiyoSitastAH||

– Anonymous

Loose translation: Every simian female who saw Sita, immediately started singing praises of her enchanting appearance; but, before long, they noticed that she did not have a beautiful tail, and all sank into profound sadness.

Source: Kavivacanasudha verse 214.

Notes: Of course these are imaginings of relatively modern poets trying to put a humorous twist on a familiar tale; the vanaris in almost all versions of the Ramayana are far too wise to view the absence of a caudal appendage on a human body as a deformity.

Pandit Tarakumar Kabiratna, the compiler of Kavivacanasudha, gives some context to the episode described in the second couplet: It happened after Sita was rescued from captivity and introduced to the wives of the monkey chieftains at Kishkindha. Here is his simple Bengali rendering:

সীতারে উদ্ধারি যবে শ্রীরাম আনিল,

যতেক বানরী তারে দেখিতে আইল;
জানকীর রূপ গুণ যে যে নিরখিল,
শতমুখে সকলেই প্রশংসা করিল;
সুন্দর লাঙ্গুল কিন্তু নাহি হেরি তায়,
 যতেক বানরী শেষে করে হায় হায়।

Double entendre 4: Corrigenda and bonus

First of all, I would like to update my notes on the verse I quoted in my previous post, based on the Modern Standard Hindi translation and explanation of Vajjalaggam by the scholar Vishwanath Pathak, published in 1984:

The Prakrit adjective candaNavaliyaM (चन्दणवलियं), when it describes an actual pestle, should be interpreted as "made of sandalwood" rather than "smeared with sandalwood paste"; kaJci (कञ्चि) refers to an iron ring fitted to a wooden pestle (called sem, सेम, in Hindi, according to Pathak, although I found no support for this claim in any of the Hindi dictionaries I consulted) or the corona of the glans penis.

And now, to make up for my errors in the previous post, here is another quote from the same chapter of Vajjalaggam. The following would be the words of a young woman sharing her frustrations with her peers ... or perhaps just bragging.

Maharashtri Prakrit text in the Devanagari script:

भमिओ चिरं असेसो गामो मइ सहियओ सयं वारं|
गेहुक्खलपरिमाणेण मामि मुसलं चिय न दिट्ठं||

Harvard-Kyoto transliteration:

bhamio ciraM aseso gAmo ma-i sahiyao sayaM vAraM|
gehukkhalaparimANeNa mAmi musalaM ciya na ditthaM||

– Anonymous

Sanskrit translation in the Devanagari script:

भ्रान्तश्चिरमशेषो ग्रामो मया सख्यः शतवारम्|
गेहोलूखलपरिमाणेन मामि मुषलमेव न दृष्टम्||

– रत्नदेव

Harvard-Kyoto transliteration:

bhrAntazciramazeSo grAmo mayA sakhyaH zatavAraM|

geholUkhalaparimANena mAmi muSalameva na dRSTam||

– ratnadeva

Loose translation: Friends! I have scoured the entire village a hundred times – I am yet to see a pestle that matches the mortar in my home in size.

Source: Vajjalaggam Verse 541.

Double entendre 4: The pestle

One of the oldest, simplest, most useful and universal household utensil sets known to the human race is the mortar and pestle called उलूखल, ulUkhala, and मुषल, muSala, respectively, in Sanskrit. It comes in a variety of shapes, sizes, and materials, and is generally used by housewives to grind culinary herbs and grains, and by traditional healers for their medicinal preparations. In fact, so great was the importance of the pestle in the life of some poets of the Subcontinent that there is an entire chapter in the ancient Prakrit anthology Vajjalaggam dedicated to it, unless of course you read between the lines. 

Maharashtri Prakrit text in the Devanagari script:

चन्दणवलियं दिढकञ्चिबन्धणं दीहरं सुपरिमाणं|
होइ घरे साहीणं मुसलं धन्नाणं महिलाणं||

Harvard-Kyoto transliteration:

candaNavaliyaM diDhakaJcibandhaNaM dIharaM suparimANaM|
ho-i ghare sAhINaM musalaM dhannANaM mahilANaM||

– Anonymous

Sanskrit translation in the Devanagari script:

चन्दनवलितं दृढकाञ्चीबन्धनं दीर्घं सुपरिमाणं|
भवति गृहे स्वाधीनं मुषलं धन्यानां महिलानाम्||

– रत्नदेव

Harvard-Kyoto transliteration:

candanavalitaM dRDhakAJcIbandhanaM dIrghaM suparimANaM|

bhavati gRhe svAdhInaM muSalaM dhanyAnAM mahilAnaM||

– ratnadeva

Loose translation: Fortunate is the woman who has in her house a long pestle of excellent girth, smeared with sandalwood paste, and tightly ringed with a girdle (kaNcI; काञ्ची), under her control.

Source: Vajjalaggam Verse 538, the first quote in the musalavajjA (मुसलवज्जा), "the chapter on the pestle". This compendium is a veritable treasure trove of slang, risqué puns, and innuendos from a bygone era.

Notes: Sandalwood paste has been used in South Asia since antiquity as a cooling and aromatic unguent, and of course for ritual markings; the above verse suggests that it was used not just on the body but also on kitchen tools such as pestles (presumably to mask the pungent odors the latter acquired from the spices they were used to grind). 

काञ्ची (kaNcI) usually refers to a girdle that adorns the waist of a woman or a child. What can be inferred from the quoted snippet is that this word was also applied to a similar ornament for pestles (perhaps the larger ones) as well as to a decorative (or probably climax-delaying) device used by men. Quite understandably, definitive information on such topics is hard to come by.

This is one of the extremely rare examples of the objectification of the male body in ancient Indic literature. 

Morning rituals 2

Unlike the poseurs chastised here, the subjects of today's quote are not faking it – they are, in fact, absorbed in deep meditation, and enjoying every moment of it.

Devanagari text:

स्नानं सिन्धुजले विधाय जनतासन्ने निषण्णस्तटे 
काषायेण घनावगुण्ठिततनुः प्राप्तः परिव्राजकः|
सूपापूपघृतोत्तरा मधुमती भिक्षा यतो लभ्यते
यस्मिन् वा गतभर्तृका युवतयस्तत्तद्गृहं ध्यायति||

Harvard-Kyoto transliteration:

snAnaM sindhujale vidhAya janatAsanne niSaNNastaTe

kASAyeNa ghanAvaguNThitatanuH prAptaH parivrAjakaH|

sUpApUpaghRtottarA madhumatI bhikSA yato labhyate

yasmin vA gatabhartRkA yuvatayastattadgRhaM dhyAyati||

– Anonymous

Loose translation: After taking a ritual bath in the water of the ocean (or a large river) and wrapping himself snugly in a saffron-colored cloth, the elderly wandering mendicant sits down on the shore (or the bank) in full view of the crowd, and contemplates houses where he may obtain broth, cakes, ghee, and honey as alms, or may come across young women whose husbands are away.

Source: 13th century Suktimuktaavali Chapter 89 Verse 14. The anthologist himself attributes the snippet to Suktisahasra (सूक्तिसहस्र), "a collection of a thousand good sayings", which, to the best of my knowledge, is otherwise unknown.

Notes: I have translated apUpa (अपूप) simply as "cake" because the word apparently covers a wide range of sweet and savory snacks: according to many lexicons, the round cake of ground rice called puroDAz (पुरोडाश्) offered in a Vedic sacrifice, and according to the renowned scholar V. S. Apte, "a small round cake of flour, meal etc. (Marathi वडा, घारगा, अनरसा etc.) thicker than ordinary cakes and mixed with sugar and spices". 

Moreover, "elderly" is my reading of प्राप्तः since the negative अप्राप्त often describes someone who is not of age yet.