Devious devotees

Vasanta Panchami (वसन्तपञ्चमी), the fifth day of the bright fortnight in the lunar month of Magha (माघ), is one of the most culturally significant days in South Asia for it signals the beginning of the Spring season. In many parts of the Subcontinent, especially in the east, this day is dedicated to Saraswati, the goddess of learning, speech, and the creative arts (music and literature, in particular). In fact, so close is Saraswati's association with Spring in Bengal that her idols venerated on Vasanta Panchami are often dressed in the 'vernal' shade of yellow (Hindi: वसंती/बसंती; Bengali: বাসন্তী), although the only color sacred to her according to all scriptures and (other) traditions is white!

Below are two modern humorous verses dedicated to the goddess of learning.

(1) When Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar was still a student at Sanskrit College, Calcutta, one of the many professors who took a liking to him was Joygopal Tarkalankar (জয়গোপাল তর্কালঙ্কার; जयगोपालतर्कालङ्कार) (1775-1846). On the occasion of Vasanta Panchami every year, Tarkalankar would observe Saraswati Puja with great pomp and invite his students to his house where they would be treated to lunch, dinner, and great music; on the eve of the festival, he would also urge some of his more advanced students to compose Sanskrit verses in honor of the goddess, but Ishwarchandra did not usually oblige for his lack of self-confidence (in his own words). However, after repeated requests, he ended up giving it a shot, just once. The result was a distich in a classical twelve-syllable upajAti (उपजाति, blended) meter, the first and third quarters in indravaMzA (इन्द्रवंशा) and the rest in vaMzastha (वंशस्थ), following the rules of Sanskrit grammar but liberally seasoned with Bengali vernacularisms. 

Devanagari text:

लूची-कचूरी-मतिचूर-शोभितं
जिलेपि-सन्देश-गजा-विराजितम्|
यस्याः प्रसादेन फलारमाप्नुमः
सरस्वती सा जयतान्निरन्तरम्||

– ईश्वरचन्द्रविद्यासागर 

Harvard-Kyoto transliteration:

lUcI-kacUrI-maticUra-zobhitaM
jilIpi-sandeza-gajA-virAjitam|

yasyAH prasAdena phalAramApnumaH
sarasvatI sA jayatAnnirantaram||

– Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar

Loose translation: Eternal glory to that Saraswati, by whose grace we receive lavish meals consisting of luchis, kachauris, motichur laddoos, jalebis, sandesh, and gajas!

Notes: This nugget of tasteful humor is evidently a nod to the sumptuous Vasanta Panchami feasts served at Tarkalankar's residence. The spellings of some of the words above, such as कचूरी, मतिचूर, and जिलेपि, are sure to raise some eyebrows; the author, who is writing for an exclusively Bengali-speaking audience, has clearly exploited the peculiarities of Bengali pronunciation and orthography to make these non-Sanskrit words fit the metrical scheme he chose. Also noteworthy is the Bengali word फलार which is derived from Sanskrit phalAhAra (फलाहार), "fruit-meal", and denotes a lacto-vegetarian meal devoid of rice, ritually served to a Brahmin. 

Source: Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar's Sanskrita Rachana (সংস্কৃত রচনা; संस्कृतरचना), "compositions in Sanskrit", 1888 edition.

(2) This snippet was not composed on the occasion of Saraswati Puja, but I think it is quite relevant.

Devanagari text:

न मेऽस्ति विद्या न तथास्ति मेधा
न वास्ति बुद्धिः प्रतिभोज्ज्वला च|
मन्दः परीक्षार्णवमुत्तरीतुं
देवीं गिरां स्वां जननीं च वन्दे||

– अलोकनाथन्यायभूषण 

Harvard-Kyoto transliteration:

na me(a)sti vidyA na tathAsti medhA
na vAsti buddhiH pratibhojjvalA ca|

mandaH parIkSArNavamuttarItuM
devIM girAM svAM jananIM ca vande||

– Alokanatha Nyayabhushana

Loose translation: I am devoid of learning, (the) mental acuity (needed to acquire it), and intellectual brilliance. Hence, being a dimwit, I have (no choice but to) sing the praises of the goddess of speech and my own mother just to be able to get across the ocean of examinations.

Source:  Prefatory benediction of Vidaya-Vidyalaya (বিদায়-বিদ্যালয়; विदाय-विद्यालय), "a farewell address to the college", by Alokanatha Nyayabhushana, Late Senior Scholar and Head Pandit, Calcutta Government Sanskrit College, published on June 25, 1902.

Notes: If you were to think that this is not a composition of the best quality, I would probably agree with you. But I still like it for it is so easy to relate to! The author, a recently retired academic, is evidently having a laugh at his students to whom this piece is addressed; but this verse, perhaps inadvertently, also calls attention to a procrustean education system that places too much emphasis on scores secured in certain examinations, forcing many students to rely solely on prayers and the blessings of their elders.

Scholarly squabbles 1: Prakashananda and Chaitanyadeva

One of the most important figures in the history of South Asia is the 15th-16th century spiritual leader Sri Chaitanya – often endearingly called Gauranga (गौराङ्ग), "fair-bodied", – the founder of what is known today as Gaudiya Vaishnanism. His hagiographies are replete with (often apocryphal) anecdotes of him winning over former adversaries, sometimes by dint of his wit and wisdom and sometimes by sheer charisma. I found one such story, involving the renowned sannyasi (सन्न्यासिन्) Prakashananda Saraswati (प्रकाशानन्दसरस्वती) of Varanasi (see this and this), in the early 20th century Bengali-language encyclopedia Biswakosh (বিশ্বকোষ; विश्वकोष), compiled by Nagendranath Basu (নগেন্দ্রনাথ বসু; नगेन्द्रनाथवसु), and I will now recount an amusing correspondence that the compiler claims these two scholars engaged in. However, I have reasons to doubt the authenticity of parts of the Biswakosh article on Prakashananda Saraswati (see my final notes at the end of the post).

(1) The story goes that, before meeting Chaitanya in person, Prakashananda was a proponent of mAyAvAda (मायावाद), a term used in Gaudiya Vaishnavism to denote Adi Shankara's philosophy, and had significant ideological disagreements with the concept of bhakti (भक्ति) to Krishna as promulgated by Chaitanya. Riled by the young Bengali preacher's rising popularity, especially following the induction of Prakashananda's beloved disciple Gopala into Chaitanya's order, the Varanasi resident wanted to take the Vaishnava sannyasi on, but Chaitanyadeva was yet to set foot in Varanasi, a city sacred to Shiva. When Prakashananda ran out of patience, he wrote the following chastising note in Sanskrit verse addressed to no one in particular, and had a traveler deliver it to Chaitanya.

Devanagari script:

यत्रास्ते मणिकर्णिकामलसरः स्वर्दीर्घिका दीर्घिका
रत्नं तारकमक्षरं¹ तनुभृते शम्भुः स्वयं यच्छति|
तस्मिन्नद्भुतधामनि स्मररिपोर्निर्वाणमार्गे स्थिते
मूढोऽन्यत्र मरीचिकासु पशुवत् प्रत्याशया धावति||
variant: ¹तारकमोक्षदं 

Harvard-Kyoto transliteration:

yatrAste maNikarNikAmalasaraH svardIrghikA dIrghikA
ratnaM tArakamakSaraM tanubhRte zambhuH svayaM yacchati|

tasminnadbhutadhAmani smararipornirvANamArge sthite
mUDho(a)nyatra marIcikAsu pazuvat pratyAzayA dhAvati||

Loose translation: Where the tank called Manikarnika sits in its immaculate glory, and the heavenly river (the Ganges) of great length flows by, and Shiva himself bestows the precious gift of the mantra of liberation upon living beings – in spite of the existence of this wondrous abode of the Enemy of Cupid (i.e. Shiva) which grants access to nirvana, it is but a moron who seeks the fulfillment of his desires elsewhere, just like an animal running towards a mirage (to quench its thirst)!

Notes:  Manikarnika is a major ghat (ghat: a flight of steps leading down to a body of water) in Varanasi and one of the most hallowed cremation grounds in Hinduism; a sacred stepwell called Manikarnika Kunda (मणिकर्णिकाकुण्ड) is located on top of the flight, and this is what the author of the above verse is referring to in the first quarter. दीर्घिका denotes an "oblong" lake or pond, but the anthologist Purnachandra De identifies स्वर्दीर्घिका, "the (oblong) water-body of heaven", as the Ganges; I have not found this particular appellation of the holy river in any lexicon but the near-synonymous term svarvApI (स्वर्वापी) is well-known. As such, I have interpreted the दीर्घिका at the end of the first quarter as an adjective, meaning "long", of the preceding word. tAraka (तारक), "the deliverer", in this context refers to the mystical formula, usually called tArakabrahma (तारकब्रह्म), that Shiva is said to "whisper into the ears" of those who die or are dying or are cremated in Varanasi, especially at Manikarnika Ghat, thus liberating them from the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth (the word तनुभृत्, which I have translated as 'living being' here, literally means 'body-bearer'). 

(2) On receiving this veiled invitation, peppered with choice insults (मूढ, पशु), to visit his challenger's home ground, Chaitanya turned Prakashananda's words around and against him, and penned the following rejoinder in the same meter (zArdUlavikrIDita (शार्दूलविक्रीडित)) as the original, affirming his conviction that Krishna is svayaM bhagavAn (स्वयं भगवान्). 

Devanagari script:

घर्माम्भो मणिकर्णिका भगवतः पादाम्बु भागीरथी
काशीनां पतिरंशमस्य² भजते श्रीविश्वनाथः स्वयम्|
एतस्यैव हि नाम शम्भुनगरे निस्तारकं तारकं
तस्मात् कृष्णपदाम्बुजं भज सखे निर्वाणमोक्षप्रदम्³||
variants: ²पतिरर्धमेव; ³श्रीपाद निर्वाणदम्.

Harvard-Kyoto transliteration:

gharmAmbho maNikarNikA bhagavataH pAdAmbu bhAgIrathI
kAzInAM patiraMzamasya bhajate zrIvizvanAthaH svayam|

etasyaiva hi nAma zambhunagare nistArakaM tArakaM
tasmAt kRSNapadAmbujaM bhaja sakhe nirvANamokSapradam||

Loose translation: The Manikarnika tank is (filled with) the Lord's perspiration, and the Ganges is but water from his feet; Vishwanatha, i.e. Shiva in his capacity as the Master of Kashi, himself constitutes but a part of Him; His very name is the mantra of liberation in this city of Shiva. Hence, my dear friend, devote yourself to the nirvana-bestowing lotus-feet of Krishna!

Notes: According to at least one mythological source – the Kashikhanda (काशीखण्ड) of the Skanda Purana (स्कन्दपुराण) – it was Vishnu (often identified with Krishna) who dug the tank that is now called Manikarnika Kunda with his cakra (चक्र), and filled it up with his sweat. पादाम्बु भागीरथी invokes one of the several myths that associate the Ganges with the feet of Vishnu or one of his incarnations. The word Kashi (काशी) is used at present as an alternative name of the city of Varanasi, mostly by religious Hindus; it has been assigned the plural number by our author, perhaps just to glorify the city (according to a well-known rule of Sanskrit grammar) or to allude to one of the traditions that accord the status of a "subordinate Kashi" or a "Kashi-equivalent" to locations sacred to Shiva scattered across the Subcontinent. In many belief systems, particularly those current in Bengal, tArakabrahma is identified with an invocation to Vishnu, Krishna, or Rama (ॐ रामाय नमः|; ॐ श्रीराम राम|; हरे कृष्ण हरे कृष्ण कृष्ण कृष्ण हरे हरे| हरे राम हरे राम राम राम हरे हरे|| etc.). The word zrIpAda (श्रीपाद) occurring in the second variant noted above is an honorific that is frequently applied to religious / spiritual scholars and is ubiquitous in Chaitanya hagiographies; अर्धमेव भजते, "shares a half only", is presumably a reference to the syncretic deity Harihara.

(3) The proud pandit from Varanasi was not to be cowed so easily, and responded with a vicious personal attack on his rival. 

Devanagari script:

विश्वामित्रपराशरप्रभृतयो वाताम्बुपर्णाशना⁴-
स्तेऽपि स्त्रीमुखपङ्कजं सुललितं दृष्ट्वैव मोहं गताः|
शाल्यन्नं सघृतं पयोदधियुतं ये भुञ्जते मानवा-
स्तेषामिन्द्रियनिग्रहो यदि भवेद्विन्ध्यस्तरेत्सागरम्⁵||
variants: ⁴ये चाम्बुपर्णाशना / ये वारिपर्णाशना; ⁵भवेत् पङ्गुस्तरेत्सागरम्.

Harvard-Kyoto transliteration:

vizvAmitraparAzaraprabhRtayo vAtAmbuparNAzanA-
ste(a)pi strImukhapaGkajaM sulalitaM dRSTvaiva mohaM gatAH|

zAlyannaM saghRtaM payodadhiyutaM ye bhuJjate mAnavA-
steSamindriyanigraho yadi bhavedvindhyastaretsAgaram|| 

Loose translation: Even the likes of Vishwamitra and Parashara (great ascetics and scholars) who subsisted on air, water, and leaves, had their minds deluded as soon as they saw the charming lotus-faces of women; (hence,) if those human beings who gorge themselves on rice prepared from high-quality autumnal paddy along with ghee, milk, and yogurt were to succeed in taming the flesh, then the Vindhyas would be able to swim across the ocean as well!

Notes: The author is definitely alluding to Vishwamitra and Parashara's infamous dalliances with Menaka and Matsyagandha respectively. There are several instances in religious literature of ascetics abstaining from solid food or even water for extended periods of time – such fasting is often considered crucial to disciplining the mind and the body, and acquiring superhuman powers or making spiritual progress. Chaitanyadeva had a long and intimate association with the Jagannath Temple at Puri, Odisha, where he is said to have regularly partaken of the mahAprasAda (महाप्रसाद), a lavish lacto-vegetarian meal ritually offered to the central deity jagannAtha (जगन्नाथ), then to the goddess vimalA (विमला), and finally distributed among devotees. In Prakashananda's worldview, this act would violate the principles of asceticism; so he is calling Chaitanya out on his perceived hypocrisy, and insinuating that someone given to such gastronomic excesses is unlikely to be abstinent in other aspects of life. The compiler of Biswakosh identifies the celebrated zAli (शालि) rice with the aaman (আমন) rice variety of Bengal. In Indic literature, a mountain (or a rock) floating on water is a standard metaphor for an impossibility.

(4) Before long, Prakashananda received a versified repartee which, according to Biswakosh, was authored by an outraged follower of Sri Chaitanya, but is ascribed to Chaitanya himself in Radhakanta Deb's 19th century Sanskrit dictionary Shabdakalpadruma (शब्दकल्पद्रुम) in its entry for the word अनुदिनम्.

Devanagari script:

सिंहो बली द्विरदशूकरमांसभोजी⁶
संवत्सरेण कुरुते रतिमेकवारम्। 

पारावतः खलु शिलाकणमात्रभोजी
कामी भवेदनुदिनं वद कोऽत्र हेतुः॥
variant: ⁶सिंहो बली द्विरदकुञ्जरमांसभोजी / सिंहो बलिद्विरदमस्तकमांसभोजी.

Harvard-Kyoto transliteration:

siMho balI dviradazUkaramAMsabhojI
saMvatsareNa kurute ratimekavAram|

pArAvataH khalu zilAkaNamAtrabhojI
kAmI bhavedanudinaM vada ko(a)tra hetuH||

Loose translation: The mighty lion, which devours the flesh of elephants and boars, makes love but once a year; on the other hand, the pigeon, which sustains itself merely on grit and grains, engages in sexual activity on a daily basis – pray tell, what is the explanation for these phenomena?

Notes: शिलाकण can be translated as "particle of stone"; some birds including pigeons are known to swallow small pieces of stone to help grind food in the gizzard. However, कण also refers to a single seed or grain of corn (Monier-Williams), which, I believe, is a more appropriate reading here. The contrast between a sexually temperate predator and a grain-eating bird notorious for its prurience is meant to highlight the point that food choice is not necessarily correlated with libido (according to the commentary by Chandramohan Tarkaratna Bhattacharya in Udbhata Chandrika, सत्यपि उत्तमान्नादिभोजनरूपविकारहेतौ सर्वेषां मनो न विकृतिमायाति परन्तु लघुचेतसामेवेति दर्शयन्नाह . . .). 

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Sources: My primary source is the entry for Prabodhananda Saraswati (see final notes below) in Bishwakosh. However, the versions of verses (1) and (2) quoted above occur in Udbhata Sagara Part III (Verses 84 (a) and (b)), and the collection of all four with slight variations is also found in the 1899 edition of Udbhata Chandrika Volume I (Verses 39-40). The compilers of both anthologies present this sequence of stanzas as an exchange of wits between a Shaiva resident of Varanasi named Shripaada (श्रीपाद) and his Vaishnava friend living in Vrindavana. Subhashita Ratna Bhandagara, in its chapter on the glorification of women (स्त्रीप्रशंसा), quotes verse (3) from Prof. D. D. Kosambi's critical edition of bhatRharisubhASitasaMgraha (भर्तृहरिसुभाषितसंग्रह), a collection of epigrams traditionally ascribed to Bhartrihari who is generally placed long before Chaitanyadeva.

Final notes: According to Biswakosh, Sri Chaitanya ultimately converted Prakashananda Saraswati to Krishnabhakti (कृष्णभक्ति), "devotion to Krishna", and renamed him Prabodhananda Saraswati (You can read some English-language retellings of their encounter here and here, for example). However, Prabodhananda Saraswati is the name of a famous Sri Vaishnava sannyasi from Srirangam, the uncle of Gopala Bhatta Goswami, who was converted by Chaitanya (see this), and I do not know if he had any association with Varanasi whatsoever. I would really appreciate if an expert could help me out here.

Auditory pareidolia 3: Drumbeats

Unlike the first two posts in this series (this and this), today's offering concerns itself with sounds of instrumental origin. All forms of South Asian music – classical, folk, and popular – make extensive use of an impressive variety of percussion instruments, and several systems of mnemonic syllables have been devised to describe the notes they produce (see this and this). Drums have also traditionally been used for making public announcements, in warfare, and in religious ceremonies. 

In each of the first two epigrams quoted below, the author has chosen an onomatopoeic string of syllables that can be assigned a meaning in the Sanskrit language to denote the sounds emitted by a specific type of drum; the last two couplets do not involve onomatopoeia but use the structural features of a traditional Indian membranophone to great comedic effect.

(1) Devanagari text:

दुन्दुभिश्च सुतरामचेतनस्तन्मुखादपि धनं धनं धनम्|
इत्थमेव निनदः प्रवर्तते चेतनो यदि जनः किमद्भुतम्||

Harvard-Kyoto transliteration:

dundubhizca sutarAmacetanastanmukhAdapi dhanaM dhanaM dhanam| 

itthameva ninadaH pravartate cetano yadi janaH kimadbhutam||

Loose translation: The kettledrum is totally insensate, yet the only sound that issues forth from its mouth (see below) is 'Dhanam! Dhanam! Dhanam!' ('Wealth! Wealth! Wealth!'). Is it really surprising that people who are sentient beings (behave in a similar manner)?

Notes: The author is punning on mukha (मुख) which, in general, denotes the mouth or the face but is also a technical term for a drumhead. 

Source: Udbhata Sagara Part II Verse 187; Subhashita Ratna Bhandagara, Chapter entitled धनप्रशंसा (dhanaprazaMsA), "the glorification of wealth", Verse 12 (last quarter: किं पुनर्यदि जनः सचेतनः||).

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(2) This one was definitely not meant to be a joke but I find its witty handling of onomatopoeia (typed in boldface below) quite amusing.

Devanagari text:

येषां श्रीमद्यशोदासुतपदकमले नास्ति भक्तिर्नराणां
येषामाभीरकन्याप्रियगुणकथने नानुरक्ता रसज्ञा|
येषां श्रीकृष्णलीलाकथननिशमने सादरौ नैव कर्णौ
धिक् तान् धिक् तान् धिगेतान् कथयति नियतं कीर्तनस्थो मृदङ्गः||

Harvard-Kyoto transliteration:

yeSAM zrImadyazodAsutapadakamale nAsti bhaktirnarANAM
yeSAmAbhIrakanyApriyaguNakathane nAnuraktA rasajJA|

yeSAM zrIkRSNalIlAkathananizamane sAdarau naiva karNau
dhik tAn dhik tAn dhigetAn kathayati niyataM kIrtanastho mRdaGgaH||

Loose translation: "Fie on them! Fie on them! Fie on those people who are not devoted to the lotus-feet of the glorious son of Yashoda, whose tongues are not fond of recounting the merits of the beloved of the daughters of cowherds, and whose ears do not listen reverentially to narrations of the mirabilia of Krishna!'' – this is what the mridanga drum, used in kirtana, keeps saying every day.

Notes: I have translated AbhIra (आभीर) simply as "cowherd" since this word, as well as its cognates abhIra (अभीर) and ahIra (अहीर), has been used in Vaishnava literature to refer to the community of traditional dairy farmers living in the Braj area; but, the term is highly complex and controversial (see this, this, this, this, and this).

mRdaGga (मृदङ्ग), "clay-bodied", denotes a drum with a terra-cotta shell. At present, it has become an umbrella term for certain types of double-headed drums (see this and this), and is sometimes even applied to those with wooden shells!

kIrtana (कीर्तन), literally "recounting", refers to devotional singing usually by a group as part of a religious service, accompanied by instrumental music and sometimes by dancing.

Source:  Early 20th century Udbhata Sagara Part III Verse 36; the compiler Purnachandra De attributes  the verse to Baneswar Vidyalankar (बाणेश्वरविद्यालङ्कार), citing the popular anecdote that it was composed extemporaneously by this renowned 18th century scholar at the behest of his patron Maharaja Krishnachandra Roy of Nadia during a kirtana session. However, the 1888 Bombay edition of vRddhacANakyanItidarpaNa (वृद्धचाणक्यनीतिदर्पण), a collection of epigrams on morality traditionally ascribed to Chanakya, also contains this couplet with a slight variation (कथननिशमने is replaced with ललितगुणरसे in the third quarter) as Verse 5 of Chapter 12.

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(3) Devanagari text:

अधिकाराभिषेकेषु मृदङ्गवचनं शृणु|
बद्धा दण्डहता रिक्ता भविष्यसि यथा वयम्||*

possible grammatical error (see notes)

Harvard-Kyoto transliteration:

adhikArAbhiSekeSu mRdaGgavacanaM zRNu|

baddhA daNDahatA riktA bhaviSyasi yathA vayam||

– Anonymous

Loose translation: Listen to the beats of drums during the inauguration of a new official – (it is as if they are screaming,) "You will be tied up, thrashed with beaters, and hollowed out, just like us!'

Source: 13th century Suktimuktaavali Chapter 89 (हासपद्धति: chapter on comedy) Verse 30.

Notes: abhiSeka (अभिषेक) denotes the ritual bathing of a deity on certain occasions or that of a monarch as the central rite of the accession ceremony, but the term has been generalized to refer to ceremonial induction into any office or initiation into an order. The drums the author describes here are being played perhaps to provide musical accompaniment to the inaugural celebrations or (more likely) just to announce the new installation at a public place.

This snippet betrays a dire worldview in which anyone with administrative duties is assumed to be corrupt and oppressive. baddhA (बद्धा) alludes to the lacing of drums and the fettering of arrestees and prisoners; daNDa (दण्ड) refers to a drumstick on the one hand (which is somewhat surprising to me since, to the best of my knowledge, present-day drums of the mridanga variety are all played with bare hands) and to a punishing rod or a general punitive measure (e.g. a fine or even verbal admonition) on the other; a drum is literally rikta (रिक्त), "hollow", while the people addressed by the poet are sure to be rendered "destitute" (another meaning of the same word). 

I believe that there is an onomatopoeic aspect to the sequence baddhA daNDahatA riktA (बद्-धा-दण्-ड-ह-ता-रिक्-ता), but I might be overthinking.

Unless the poet is addressing a woman (and exactly one), there might be a grammatical error in the verse as quoted in Suktimuktaavali. But the issue can be easily fixed by changing the second half to बद्धो दण्डहतो रिक्तो भविष्यसि यथा वयम्||, assuming a male addressee, or to बद्धा दण्डहता रिक्ता भविष्यथ यथा वयम्||, assuming multiple addressees.

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(4) Devanagari text:

को न याति वशं लोके मुखे पिण्डेन पूरितः|
मृदङ्गो मुखलेपेन करोति मधुरध्वनिम्||

– भर्तृहरि

Harvard-Kyoto transliteration:

ko na yAti vazaM loke mukhe piNDena pUritaH|

mRdaGgo mukhalepena karoti madhuradhvanim||

– bhartRhari

Loose translation: Is there anyone in the world who cannot be brought under control by having the mouth stuffed with a morsel? Even a drum emits sweet sounds after tuning paste is applied to its head.

Notes:  The aptness of the comparison is somewhat lost in translation: mukhalepa (मुखलेप), which refers here to the application of a specially prepared pitch-modifying patch on the membrane of a drum, literally translates to "smearing the mouth" – an allusion to feeding (or, by extension, offering gifts to) someone to make them speak in your favor; add to this the fact that a major ingredient of this tuning paste is rice flour, rice being the staple of many Indic cuisines, and you have the kind of multi-layered analogy expressed in simple language that is the hallmark of poetic genius.

Source:   Subhashita Ratna Bhandagara, chapter on general morals samanyanIti (सामान्यनीति), Verse 156; this modern anthology cites the nItishataka (नीतिशतक), "a hundred verses on moral edification" , of Bhartrihari as its source. This author, who is sometimes identified with the semi-legendary king-turned-ascetic Bhartrihari, is noted for his shatakatrayI (शतकत्रयी) or trishatI (त्रिशती), a collection of three sets of (purportedly) one hundred verses each, dealing with morality (नीति), erotism (शृङ्गार), and renunciation (वैराग्य) respectively. However, since there is a great variation in the available manuscripts of this collection, the authorship and antiquity of all verses ascribed to him are not firmly established.

Literary tobacciana 4

Disclaimer: This is not an endorsement of the consumption of tobacco in any form, but the documentation of a lesser-known sub-genre of Indic literature.

One of the words commonly used to denote tobacco in Sanskrit literature is tamAkhu (तमाखु), as I have noted in some of my earlier posts in this series (see this, this, and this); it is also the standard Nepali-language equivalent of "tobacco". Moreover, this word creates interesting opportunities for punning in Sanskrit since it readily breaks down, following the rules of sandhi, into tam (तम्), "him", and Akhu (आखु), "rat / mouse". The following are two simple examples of such wordplay, each using a type of phonetic embellishment (शब्दालङ्कार) called yamaka (यमक), "a pair of identical entities", in which two or more homophonous strings of syllables with different meanings, sometimes spanning multiple words each, occur in close proximity (within the same verse, usually). Moreover, both these pieces are strongly anti-tobacco – a welcome deviation from the laudatory attitude reflected in the verses that I have shared thus far.

(1) This quote simultaneously condemns the consumption of tobacco and glorifies Ganesha, the elephant-headed deity with a mouse as his mount. 

Devanagari text:

तमाखुपत्रं राजेन्द्र भज माज्ञानदायकम्|
तमाखुपत्रं राजेन्द्र भज माज्ञानदायकम्||

Harvard-Kyoto transliteration:

tamAkhupatraM rAjendra bhaja mAjJAnadAyakam| 

tamAkhupatraM rAjendra bhaja mAjJAnadAyakam||

– Anonymous

Loose translation: 

1. (राजेन्द्र! तम् माज्ञानदायकम् आखुपत्रम् भज!) O Great King! Worship that mouse-riding (Ganesha) who is the giver of wealth and knowledge.

2. (राजेन्द्र! अज्ञानदायकम् तमाखुपत्रम् मा भज!) O Great King! Do not succumb to tobacco leaves which bring about ignorance (or poor judgment).

Notes: mA (मा) is one of the appellations of Lakshmi (लक्ष्मी), the goddess of wealth, grace, and fortune, and, like all other names of the goddess, can refer (figuratively) to prosperity or beauty; hence I have translated this word simply as "wealth" above.

Source:  1899 edition of Udbhata Chandrika Volume II Part 3 Appendix Verse 5; Subhashita Ratna Bhandagara Chapter on Tobacco (तमाखुः) Verse 1.

(2) This snippet draws parallels between human addiction to tobacco and the unnecessary but compulsive hunting of small animals (mainly rodents) by domestic cats.

Devanagari text:

दारिद्र्यशीलोऽपि नरस्तमाखुं नैव मुञ्चति|
निवारितोऽपि मार्जारस्तमाखुं नैव मुञ्चति||

Harvard-Kyoto transliteration:

dAridyazIlo(a)pi narastamAkhuM naiva muJcati| 

nivArito(a)pi mArjArastamAkhuM naiva muJcati||

– Anonymous

Loose translation: In spite of suffering from poverty, a man (who has developed an addiction) refuses to give up tobacco, just as a cat refuses to let go of the mouse, even when driven away.

Source:  1899 edition of Udbhata Chandrika Volume II Part 3 Appendix Verse 8; Subhashita Ratna Bhandagara Chapter on Tobacco (तमाखुः) Verse 2.