Whenever the lion appears in Indic allegorical compositions, it is usually as the epitome of strength, courage, and dignity. However, there is one particular epigram that casts this apex predator in a not-so-favorable light: the eighth verse of the Nitiratna (नीतिरत्न), "the jewel of precepts", ascribed to the enigmatic Vararuchi (वररुचि) and quoted by at least two modern anthologists, Purnachandra De Kabyaratna of Udbhata Sagara fame and Kashinath Sharma of Subhashita Ratna Bhandagara fame. In the oral traditions of the Mithila-Bengal circle, there are two interesting instances of this stanza being used as a rhetorical weapon against a person boldly likening themselves to a lion.
(1) This is one of many anecdotes portraying the (actual or perceived) bitter rivalry between two of the most ancient and prominent schools of Indic philosophy: Nyaya and Vedanta. The protagonist of this story is Pakshadhara Mishra (पक्षधरमिश्र), a leading exponent of Navya-Nyaya from 15th-16th century Mithila, who has appeared on this blog before (here and here); the Vedanta camp is represented by Hansa Bhatta (हंसभट्ट) of Kashi, who is said to have driven Pakshadhara's father to an untimely death by inflicting a crushing defeat upon him in a public debate. Motivated in part by revenge, Pakshadhara spent his childhood studying hard and, when he turned twenty, petitioned Hansa Bhatta for a debate. The seasoned Varanasian Vedantist agreed to comply, but on one condition: If Pakshadhara lost, the entire scholarly community of Mithila, the stronghold of Nyaya, would have to accept defeat at the hands of Hansa Bhatta. Pakshadhara accepted the challenge, and showed up at the venue at the appointed hour after duly obtaining a permit from Shankara Mishra (शङ्करमिश्र) and Vachaspati Mishra II (द्वितीयवाचस्पतिमिश्र), who, according to this story, were residents of Kashi at that time and had both been Pakshadhara's teachers. Before long, Hansa Bhatta made a dramatic entrance, accompanied by his disciples chanting the following minatory verse.
(1) This is one of many anecdotes portraying the (actual or perceived) bitter rivalry between two of the most ancient and prominent schools of Indic philosophy: Nyaya and Vedanta. The protagonist of this story is Pakshadhara Mishra (पक्षधरमिश्र), a leading exponent of Navya-Nyaya from 15th-16th century Mithila, who has appeared on this blog before (here and here); the Vedanta camp is represented by Hansa Bhatta (हंसभट्ट) of Kashi, who is said to have driven Pakshadhara's father to an untimely death by inflicting a crushing defeat upon him in a public debate. Motivated in part by revenge, Pakshadhara spent his childhood studying hard and, when he turned twenty, petitioned Hansa Bhatta for a debate. The seasoned Varanasian Vedantist agreed to comply, but on one condition: If Pakshadhara lost, the entire scholarly community of Mithila, the stronghold of Nyaya, would have to accept defeat at the hands of Hansa Bhatta. Pakshadhara accepted the challenge, and showed up at the venue at the appointed hour after duly obtaining a permit from Shankara Mishra (शङ्करमिश्र) and Vachaspati Mishra II (द्वितीयवाचस्पतिमिश्र), who, according to this story, were residents of Kashi at that time and had both been Pakshadhara's teachers. Before long, Hansa Bhatta made a dramatic entrance, accompanied by his disciples chanting the following minatory verse.
Devanagari script:
पलायध्वं पलायध्वं रे रे बर्बरतार्किकाः|
हंसभट्टः समायाति वेदान्तवनकेशरी||
हंसभट्टः समायाति वेदान्तवनकेशरी||
palAyadhvaM palAyadhvaM re re barbaratArkikAH|
haMsabhaTTaH samAyAti vedAntavanakezarI||
haMsabhaTTaH samAyAti vedAntavanakezarI||
Loose translation: Run away! Run away, all you barbarous logicians[see notes]! For here comes Hansa Bhatta, the lion of the forest of Vedanta!
Notes: I have translated tArkika (तार्किक) as "logician" for lack of a better single-word equivalent; it refers to a student / exponent of an academic discipline (especially the Nyaya system) that concerns itself with ratiocination and argumentation, and is often used interchangeably with naiyAyika (नैयायिक). Colloquially, it can refer simply to a debater or a sophist.
Devanagari script:
Conclusion: The heated debate that ensued ended in the defeat of the proud Vedantic scholar from Varanasi. It is said that at this point, Hansa Bhatta saw an unidentified goddess dancing on top of his youthful opponent's head, and, in his fear and confusion, started yelling, "इयं का? इयं का?" ("Who is this? Who is this?"). This gave the playful Pakshadhara the opportunity to clinch his victory with the sardonic observation, "इदानीं हंस: काकायते!" ("And now, the swan has turned into a crow!").
Source: I found this story in the introduction to the critical edition (including commentaries and a Bengali translation) of Gangesha Upadhyaya's Vyapti-Panchaka (व्याप्तिपञ्चक), authored by Rajendranath Ghosh and published in 1915; Ghosh cites as his source the scholar Banikantha Tarkatirtha (वाणीकण्ठतर्कतीर्थ्) who himself claimed to have discovered it in a book preserved at the royal library of Darbhanga.
(2) The Baro-Bhuiyans (বার-ভুঁইয়া; द्वादशभौमिकाः) of Bengal were a group of twelve (mostly Muslim) warlords who started as vassals of the Mughal Empire but asserted sovereignty and resisted Mughal hegemony during the late 16th and early 17th centuries (see also this); although they have exerted a strong influence on local imagination for generations, reliable historical records are rare. One person often included in this list is Kedar Rai (কেদার রায়; केदारराय) who is said to have controlled the Bikrampur (विक्रमपुर) pargana with its capital at Sripur (श्रीपुर) along with his close relative and co-regent Chand Rai (চাঁদ রায়; चन्द्रराय). The imperial army deployed to deal with the disturbance caused by these rebels in the eastern part of the Bengal Subah was headed by the Rajput commander, Raja Man Singh of Amer, who was appointed Governor of Bengal in 1594; there are several popular accounts of his hostilities, on land and at sea, with his Bengali adversaries including Kedar. It is said that right before Kedar Rai's third and final battle with Man Singh's army, the Rajput chieftain dispatched a messenger carrying a chain (symbolizing the option to surrender without a fight), a sword (representing the alternative), and a missive with the following versified threat in a mixture of Hindustani and (pseudo-)Sanskrit to the Bengali Bhuiyan.
Devanagari script:
Notes: I have translated tArkika (तार्किक) as "logician" for lack of a better single-word equivalent; it refers to a student / exponent of an academic discipline (especially the Nyaya system) that concerns itself with ratiocination and argumentation, and is often used interchangeably with naiyAyika (नैयायिक). Colloquially, it can refer simply to a debater or a sophist.
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Instead of running away, the young Maithila scholar raised his voice and uttered the following retort:Devanagari script:
भिनत्तु नित्यं करिराजकुम्भं बिभर्तु वेगं पवनातिरेकम्|
करोतु वासं गिरिराजशृङ्गे तथापि सिंहः पशुरेव नान्यः||
करोतु वासं गिरिराजशृङ्गे तथापि सिंहः पशुरेव नान्यः||
bhinattu nityaM karirAjakumbhaM bibhartu vegaM pavanAtirekam|
karotu vAsaM girirAjazRGge tathApi siMhaH pazureva nAnyaH||
Loose translation: Let him rip the frontal globes on the heads of great elephants apart on a regular basis; let him run faster than the wind; let him haunt the summits of majestic mountains; the lion is still nothing but a beast!
Notes: Variants exist where the first three quarters begin with भिनत्ति, बिभर्ति, and करोति respectively, and पवनातिरेकम् is replaced with पवनादतीव; the third quarter sometimes reads करोति वासं गिरिगह्वरेषु, "he dwells in mountain caves".
Notes: Variants exist where the first three quarters begin with भिनत्ति, बिभर्ति, and करोति respectively, and पवनातिरेकम् is replaced with पवनादतीव; the third quarter sometimes reads करोति वासं गिरिगह्वरेषु, "he dwells in mountain caves".
Source: I found this story in the introduction to the critical edition (including commentaries and a Bengali translation) of Gangesha Upadhyaya's Vyapti-Panchaka (व्याप्तिपञ्चक), authored by Rajendranath Ghosh and published in 1915; Ghosh cites as his source the scholar Banikantha Tarkatirtha (वाणीकण्ठतर्कतीर्थ्) who himself claimed to have discovered it in a book preserved at the royal library of Darbhanga.
(2) The Baro-Bhuiyans (বার-ভুঁইয়া; द्वादशभौमिकाः) of Bengal were a group of twelve (mostly Muslim) warlords who started as vassals of the Mughal Empire but asserted sovereignty and resisted Mughal hegemony during the late 16th and early 17th centuries (see also this); although they have exerted a strong influence on local imagination for generations, reliable historical records are rare. One person often included in this list is Kedar Rai (কেদার রায়; केदारराय) who is said to have controlled the Bikrampur (विक्रमपुर) pargana with its capital at Sripur (श्रीपुर) along with his close relative and co-regent Chand Rai (চাঁদ রায়; चन्द्रराय). The imperial army deployed to deal with the disturbance caused by these rebels in the eastern part of the Bengal Subah was headed by the Rajput commander, Raja Man Singh of Amer, who was appointed Governor of Bengal in 1594; there are several popular accounts of his hostilities, on land and at sea, with his Bengali adversaries including Kedar. It is said that right before Kedar Rai's third and final battle with Man Singh's army, the Rajput chieftain dispatched a messenger carrying a chain (symbolizing the option to surrender without a fight), a sword (representing the alternative), and a missive with the following versified threat in a mixture of Hindustani and (pseudo-)Sanskrit to the Bengali Bhuiyan.
Devanagari script:
त्रिपुर-मघ1-बाङ्गाली-काककुली-चाकाली2
सकलपुरुषमेतत् भागि3 जाओ पलायी|
हय-गज-नर-नौका-कम्पिता वङ्गभूमि
विषम-समर-सिंहो मानसिंहः प्रयाति||
variants: 1मग; 2चाकुली; 3भाग
सकलपुरुषमेतत् भागि3 जाओ पलायी|
हय-गज-नर-नौका-कम्पिता वङ्गभूमि
विषम-समर-सिंहो मानसिंहः प्रयाति||
variants: 1मग; 2चाकुली; 3भाग
tripura-magha-bAGgAlI-kAkakulI-cAkAlI
sakalapuruSametat bhAgi jAo palAyI|
haya-gaja-nara-naukA-kampitA baGgabhUmi
viSama-samara-siMho mAnasiMhaH prayAti||
sakalapuruSametat bhAgi jAo palAyI|
haya-gaja-nara-naukA-kampitA baGgabhUmi
viSama-samara-siMho mAnasiMhaH prayAti||
Loose translation: All you Tripuri, Magh (see also this and this), and Bengali men from Kakakuli to Chakuli[see notes]! Take flight! Horses, men, elephants, and (naval) vessels will cause the land of Bengal to tremble, for Man Singh, who is as a matchless as a lion in battle, is marching upon it!
Notes: Assuming the meter to be Malini (मालिनी), the first quarter is obviously defective. However, since most of the words here are not part of standard Sanskrit vocabulary, and since this verse (along with the entire incident) might have been invented by speakers of (some dialect of) the Bengali language in which vowels are of flexible length, the metrical defect can be fixed by pronouncing the last three words in the compound as बँगाली / बङाली, काककूली, and चकाली respectively. I have no idea what Kakakuli and Chakali mean but here is my speculation based on my limited knowledge (which has also influenced my above translation): Most readings contain चाकाली, but there is at least one version, recorded by historian Anandanath Ray (see source below), with चाकुली (which should be pronounced like चकूली here for the sake of metrical consistency) instead. Chakuli is known to be the name of a village within Kedar Rai's Bikrampur; so, I have imagined Kakakuli and Chakuli to be villages under Kedar Rai, perhaps marking the boundaries of his territory. चाकाली could be a corruption (influenced by बाङ्गाली) which was recorded in some text that ended up being the primary source of all the erroneous published versions.
A similar story (involving a sword and a chain) is also told about Man Singh and Maharaja Pratapaditya of Jessore, but no exchange of poetry features in this narrative.
Conclusion: Kedar Rai accepted the sword and the letter, and sent the messenger back with the chain and a written response that contained the verse, "भिनत्ति नित्यं करिराजकुम्भं बिभर्ति वेगं पवनातिरेकम्| करोति वासं गिरिराजशृङ्गे तथापि सिंहः पशुरेव नान्यः||". The response was purportedly penned by Kedar's official scribe, a man of the Vaidya (वैद्य) caste named Bishwanath Sen (বিশ্বনাথ সেন; विश्वनाथ सेन), who was well-versed in both Sanskrit and Farsi; according to Anandanath Ray, there was a tradition in parts of Bengal that Bishwanath was the true author of the couplet under consideration.
Sadly (or perhaps not so sadly, depending on whose side you are on), this story does not end well for our protagonist: Kedar Rai was defeated and wounded in the ensuing battle, and passed away while he was in the process of being brought before Man Singh. In another version, Kedar never made it to the battlefield: Man Singh's assassin stole into the temple of the ten Mahavidyas (दशमहाविद्याः) at Sripur, where Kedar was sitting unarmed and absorbed in meditation, and unceremoniously decapitated the devout Shakta warrior; as his severed head hit the floor, it uttered the words, "छिन्नमस्ते नमस्ते!" ("Obeisance to you! O Chhinnamasta!"), with its last breath.
Source: This Man Singh-Kedar Rai episode is recorded in several Bengali-language books published in the early 20th century. My primary source is Banglar Baro-Bhuiyan O Maharaj Pratapaditya (বাংলার বারোভুঁইয়া ও মহারাজ প্রতাপাদিত্য), "The Baro-Bhuiyans of Bengal and Maharaja Pratapaditya", a collection of articles by late 19th to mid-20th century historians on the political history of Bengal in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, compiled by Kamal Chowdhury and first published in 1999.
Notes: Assuming the meter to be Malini (मालिनी), the first quarter is obviously defective. However, since most of the words here are not part of standard Sanskrit vocabulary, and since this verse (along with the entire incident) might have been invented by speakers of (some dialect of) the Bengali language in which vowels are of flexible length, the metrical defect can be fixed by pronouncing the last three words in the compound as बँगाली / बङाली, काककूली, and चकाली respectively. I have no idea what Kakakuli and Chakali mean but here is my speculation based on my limited knowledge (which has also influenced my above translation): Most readings contain चाकाली, but there is at least one version, recorded by historian Anandanath Ray (see source below), with चाकुली (which should be pronounced like चकूली here for the sake of metrical consistency) instead. Chakuli is known to be the name of a village within Kedar Rai's Bikrampur; so, I have imagined Kakakuli and Chakuli to be villages under Kedar Rai, perhaps marking the boundaries of his territory. चाकाली could be a corruption (influenced by बाङ्गाली) which was recorded in some text that ended up being the primary source of all the erroneous published versions.
A similar story (involving a sword and a chain) is also told about Man Singh and Maharaja Pratapaditya of Jessore, but no exchange of poetry features in this narrative.
Conclusion: Kedar Rai accepted the sword and the letter, and sent the messenger back with the chain and a written response that contained the verse, "भिनत्ति नित्यं करिराजकुम्भं बिभर्ति वेगं पवनातिरेकम्| करोति वासं गिरिराजशृङ्गे तथापि सिंहः पशुरेव नान्यः||". The response was purportedly penned by Kedar's official scribe, a man of the Vaidya (वैद्य) caste named Bishwanath Sen (বিশ্বনাথ সেন; विश्वनाथ सेन), who was well-versed in both Sanskrit and Farsi; according to Anandanath Ray, there was a tradition in parts of Bengal that Bishwanath was the true author of the couplet under consideration.
Sadly (or perhaps not so sadly, depending on whose side you are on), this story does not end well for our protagonist: Kedar Rai was defeated and wounded in the ensuing battle, and passed away while he was in the process of being brought before Man Singh. In another version, Kedar never made it to the battlefield: Man Singh's assassin stole into the temple of the ten Mahavidyas (दशमहाविद्याः) at Sripur, where Kedar was sitting unarmed and absorbed in meditation, and unceremoniously decapitated the devout Shakta warrior; as his severed head hit the floor, it uttered the words, "छिन्नमस्ते नमस्ते!" ("Obeisance to you! O Chhinnamasta!"), with its last breath.
Source: This Man Singh-Kedar Rai episode is recorded in several Bengali-language books published in the early 20th century. My primary source is Banglar Baro-Bhuiyan O Maharaj Pratapaditya (বাংলার বারোভুঁইয়া ও মহারাজ প্রতাপাদিত্য), "The Baro-Bhuiyans of Bengal and Maharaja Pratapaditya", a collection of articles by late 19th to mid-20th century historians on the political history of Bengal in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, compiled by Kamal Chowdhury and first published in 1999.
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