Sri Aurobindo

Translations

CWSA.- Volume 5

Part One. Translations from Sanskrit
Section Three. Kalidasa

Skeleton Notes on the Kumarasambhavam

Canto V

तथा समक्षं दहता मनोभवं पिनाकिना भग्नमनोरथा सती ।
निनिन्द रूपं हृदयेन पार्वती प्रियेषु सौभाग्यफला हि चारुता ॥

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.

तथा may go either with दहता or भग्नमनोरथा; but it has more point with the latter.

समक्षं. The Avachuri takes singularly जयाविजयाप्रत्यक्षं, 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. समक्षं by itself can mean nothing but “before her (Parvati’s) very eyes” अक्ष्णोः समीपं as Mallinatha¹ rightly renders it.

निनिन्द found fault with, censured as defective.

हि. S [Sukhavabodha-tika] takes this as the emphatic हि (निश्चितं). It is more appropriate and natural to take it in the usual sense of “for”, giving the reason or justification (Mallinatha²) 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 = प्रियवाल्लभ्यं, the affection of the beloved.

इयेष सा कर्तुमवन्ध्यरूपतां समाधिमास्थाय तपोभिरात्मनः ।
अवाप्यते वा कथमन्यथा द्वयं तथाविधं प्रेम पतिश्च तादृशः ॥

By asceticisms she wished, embracing mind-centred meditation, to make her beauty bear its fruit of love; for how else should these two be won³, such love and such a husband?

अवन्ध्यरूपतां literally the “unsterile-beautyness⁴ of herself”. Notice the extraordinary terseness which Kalidasa has imparted to his style by utilising every element of pithiness the Sanscrit 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.

तपोभिः. To translate this word “penances”, as is frequently done, is altogether improper. The idea of self-imposed or priestimposed penalty for sin which the English word contains does not enter even in the slightest degree into the idea of तपः 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.⁵

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 Mallinatha⁶

यद् दुष्करं यद् दुरापं यद् दुर्गं यच्च दुस्तरम् ।
तत् सर्वं तपसा प्रप्यं तपो हि दुरतिक्रमम् ॥

तथाविधं प्रेम. Anticipating the result of the तपः. The love of Siva for Uma was so great that he made himself “one body with his beloved”, one half male, the other female⁷. See Introduction for the Haragauri image.

तादृशः. Mallinatha⁸ glosses “i.e. Mrityunjaya; deathconquering (an epithet of Siva). For the two things desired of women are that their husbands should love them and that they should not die before them.” This may have been Kalidasa’s drift, but it is surely more natural to take तादृश of शिव’s qualities and greatness generally; “such a lord as the Almighty Lord of the Universe”, तादृशः जगदीशः Kv [Kumarasambhava-vritti].

निशम्य चैनां तपसे कृतोद्यमां सुतां गिरीशप्रतिसक्तमानसाम् ।
उवाच मेना परिरभ्य वक्षसा निवारयन्ती महतो मुनिव्रतात् ॥

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 [vow of an] eremite⁹.

C [Charitravardhana] 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 interpolation¹⁰?

कृतोद्यमां. उद्यमः here in¹¹ the sense of उद्योगः, preparatory action or efforts. Apte takes उद्यमः here in the sense of “exertion or perseverance”; the commentary [Kv]¹² of “fixed resolve”, the sense in which Apte takes it in the [fifth] sloka. See¹³ under that sloka. The word really means “active steps”, “active efforts”.

मुनिव्रतात् a vow practicable only to a saint.

दुःखेष्वनुद्विग्नमनाः सुखेषु विगतस्पृहः ।
वीतरागभयक्रोधः स्थितधीर्मुनिरुच्यते ॥

“Whose mind is not shaken in sorrows, who has banished the craving for delight¹⁴, who has passed beyond joy and terror and wrath¹⁵, whose thought is calm and firm, he is called a saint.”

Bhagavadgita 2.56.

मनीषिताः सन्ति गृहेषु देवतास्तपः क्व वत्से क्व च तावकं वपुः ।
पदं सहेत भ्रमरस्य पेलवं षिरीषपुष्पं न पुनः पतत्रिणः ॥

There are gods desired that dwell in homes; O¹⁶ my child, how alien is austerity from this body of thine; the delicate Sirisha¹⁷ flower may bear the footfall of the bee, but not of the wingèd bird.

मनीषिताः formed from मनीषा desire (मन्¹⁸ + इष् + आ) by the application of the passive suffix इतः = desired अभीष्टाः, अभिलषिताः. I do not understand on what principle of grammar the Avachuri followed by Deshpande takes this form as = मनोऽभिलाषदात्र्यः, “desired” taking the sense of “able” or “thought able to fulfil desire”. This is but one more instance of the blameable¹⁹ 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. This is supported by the later इयं महेन्द्रप्रभृतीनधिश्रियश्चतुर्दिगीशानवमत्य मानिनी and Siva Purana. I prefer therefore the²⁰ latter interpretation²¹.

गृहेषु. The plural may here be used in the sense of a great mansion. The old Aryan house seems to have [been] many-storied²², each storey consisting of several flats; and in the palaces of princes and great nobles, it was composed of several wings and even separate²³ piles of building²⁴. The female apartments especially²⁵ formed a piece apart. Cf. the Siva Purana where Mena says

कुत्र यासि तपः कर्तुं देवाः सन्ति गृहे मम ।
तीर्थानि च विचित्राणि सन्ति किं न पितुर्गृहे ॥

“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.

इति स्वतनयावाक्यं श्रुत्वा तु पितरौ मुने ।
ऊचतुर्दुःखितौ भूत्वा बाष्पगद्गदया गिरा ॥
तस्मात् त्वं भक्तितयुक्तेन²⁶ पूजयस्व गृहे शिवं²⁷ ।
उ मा गच्छ वनं घोरं सर्वविध्नास्पदं सदा ॥

It is perhaps a reminiscence of these lines that induces the Avachuri and Deshpande to render “Worship²⁸ the gods in the house to gain Siva for husband”; but this is incompatible with मनीषिताः. If the Siva Purana²⁹ 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 तपः 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 Sanscrit idiom implying महदन्तरं “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 तपः and वपुः, these being sufficiently implied in the contrasting क्व. . . क्व and in the simile that follows.

शिरीषपुष्पं. Cf. the Parvati-Parinaya³⁰ परुषस्तपोविशेषस्तव पुनरङ्गं शिरीषसुकुमारम् । व्यवसितमेतत्कठिनं पार्वति तद् दुष्करमिति प्रतिभाति, a fine Vyasian couplet. “Harsh is this austerity of thy choosing; thy body again is tender as a Sirisha³¹ flower; yet iron firm is thy resolve, O Parvati; a hard thing truly this seemeth.” Who is here the borrower, if loan there has been?

पेलवं. The other readings कोमलं and पेशलं are less commendable and not supported by Mallinatha³².

पुनः on the other hand, however.

इति ध्रुवेच्छामनुशासती सुतां शशाक मेना न नियन्तुमुद्यमात् ।
क ईप्सितार्थस्थिरनिश्चयं मनः पयश्च निम्नाभिमुखं प्रतीपयेत् ॥

Thus though she urged her, yet could not Mena rein in her daughter’s fixed purpose from action; for who can resist³³ 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 Mallinatha³⁴. The point of course is the unspeakable fixity of her 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 Mallinatha³⁵ consistently renders by उद्योग. It is as well therefore to fix its exact meaning. The root यम् meaning to put under a strain³⁶ 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 विहितः = 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 Mallinatha³⁷ 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 Kv³⁸ in sloka 3 and by Apte here, seems to me equally without authority; I believe there is no passage in which उद्यमः 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 Punchatuntra³⁹, in this sense उद्यमेन हि सिध्यन्ति कार्याणि न मनोरथैः । But the opposite to मनोरथाः 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.⁴⁰

पयश्च निम्नाभिमुखं water which has set its face towards descent. पयः 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, पश्चात्कश्चालयेत्⁴¹. Mallinatha⁴² recognising that प्रतीपयेत् primarily means प्रतिकूलयेत् oppose, gives that sense and deduces from it प्रतिनिवर्तयेत्. 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. 2.25 अम्भसामोघसंरोधः प्रतीपगमनादिव (अनुमीयते) । But प्रतीप also and primarily means adverse, hostile, so प्रतीपयति = प्रतीपः भवति be hostile to, oppose. It might possibly be taken in this sense here, without Mallinatha’s⁴³ deduction of “turn back”; the general nature of the proposition justifying the more general sense.

कदाचिदासन्नसखीमुखेन सा मनोरथज्ञं पितरं मनस्विनी ।
अयाचतारण्यनिवासमात्मनः फलोदयान्ताय तपःसमाधये ॥

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.

कदाचिद् . . . मनस्विनी once, at a certain time. कस्मिंश्चित्काले गते सति says V [Vatsavyasa]. It certainly means that; but that is not the precise shade of expression used by Kalidasa. कदाचिद् means “at a certain time”, and its full force is brought out by मनस्विनी. The commentators are all astray in their rendering of this word, even Mallinatha⁴⁴ rendering स्थिरचित्ता while Avachuri and C give मानिनी and साभिमाना, meaning proud, ambitious which is ludicrously wrong. मनस्वी⁴⁵ can mean nothing but wise, intellectual, a thinker. The wisdom of Parvati lay in her choice of a time, hence Kalidasa’s use of कदाचिद् which at first seems awkward and vague, but in relation to मनस्विनी takes force and body. The wisdom is farther⁴⁶ specified by मनोरथज्ञं. 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 had time⁴⁷ 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. Mallinatha⁴⁸ is obviously right आप्तसखी. A friend who is always near one, i.e. a personal or intimate friend. Cf. आसन्नपरिचारिका.

मुख⁴⁹. Mallinatha⁵⁰ takes = उपाय by means of her friend and quotes Vishwa⁵¹ मुखं निःसरणे वक्त्रे प्रारम्भोपाययोरपि i.e. मुख means “issue”, “face, mouth”, also “beginning” and “means, expedient”. I do not see why we should not take the ordinary sense here.

तपःसमाधये. Mallinatha⁵² says तपोनियमार्थम्, 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 समाधिः. 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 तपोभिः समाधये concentration to be gained by austerities. See Excursus.

अयाचत only Atmane 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.

अथानुरूपाभिनिवेशतोषणा कृताभ्यनुज्ञा गुरुणा गरीयसा ।
प्रजासु पश्चात्प्रथितं तदाख्यया जगाम गौरीशिखरं शिखण्डिमत् ॥

Then by her graver parent permitted, for pleased was he at a passion⁵³ so worthy of her, she went to the peacockhaunted peak⁵⁴ of the White Mother, famed afterwards among the peoples⁵⁵ 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 कुमारसंभव. Mallinatha⁵⁶ explains “not full of wild beasts of prey”, which is forced and difficult to reconcile with विरोधिसत्त्वोज्झितपूर्वमत्सरं in sloka 17. The Avachuri is characteristically inane; it says “Peacocks are without attachment (सङ्ग = attachment to worldly objects), the sight of attachment breaks समाधि”; 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 कुमार, Skanda being always associated with the peacock. Kalidasa thus skilfully introduces a beautifying epithet without allowing it to be otiose.

विमुच्य सा हारमहार्यनिश्चया विलोलयष्टिप्रविलुप्तचन्दनम् ।
बबन्ध बालारुणबभ्रु वल्कलं पयोधरोत्सेधविशीर्णसंहति ॥

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 its⁵⁷ 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 तपः. Some of the commentators take यष्टि as meaning “her slender figure”; “the necklace which owing to the restlessness of her slender body had rubbed off the sandalpaste.” But to take विलोलयष्टि = यष्टिविलोलता (चञ्चलाङ्गतया A) is very awkward and in any case it is extremely doubtful whether यष्टिः by itself could mean अङ्गयष्टिः. 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 अहार्यनिश्चयाविलोलयष्टिः, understand not विलोलयष्टिः with J [Jinasamudrasuri] for that would be merely an ornamental epithet, but अविलोलयष्टिः “She put off her necklace, having rubbed off the sandalpaste, and her slender body forgot its swayings⁵⁸” i.e. the amorous beauty of motion attributed by the Kalidasian poets to beautiful women. प्रविलुप्तचन्दनं will be in this rendering an adverbial (...............)⁵⁹ compound. The reading however has little authority.

बालारुणबभ्रु. Mallinatha⁶⁰ curiously translates अरुण by अर्क sun; but अरुण means “dawn” and not “sun”; moreover the young sun is not tawny red unless seen through mist.

पयोधर [etc.] 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 मेघोदयेन विस्तारितः 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 Mallinatha’s⁶¹ interpretation of the Dingnagian stanza in⁶² the Meghadut⁶³ runs it close. It is needless to say that उत्सेध 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.

यथा प्रसिद्धैर्मधुरं शिरोरुहैर्जटाभिरप्येवनभूत्तदाननम् ।
न षट्पदश्रेणिभिरेव पङ्कजं सशैवलासङ्गमपि प्रकाशते ॥

Even as her face was sweet with its fair-adorned tresses, 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.

प्रसिद्धैः. [C]⁶⁴ strangely takes “famous”. The meaning of course is “dressed and adorned” as opposed to the neglected जटा. प्रसिद्धौ ख्यातभूषितौ (Amara) “प्रसिद्ध means ‘famous’ or ‘adorned’.”

न षट्पदश्रेणिभिरेव. एव = alone, in its limiting sense.

Note the implied comparison, a favourite⁶⁵ form in Sanscrit classic poetry.

प्रतिक्षणं सा कृतरोमविक्तयां व्रताय मौञ्जीं त्रिगुणां बभार याम् ।
अकारि तत्पूर्वनिबद्धया तया सरागमस्या रसनागुणास्पदम् ॥

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.

कृतरोमविक्रियां. The turning of the hair on the body is used by the concrete Sanscrit 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 this⁶⁶ tendency of later Sanscrit towards passive constructions in past time, prevalent in prose (see the Punchatuntra⁶⁷ passim) and breaking its way occasionally into poetry. The ripe and mature style of the Kumarasambhava especially⁶⁸ shows this tendency to approximate to prose construction. So also कृतोऽक्षसूत्रप्रणयीं तया करः.

तत्पूर्वनिबद्धया. For पूर्व in the sense of प्रथमम् cf...⁶⁹

विसृष्टरागादधरान्निवर्रितः स्तनाङ्गरागारुणिताच्च कन्दुकात् ।
कुशाङ्कुरादानपरिक्षताङ्गुलिः कृतोऽक्षसूत्रप्रणयी तया करः ॥

Her hand ceased from her lip from which the colouring was effaced and the ball all reddened with her breasts’ vermilion and, its fingers wounded with the plucking of kusha grass, she made it a lover of the rosary.

निवर्तितः. 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 could⁷⁰ 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 निवर्तितः is the causal of वृत् with नि. Now the simple निवृत्तः means “cessation from प्रवृत्ति, i.e. from any habit of mind, practice or course of action; turning away from something it had been turned to”. निवर्तितः 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 commenting⁷¹ falls well under Mallinatha’s⁷² 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 breast⁷³; for both the vermilion was banished from her breast⁷⁴ and the ball from her hand; it was only used now to pluck kusha grass and count the rosary.

स्तनाङ्गरागाद्. Resolve the compound स्तन + अङ्गरागाद् the body-colour of the breast. For the toilette⁷⁵ of women in Kalidasa’s time see Appendix.⁷⁶

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 2000⁷⁷ years old. The use of the rosary among the Roman Catholics is an unmistakeable⁷⁸ sign of Hindu influence, as with the Hindus it has a distinct meaning, with the Christians none. See Excursus.

महार्हशय्यापरिवर्तनच्युतैः स्वकेशपुष्पैरपि या स्म दूयते ।
अशेत सा बाहुलतोपधायिनी निषेदुषी स्थण्डिल एव केवले ॥

She who would be tormented by the flowers shaken from⁷⁹ her own hair by her tumbling on some costliest couch, now lay with her fair soft arm for pillow sunk on⁸⁰ the bare altarground.

पुष्पैरपि. Like the lady of the fairytale who was discovered to be a princess and no maidservant 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 creeperlike 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. उपधाय वामभुजमशयिषि⁸¹ Dk [Dashakumaracharita] 111, lay pillowed on her left arm. For the full form cf. Shak. 4⁸² 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 a pillow⁸³; if we are to render निषेदुषी = उपविष्टा we must take with D following⁸⁴ Mallinatha⁸⁵ “slept pillowed on her arm and sat on the bare ground”; but this is not justified by the Sanscrit, 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”; 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.

पुनर्ग्नहीतुं नियमस्थया तया द्वयेऽपि निक्षेप इवार्पितं द्वयम् ॥
लतासु तन्वीषु विलासचेष्टितं विलोलदृष्टं हरिणाङ्गनासु च ॥

She while busied in her⁸⁶ 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.

पुनर्ग्रहीतुं. Notice the strict supine use which is the proper function of the infinitive in Sanscrit. It has of course the dative force = पुनर्ग्रहणाय.

द्वयेऽपि द्वयं. The pair in the pair. अपि is here little more than emphatic.

निक्षेप. A deposit on trust.

¹ 1972 ed.: Mallinath