Literary tobacciana 6

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.

(1) An important component of many religious / spiritual practices of Indic origin [see this and this, for instance] is japa (जप), "the meditative repetition of a mantra or a divine name" (Wikipedia); it is by performing the japa of a mantra (a sequence of syllables believed to be imbued with special powers) a prescribed number of times, along with a set of other rituals of course, that a spiritual practitioner attains siddhi (सिद्धि), i.e. success in the spiritual endeavor that they embarked on – specifically, the power to wield that mantra for a pre-specified range of purposes.

Devanagari text:

जपादौ च जपान्ते च जपमध्ये पुनः पुनः|
विना तमालपत्रेण जपसिद्धिर्न जायते||

Harvard-Kyoto transliteration:

japAdau ca japAnte ca japamadhye punaH punaH|
vinA tamAlapatreNa japasiddhirna jAyate||

– Anonymous

Loose translation: Without (using) the tobacco leaf in the beginning of a japa session, at its completion, and over and over again in between, the japa ritual does not come to fruition.

Source: Babu Gulabrai's 1933 Hindi treatise on poetics, titled Navarasa (नवरस). 

(2) This snippet belongs with these other examples of wordplay based on one of the Indic names of tobacco: tamAkhu (तमाखु). Recall that the mount of the god Ganesha is a mouse, one of the Sanskrit words for which is Akhu (आखु).

Devanagari text:

तमाखुवाहनः पायात् तमाखुं यः प्रशंसति|
तमाखुवाहनो हन्यात् तमाखुं यश्च निन्दति||

Harvard-Kyoto transliteration:

tamAkhuvAhanaH pAyAt tamAkhuM yaH prazaMsati|
tamAkhuvAhano hanyAt tamAkhuM yazca nindati||

– Anonymous

Loose translation: May the Rodent-rider protect him who glorifies tobacco; may the Rodent-rider destroy him who maligns tobacco.

Source:  Gurunarayan Sukul's 1952 Hindi book Subhashit Aur Vinod.

(3) To be honest, I do not fully understand the verse I am about to share next; I have just translated it in accordance with the Bengali rendering provided in the anthology where I found it.

Devanagari text:

न नस्यग्रहणेनापि मूर्खो भवति पण्डितः|
एवं परिच्छदेऽपूर्वे सति स्याद् याचको न हि||

Harvard-Kyoto transliteration:

na nasyagrahaNenApi mUrkho bhavati paNDitaH|
evaM paricchade(a)pUrve sati syAd yAcako na hi||

– Anonymous 

Loose translation: A dullard does not become a scholar by merely taking snuff. Likewise, even if someone is in an excellent outfit, could they (still) not be a charity-seeker?

Source:  Udbhata Chandrika Volume I Part 3 Verse 18.

Notes: apUrva (अपूर्व) is literally "unprecedented / unsurpassed".

At some point in time, taking snuff must have become a symbol of scholarship as much as smoking a pipe was (and, perhaps, still is) seen as a mark of aristocracy or intellectual superiority in Western cultures.