Saturday, November 26, 2016

Self-sacrifice

In this snippet, the anonymous poet recounts their conversation with a man who was so dedicated to a cause that he was not just willing to give up his life for it but also actively trying to do so, and that too in one of the most gruesome ways imaginable. 

Devanagari script:
कस्त्वं वृद्ध खलेश्वरोऽहमिह किं घोरे वने वर्तसे
सिंहव्याघ्रवृकादिभिः प्रकृतिभिः खाद्योऽहमित्याशयः|
कस्मात् कष्टमिदं त्वयाध्यवसितं मद्देहमांसाशनाः
प्रागुत्पन्ननृमांसभक्षणधियस्तेऽश्नन्तु सर्वानिति||

Harvard-Kyoto transliteration:

kastvaM vRddha khalezvaro(a)hamiha kiM ghore vane vartase
siMhavyAghravRkAdibhiH prakRtibhiH khAdyo(a)hamityAzayaH
kasmAt kaSTamidaM tvayAdhyavasitaM maddehamAMsAzanAH
prAgutpannanRmAMsabhakSaNadhiyaste(a)znantu sarvaniti||

Loose translation: 
"Who are you, old man?"
"I am the lord of villains?"
"Why are you here in this frightful forest?"
"My intention is to be eaten by animals such as lions, tigers, and wolves."
"Why are you resolved to undergo such suffering?" 
"So that these (beasts), after eating the flesh of my body, first develop a taste for human flesh, and (then) end up devouring all (other) people."

Source: Udbhata Chandrika (1880) Volume 2 Part 1 Verse 24.

Notes: The editor of the above anthology, Chandramohan Tarkaratna Bhattacharya, expounds on the construct प्रागुत्पन्ननृमांसभक्षणधियः as follows: प्राक् प्रथमम् उत्पन्ना नृमांसभक्षणे मानुषमांसभोजने धीः बुद्धिः प्रवृत्तिरिति यावत् येषां, i.e. प्रागुत्पन्ना is an adjective of धीः inside this bahuvrihi compound

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