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74
THE MAYŪRĀṢṬAKA OF MAYŪRA
Atharvaveda, adopted şk as the transcription of the character; compare,
for example, JAOS, vol. 26, 2d part, New Haven, 1906, p. 218 foot, v. 18,
vaş kämä, and p. 224 foot, v. 25, jätas kaśyapo, with the Päippalāda fac-
similes, folios 6 a, line 3, and 7 b, line 12, respectively. But he has since
written me: 'The signs which I transliterated şka and spa are not exactly
representatives of lingual ş, but that seemed the best rendering.'
3
eşā¹ kā stanapīnabhārakathina² madhye daridrāvati³
vibhrāntā hariņi vilolanayanā samtrasta'yūthodgatā
amtaḥsv[e] dagajendragaṇḍagalitā' samlīlayā gacchati
dṛṣṭvā rūpam idam priyamgagahanam¹⁰ vṛddho¹¹ 'pi kāmā-
yate¹s
Who is this timid gazelle, with a burden of firm, swelling breasts,
With roving glance, and slender of waist, gone forth from the
frightened herd?
She goes like as she were fallen from the temple of a rutting lord
of elephants.
Seeing this form, with its adornment of beautiful limbs, even an
old man becomes a Kāma.
Notes. 1. The meter is śardalavikriḍita. 2. Perhaps, 'stiff with the
burden of her swelling breasts'; i.e. she must walk very upright, or the
weight of her breasts would make her stoop-shouldered.
3. There may
be an obscene pun in madhye daridravati; for the passionateness of the
mrgi, see Schmidt, as cited in stanza 2, n. 3. For daridravati, not found in
the lexicons, cf. Whitney, Skt. Grammar, 1233 d. 4. For harint, 'gazelle,'
see mṛgi, stanza 2, n. 3. 5. The reading of the manuscript is samtrastha.
6. The manuscript is broken above the su ligature, but the restoration of
thee is unquestionably correct. 7. According to folk-belief, even in modern
India (cf. W. Crooke, The Popular Religion and Folk-Lore of Northern
India, 2d ed., Westminster, 1896, vol. 2, p. 240), there is in the forehead
of an elephant a magic jewel, the gajamukta, which grants to him who
possesses it his every wish. The author seems here to be comparing his
heroine to this magic jewel. 8. I have rendered samlilaya as 'like'; cf.
St. Petersburg Wörterbuch, unabridged ed., s.v. hla, 3. The compound
of hila and sam is not found in the lexicons, but occurs twice in this poem;
cf. 8 c. 9. The whole of pada 3 may be read with a second rendering, con-
taining an obscene pun: 'She goes, possessed, through her wanton sport
with [her lover], of that which falls from the temple of the rutting lord
of elephants,' i.e. possessed of the mada, which also means semen virile
and doppodiola voris; this latter, in the case of the mrgi, has the odor of
THE MAYŪRĀṢṬAKA OF MAYŪRA
Atharvaveda, adopted şk as the transcription of the character; compare,
for example, JAOS, vol. 26, 2d part, New Haven, 1906, p. 218 foot, v. 18,
vaş kämä, and p. 224 foot, v. 25, jätas kaśyapo, with the Päippalāda fac-
similes, folios 6 a, line 3, and 7 b, line 12, respectively. But he has since
written me: 'The signs which I transliterated şka and spa are not exactly
representatives of lingual ş, but that seemed the best rendering.'
3
eşā¹ kā stanapīnabhārakathina² madhye daridrāvati³
vibhrāntā hariņi vilolanayanā samtrasta'yūthodgatā
amtaḥsv[e] dagajendragaṇḍagalitā' samlīlayā gacchati
dṛṣṭvā rūpam idam priyamgagahanam¹⁰ vṛddho¹¹ 'pi kāmā-
yate¹s
Who is this timid gazelle, with a burden of firm, swelling breasts,
With roving glance, and slender of waist, gone forth from the
frightened herd?
She goes like as she were fallen from the temple of a rutting lord
of elephants.
Seeing this form, with its adornment of beautiful limbs, even an
old man becomes a Kāma.
Notes. 1. The meter is śardalavikriḍita. 2. Perhaps, 'stiff with the
burden of her swelling breasts'; i.e. she must walk very upright, or the
weight of her breasts would make her stoop-shouldered.
3. There may
be an obscene pun in madhye daridravati; for the passionateness of the
mrgi, see Schmidt, as cited in stanza 2, n. 3. For daridravati, not found in
the lexicons, cf. Whitney, Skt. Grammar, 1233 d. 4. For harint, 'gazelle,'
see mṛgi, stanza 2, n. 3. 5. The reading of the manuscript is samtrastha.
6. The manuscript is broken above the su ligature, but the restoration of
thee is unquestionably correct. 7. According to folk-belief, even in modern
India (cf. W. Crooke, The Popular Religion and Folk-Lore of Northern
India, 2d ed., Westminster, 1896, vol. 2, p. 240), there is in the forehead
of an elephant a magic jewel, the gajamukta, which grants to him who
possesses it his every wish. The author seems here to be comparing his
heroine to this magic jewel. 8. I have rendered samlilaya as 'like'; cf.
St. Petersburg Wörterbuch, unabridged ed., s.v. hla, 3. The compound
of hila and sam is not found in the lexicons, but occurs twice in this poem;
cf. 8 c. 9. The whole of pada 3 may be read with a second rendering, con-
taining an obscene pun: 'She goes, possessed, through her wanton sport
with [her lover], of that which falls from the temple of the rutting lord
of elephants,' i.e. possessed of the mada, which also means semen virile
and doppodiola voris; this latter, in the case of the mrgi, has the odor of