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SKELETON NOTES ON THE KUMARASAMBHAVAM
CANTO Five
1. Thus by Pinaka’s wielder burning the mind-born before her eyes, baffled of her soul’s desire, the Mountain’s daughter blamed her own beauty in her heart; for loveliness has then only fruit when it gives happiness in the beloved.
तया may go either with दहता or भग्नमनोरथा but it has more point with the latter. समक्षम् : The Avachuri takes singularly जया-विजयाप्रत्यक्षम् i.e., before Jaya and Vijaya, her friends. The point would then be that the humiliation of her beauty was rendered still more poignant by occurring before witnesses. In this case, however, the obscurity caused by the omission of the names would be the grossest of rhetorical faults. समक्षम् by itself can mean nothing but "before her (Parvati’s) very eyes", अक्षणोः समीपम्, as Mallinath rightly renders it. निनिन्द : found fault with, censured as defective. हि : S. takes this as the emphatic हि (निश्चितम्). It is more appropriate and natural to take it in the usual sense of for, giving the reason or justification (Mallinath) for her finding fault with her own beauty. प्रियेषु : loc. of object (विषये) , "with regard to those loved". सौभाग्य : The "felicity" of women consists in the love and welfare of those they love. Here only the first element is intended; so here प्रियवाल्लभ्यम् = the affection of the beloved. 2. By asceticisms she wished, embracing mind-centred me-
Page – 308 ditation, to make her beauty bear its fruit of love; for how else should these two be one, such love and such a husband.
अवन्ध्यरूपताम् : literally the "unsterile beautiness of herself". Notice the extraordinary terseness which Kalidasa has imparted to his style by utilising every element of pithiness the Sanskrit language possesses. समाधिम् : the bringing (धा) together (सम्) and centring on (आ) a single subject of all the faculties; used technically of the stage of ध्यान , meditation, in which the mind with all the senses gathered into it is centred on God within itself and insensible to outside impressions. तपोभि: : to translate this word "penances", as is frequently done, is altogether improper. The idea of "self-imposed or priest-imposed penalty for sin" which the English word contains does not enter even in the slightest degree into the idea of तप: which implies no more than a fierce and strong effort of all the human powers towards any given end. According to Hindu ideas this could only be done to its best effect by conquering the body for the mind; hence the word finally came to be confined to the sense of ascetic practices having this object. See Introduction for the history and philosophy of this word. वा : "or", answering an implied objection; "she had to do this, or (if you say she had not) how else could she succeed?" वा in this use comes to mean "for" in its argumentative, not in its causative or explanatory sense. अवाप्यते : the present in its potential sense. अन्यथा : otherwise, i.e., by any less strenuous means. Cf. Manu quoted by Mallinath:
तथाविधं प्रेम : anticipating the result of the तप:. The love of Siva for Uma was so great that he made himself "one body with his beloved", one half male, the other half female. See Introduction for the Haragauri image. ताद्श: : Mallinath glosses: i.e., "Mrityunjaya death-conquering (an epithet of Siva). For the two things desired of women are that their husbands should love them and that they should
Page – 309 not die before them." This may have been Kalidasa’s drift, but it is surely more natural to take ताद्श: of Siva’s qualities and greatness generally; "such a lord as the Almighty Lord of the Universe", ताद्श: जगदीश: (Kv.).
3. But hearing of her daughter soul-compelled towards the Mountain-Lord, towards asceticism endeavouring, said Mena to her, embracing her to her bosom, forbidding from that great eremite.
C. gives this verse as क्षेपक , it could certainly be omitted without loss to the sense but not without great loss to the emotional beauty of the passage. Is there any other authority for supposing this to be an interpolation? कृतोद्यमां : उद्यम: here in the sense of उद्योग:, preparatory action or efforts. Apte takes उद्यम: in the sense of "exertion or perseverance"; the commentator, X, of "fixed resolve", the sense in which Apte takes it in the.. ¹ Sloka. The word really means "active steps", "active efforts". मुनिव्रतात् : a vow practicable only to a saint.
Whose mind is not shaken in sorrows, who has banished the craving for delights, who has passed beyond joy and terror, fear and wrath, whose thought is calm and firm, he is called a saint. (Gita 2. 56)
4. There are Gods desired that dwell in homes. Oh my child, how alien is austerity from this body of thine; the delicate Shirisha flower may bear the foot-fall of the bee, but not of the winged bird.
¹See sloka 5 of this canto.
Page – 310 मनीषिता: : formed from मनीषा, desire (मन: + इष + आ) by the application of the passive suffix इत = desired, अभीष्टा:, अभिलषिता:, I do not understand on what principle of grammar the Avachuri followed by Deshpande takes this form as मनोऽभिलष्दात्र्य: "desired" taking the sense of "able" or "thought able to fulfil desire". This is but one more instance of the blamable slovenliness of this commentary. Adopting this untenable rendering these commentators further suppose that the gods in the house are to be worshipped by Parvati for the purpose of gaining Siva as her husband, but it is difficult to see how other gods could give her the Supreme, and in any case मनीषिता can only mean "desired" which renders this version impossible. But desired by whom? If by Parvati, we must suppose Mena to imagine her daughter aiming simply at making a good match in the celestial world. The sense will then be "Thou desirest a God in marriage; well, there are gods in our home whom thou canst win by easy adoration, while Siva must be wooed by harsh asceticism in the woods." Or it may signify "desired generally, desired by others", when it will have the force of desirable. I prefer therefore this latter interpretation. This is supported by the later इयं महेन्द्रप्रभृतीनधिश्रयश्चतुर्दिगीशानवमन्य मानिनी and Siva Purana. गृहेषु : The plural may here be used in the sense of a great mansion. The old Aryan house seems to have many storeys, each storey consisting of several flats, and in the palaces of princes and great nobles it was composed of several wings and even several piles of buildings. The female apartments specially formed a piece apart. Cf. the Siva Purana where Mena says
Wherefore goest thou forth to practise austerities; gods are there in my house and wondrous holinesses, and are there none in thy father’s mansion? A similar rendering is also favoured by another passage of the same Purana:
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It is perhaps a reminiscence of these lines that induces the Avachuri and Deshpande to render "worships the gods in the house to gain Siva for husband"; but this is incompatible with मनीषिता: If Siva Purana then were Kalidasa’s authority, we should have no choice as to our interpretation, but I have tried to show that the Siva Purana and not Kalidasa was the borrower. It is possible therefore that the former may in borrowing have misinterpreted गृहेषु and that the word has a strictly plural sense. "There are gods desired that dwell in homes", i.e., not like the undesirable and homeless Siva, who must be sought by austerity in wild woods and desolate mountains. The only objection to this rendering which certainly gives the best and most poetic sense, is that the contrast with Siva is implied, and not expressed, while तप: immediately following seems to be opposed to household worship. But Mena under the circumstances would not venture openly to dispraise Siva; implied dispraise therefore is what we should naturally expect. Such suppression of the implied contrast one term expressed and the other left to be gathered is not in itself unpoetic and might be expected in a work written under the strong influence of the elliptical and suggestive style of the Mahabharata. The reading गृहेऽपि would of course leave no doubt; it confines us to our first rendering. क्व क्व : Again the characteristic Sanskrit idiom implying महदन्तरम्, "a far cry". It is a far cry from your tender body to the harshness of ascetic austerities. Notice again the fine precision, the netteté of Kalidasa’s style; there are no epithets with तप: and वपु:, these being sufficiently implied in the contrasting क्व क्व and in the simile that follows. शिरीषपुष्पम : Cf. the Padma Purana:
—a fine Vyasian couplet. "Harsh is this austerity of thy choosing; thy body again is tender as a Shirish flower; yet iron-firm is thy resolve, O Parvati, a hard thing truly this seemeth." Who is here the
Page – 312 borrower, if loan there has been ? पेलवं : the other readings कोमलं and पेशलं are less commendable and not supported by Mallinath. पुन: : on the other hand, however.
5. Thus though she urged her, yet could not Mena rein in her daughter’s fixed purpose from action; for who can turn back (resist) a mind steadfastly resolved on the object of its desire, or a downward moving stream ?
ध्रुवेच्छाम् : the reading व्रतेच्छाम् is weak and श्रुतेच्छाम् absolutely without force. Neither is noticed by Mallinath. The point of course is the unspeakable fixity other resolve and not its object. नियन्तुमुद्यमात् : the delicate etymological assonance is a fine survival of one of Kalidasa’s favourite rhetorical artifices. उद्यमात् : this word is variously taken in various contexts. S. here renders by उत्साह , Apte by "fixed resolve" and Deshpande by "undertaking", whereas Mallinath consistently renders by उद्योग. It is as well therefore to fix its exact meaning. The root यम् meaning "to put a strain on" with उद् "up" in an intensive, implies the strain put on the faculties in preparing for or making a great effort. It means therefore "active effort" or "endeavour" or else "active preparation". In this latter sense Apte quotes गन्तुमुद्यमो विहित: = preparations to go were taken order for. In Sloka 3 the dative तपसे having the same force as an infinitive leads us to prefer this meaning; "effort towards austerity" has no meaning in the context. I think in this Sloka, it has as Mallinath perceived, the same sense. Uma is still in the stage of preparation, and is not yet even ready to ask her father’s consent. Effort or endeavour would therefore be obviously out of place. Now these are the only two ascertained senses of उद्यम . The sense of उत्साह or undertaking cannot be established and is not recognised by Apte. That of "perseverance", "fixed resolve" given to it by A. in Sloka 3 and by Apte here seems to me equally without
Page – 313 authority; I believe there is no passage in which उद्यम occurs where it cannot be rendered by "effort", "labour" or "preparation". Here moreover Mr. Apte is obviously wrong, for the sense of "fixed resolve" has already been given by ध्रुवेच्छाम् and Kalidasa is never tautologous, never expresses the same thing twice over in a line. Perhaps he intends us to take his next quotation, from the Panchatantra, in this sense उद्यमेन हि सिध्यन्ति कार्याणि न मनोरथै: . But the opposite to मनोरथा: , desires, is obviously not "perseverance" but "effort". "It is by active effort and not by mere desires that accomplishment is reached." For a more detailed discussion of this subject see Excursus. पयश्च निम्नाभिमुखम् : Water which has set its face towards descent. पय: the general is here obviously used for प्रवाह the particular. प्रतीपयेत् : the commentaries take in the sense of "turn back", most definitely expressed by S. पश्चात् प्रचालयेत्. Mallinath recognising that प्रतीपयेत् primarily means प्रतिकूलयेत् "oppose", gives that sense and deduces from it प्रतिनिवर्तयेत . Apte also quotes this passage to establish this sense of प्रतीपय. This of course is taking प्रतीपय = प्रतीपं कृ, प्रतीप being "reverse, inverted", e.g. in अम्भसामोघसंरोध: प्रतीपगमनादिव (अनुमीयते) , Canto 2. 25. But प्रतीप also and primarily means "adverse, hostile", so प्रतीपयति, प्रतीप: भवति , "be hostile to, oppose". It might possibly be taken in this sense here without Mallinath’s deduction of "turn back"; the general nature of the proposition justifying the more general sense.
6. Once she, the clear-minded, by the mouth of her personal friend begged of her father not ignorant of her longing, that she might dwell in the forests there to practise austerity and meditation until she saw fruit of her desire. कदाचित्… मनस्विनी : Once, at a certain time. कस्मिँश्चित् काले गते सति says V. It certainly means that; but that is not the precise shade of expression used by Kalidasa. कदाचित् means "at a certain time", and its full force is brought out by मनस्विनी. The commentators
Page – 314 are all astray in their rendering of this word, even Mallinath rendering स्थिरचिता while Avachuri and C. give मानिनी and साभिमाना, meaning proud, ambitious which is ludicrously wrong, मनीषी can mean nothing but wise, intellectual, a thinker. The wisdom of Parvati lay in her choice of a time, hence Kalidasa’s use of कदाचित् which at first seems awkward and vague, but in relation to मनस्विनी takes force and body. The wisdom is further specified by मनोरथज्ञ: . The commentators take this as meaning "knowing of her desire to marry Hara", but this was very old news to Himalaya and there would be no point in recording his knowledge here; V.’s explanation "for he who does not know the desire, does not give his consent", is inexpressibly feeble. मनोरथ means here not her desire for Siva but her desire to practise austerity as a means of winning Siva. Parvati wisely waited till the news of this intention had travelled to her father and he had time to get accustomed to it and think it over. If she had hastily sprung it on him his tenderness for her might have led him to join Mena in forbidding the step, which would have been fatal to her plans. आसन्नसखी : The Avachuri absurdly says तटस्थ, a mediating friend. Mallinath is obviously right आप्तसखी, a friend who is always near one, i.e., a personal or intimate friend. Cf. आसन्नपरिचारिका्. मुखेन : Mallinath takes उपाय "by means of her friend" and quotes Amara. तप:समाथये : Mallinath says तपोनियमार्थ, and the commentators generally follow him. Apte also takes समाधि = penance (meaning, of course, austerity), religious obligation (?), devotion to penance. I fail to see why we should foist this sense on समाधि. There is none of the passages quoted by Apte in support of it which cannot be as well or better translated by concentration. Here we may take as a Dwandwa-compound "austerity and concentration" or even better in accordance with Sloka 2 तपोभि: समाधये, "concentration to be gained by austerities". See Excursus. अयाचत : only आत्मने ātmane, having the middle sense "to ask for oneself". Notice the skilful use of compounds in this verse getting its full value out of this element of the language without overdoing it like Bhavabhuti and other late writers.
Page – 315 7. Then by her graver parent permitted, for pleased was he at passion so worthy of her, she went to the peacock-haunted peaks of the white mother famed afterwards among the people by her name.
अभिनिवेश is anything that takes possession of the mind or the nature, "passion", "engrossing resolve". The first seems to me more appropriate here. शिखण्डिमत् : V. considers this merely an ornamental epithet expressing the beauty of the hill; but ornamental epithets find little place in the Kumarasambhava. Mallinath explains "not full of wild beasts of prey", which is forced and difficult to reconcile with विरोधि-सत्वोज्झित-पूर्वमत्सरम् in Sloka 17. The Avachuri is characteristically inane; it says "peacocks are without attachment (सङग = attachment to worldly objects), the sight of attachment breaks Samadhi". I have reared peacocks myself and I can assure the reader that they have as much attachment as any other creature. I believe that this is a very beautiful and delicate allusion to the destined fruit of Uma’s journey and consummation of the poem, the birth of the Kumara, Skanda being always associated with the peacock. Kalidasa thus skilfully introduces a beautifying epithet without allowing it to be otiose.
8. In her irremovable resolve she put off the necklace whose restless string had rubbed off the sandal smeared and fastened on the bark tawny-red like the young dawn though ever her high swelling breasts rent (broke) its firm compactness.
विलोलयष्टि etc. : The meaning conveyed is that the movements of the necklace had already rubbed off the sandal paste from her breasts which otherwise she would have had to refuse herself as being a piece of luxury incompatible with तप:. Some of the commentators take यष्टि as meaning "her slender figure"; "the necklace
Page – 316 which owing to the restlessness of her slender body had rubbed off the sandal-paste". But to take विलोलयष्टि = यष्टिविलोलता (चञचलाङगतया) is very awkward and in any case it is extremely doubtful whether यष्टि by itself could mean अङगयष्टि:. I should therefore reject this rendering which as far as significance goes one might perhaps prefer. If we take यष्टि in this sense, it is better to adopt the reading अहार्यनिश्चया विलोलयष्टि, understand not विलोलयष्टि with J. for that would be merely an ornamental epithet, but अविलोलयष्टि: "She put off her necklace having rubbed off the sandal-paste, and her slender body forgot its swaying", i.e., the amorous beauty of motion attributed by the Kalidasian poets to beautiful women. प्रविलुप्तचन्दनम् will be in this rendering an adverbial (…………… )¹ compound. The reading however has little authority. बालारूणबभ्रु : Mallinath curiously translates अरूण by अर्क, sun; but अरूण means "dawn" and not "sun"; moreover, the young sun is not tawny-red unless seen through mist. पयोधर: lit. "whose compactness is rent by the loftiness of her breasts". The Avachuri is even more amazingly foolish than usual on this line. It construes अहार्यनिश्चया by आहारं त्यक्त्वा "abandoning food", a rendering which makes one suspect the sanity of the commentator and पयोधरोत्सेधविशीर्णसंहति by मेधोदयेन विस्तारित: समवायो यस्य, "the close composition of which is spread out by the rising of the clouds"; perhaps an unequalled instance of perverted scholastic ingenuity, though Mallinath’s interpretation of the Dingnagian stanza of the Meghaduta runs it close. It is needless to say that उत्सेथ and विशीर्ण will not bear the strained meanings put on them and that even if they could, Kalidasa’s fine taste in the choice of words would never have employed such out of the way expressions. He would have said plainly उदय and विस्तीर्ण . The sense arrived at by these unnecessary violences is the most prosaic, pointless and inept possible.
9. Even as her face was sweet with its fair adorned tresses,
¹The parenthesis left blank in MS.
Page – 317 so was it even with the ascetic’s tangled crown; not set with lines of bees alone the lotus has splendour but also coated with moss.
प्रसिध्धै: : X strangely takes "famous". The meaning of course is "dressed and adorned" as opposed to the neglected जटा. प्रसिध्धौ ख्यातभूषितौ (Amara). प्रसिध्ध means "famous" or "adorned". षट्पदश्रेणिभिरेव: एव = alone, in its limiting sense. Note the implied comparison, favourite form in Sanskrit classic poetry.
10. The triple plaited girdle of rough grass she wore — for her vow she wore it though every moment it caused discomfort, now first tied on reddened the seat of her zone.
कृतरोमविक्रियाम् : the turning of the hair on the body is used by the concrete Sanskrit for the sense of discomfort caused by the contact of anything rough and uncomfortable. The same symptom also denotes in other circumstances great sensuous delight. व्रताय, here व्रतार्थम् : with a view to her vow, for the sake of her vow. अकारि : the passive aorist; notice the tendency of later Sanskrit towards passive constructions in past time, prevalent in prose (see the Panchatantra passim) and breaking its way occasionally into poetry. The ripe and mature style of the Kumarasambhava specially shows this tendency to approximate to prose construction. So also कृतोअक्षसूत्रप्रणयी तया कर:. तत्पूर्वनिबध्धया : For पूर्व in the sense of प्रथमम् cf…
11. Her hand ceased from her lip from which the colouring was effaced and the ball all reddened with her breasts’ vermillion, and its fingers wounded with the plucking of Kusha grass, she made it a lover of the rosary.
Page – 318 निवर्तित: : Deshpande singularly supposes that this may mean formerly, i.e., always kept away from. Such a rendering if possible would be wholly out of place and meaningless. The difficulty as regards the first line is avoided by supposing it meant that her lip was naturally too red to need artificial colouring or that her maidens did the colouring for her. This is most jejune and artificial, nor has such a detail the slightest appropriateness in the context. As regards the ball, it is explained that her hand was too tender to play with it! This is not only jejune, it is laughable. Kalidasa would never have perpetrated such an absurd conceit even if there were no other objections; the absence of a word indicating past time would dispose of the rendering; for निवर्तित is the causal of वृत् with नि. Now the simple निवृत: means "cessation from प्रवृति i.e., from any habit of mind, practice or course of action", "Turning away from something it had been turned to". निवर्तित therefore obviously means "caused to cease from, turned from". It cannot possibly have the sense of "never busied with"; but means "ceasing to be busy with". Kalidasa is speaking in these stanzas of Uma putting off all her former girlish habits for those appropriate to asceticism; to suppose that he brings in matter foreign to the idea in hand is to suppose that he is not Kalidasa. And to interpret "she never used to colour her lips or play at ball and she now plucked Kusha grass and counted a rosary" introduces such foreign matter, substitutes non-sequence for sequence and ruins the balanced Kalidasian structure of these stanzas. Such commentary falls well under Mallinath’s vigorous censure that the muse of Kalidasa swoons to death under the weight of bad commentaries. The poet’s meaning is plain. Her hand no longer as before was employed in colouring her lip, she had put that away from her; neither did it play with the ball all reddened with the vermilion of her breasts; for both the vermilion was banished from her breasts and the ball from her hand; it was only used now to pluck Kusha grass and count the rosary. स्तनाङगरागात् : resolve the compound स्तन + अङगरागात्, the body-colour of the breast. For the toilet of women in Kalidasa’s time, see Appendix.
Page – 319 अक्षसूत्र : String of beads, rosary. The use of the rosary, to this day a Hindu practice with devotees and pious women, is thus more than two thousand years old. The use of the rosary among the Roman Catholics is an unmistakable sign of Hindu influence, as with the Hindus it has a distinct meaning, with the Christians none. See Excursus.
12. She who would be tormented by the flowers shaken by her own hair, by her tumbling on some costliest couch, now lay with her fair soft arm for pillow reclining (sunk) on the bare altar-ground.
पुष्पैरपि : like the lady of the fairy tale who was discovered to be a princess and no maid-servant when she could not sleep all night for the pain of a single flower which had been surreptitiously introduced into her bed. बाहुलतोपधायिनी : the appropriateness of the creeper-like arm rests in the rounded softness and supple willowy grace of the arm. It is the Indian creeper and not the English, be it remembered, that is intended. There is therefore no idea of slenderness. उपधायिनी : this is the verbal adjective (cf. दायिनी) from धा and उप in the sense of "lay upon", so "lie upon" उप्धाय वामभुजशायिनी D. K. III, lay pillowed on her left arm. For the full form compare वामहस्तोपहितवदना (quoted by Apte) and numerous other instances. निषेदुषी : S. strangely construes "slept sitting on the bare ground". It is obvious that she could not at the same time sleep sitting and sleep with her arm as her pillow; if we are to render निषेदुषी = उपविष्टा we must follow Mallinath "slept pillowed on her arm and sat on the bare ground"; but this is not justified by the Sanskrit; the word being a participle and not as it then should be, a finite tense like अशेत with or without च. Moreover the idea of sitting is foreign to the contrast between her former bed and her present, and therefore would not be introduced by Kalidasa. We must take निषद् in its primary sense of "sink down", "recline";
Page – 320 it implies "entire recumbence", and is opposed to परिवर्तन in the first line. "She who was formerly restless on softest couches, now lay restfully on the hard bare ground." स्थण्डिले… केवले : केवले means "without any covering", not merely of grass as some have it but of either grass or any sheet or coverlet. The स्थण्डिल is the वेदिका, a level and bare platform of earth used as sacred ground for sacrifice. एव : emphatic.
13. She while busied her vow seemed to lay by as a deposit, for after resuming her duet (of graces) in a duet (of forms) in the slender creepers her amorous movements and her wantoning glance in the hinds.
पुनर्ग्रहीतुम् : notice the strict supine use which is the proper function of the infinitive in Sanskrit. It has of course the dative force == पुनर्ग्रहणाय. द्वयेऽपि द्वयम् : the pair in the pair. अपि is here little more than emphatic. निक्षेप : a deposit on trust.
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