Digest of Paramacharya's Discourses on Soundaryalahari (DPDS-61)

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Namaste.

Recall the Note about the organization of the ‘Digest’,

from DPDS – 26 or the earlier ones.

V. Krishnamurthy

A Digest of Paramacharya’s Discourses on Soundaryalahari -

61

(Digest of pp.1141 - 1151 of Deivathin Kural, 6th volume,

4th imprn.)

(Shloka #47 continued)

 

The Acharya does not see the two eyebrows of ambaa as two

bows. He conceives of both of them as one bow – not as one

arc from bottom to top, but as two arcs of the same bow. It

appears as if a skilful archer is at the point of stringing

his arrow through the bow, everything is in tension, and

one can see even the little vibration as a wave of the two

arcs. Thus the two eyebrows together constitute a single

bow. But mark it! At the centre, there is a gap. Between

the eyebrows, just above where the nose begins, there is a

gap in what appears as the bow. Not only is this gap in the

bow, but the bow string also has a gap; for in the same

shloka the Acharya is saying in the second line that the

two honey-beetle-like black eyes of ambaaL and their

brilliance constitute the bowstring. And this bowstring

has a gap in the middle because there is the nose-ridge

that is dividing it. If both the bow and the bowstring

have gaps right in the middle, then where is the bow, where

is the string? Then the whole analogy will crumble.

 

So we have to probe a little more deeply. The bow is

Manmatha’s bow – “ratipateH dhanuH”. What is the authority

or rationale for thinking of it as Manmatha’s bow? The

rationale is:

 

“tvaDIye netrAbhyAM madhukara-rucibhyAM dRta-guNaM”.

 

dRta-guNaM: with the bow-string held

tvadIye netrAbhyAM: by Your eyes

madhukara-rucibhyAM : that shine and move about like honey

bees

 

The two black honey-bee-like eyes of ambaaL are radiating a

brilliance, which is not static, but is superlatively

dynamic; they are moving this side and that side fast

enough to cover all the beings in the world so that the

dRshhTi of ambaaL may shower grace and compassion on them.

This fast movement of the honey-bees (eyes) gives the

visual illusion of an infinite line of black sparkling dots

and that is what makes the bowstring! And remember, only

Manmatha has such a bow-string made up of honey-bees. And

that is why ‘ratipateH dhanuH’ is not unreasonable in this

context. And whom is he (manmatha) aiming at by this bow

and arrow? Obviously Lord Shiva. Any time He is prone to go

away and sit in isolation as Dakshinamurti. Then who will

be there with Mother Goddess to look after the world? It

was She who put Him in this seat of ‘One of the Triad’,

with a specific duty and also as Ishvara and Sadashiva with

duties of anugraha and tirodhana.

 

We are still to untangle the problem of the bow and

bowstring not falling apart in the middle since they appear

to have gaps in the middle. The solution of the riddle is

found in the words (fourth line and part of the third

line):

“savyetara-kara-gRhItaM prakoshhTe mushhTau ca sthagayati

nigUDhAntaraM ume”

‘prakoshhTa’ is wrist. ‘mushhTi’ is clenched fist.

‘sthagayathi’ means ‘hides’. ‘nigUDHa’ is ‘not visible’.

‘antara’ is interspace. So far we have arrived at the

following meaning: “By the wrist and clenched fist is

hidden an interspace, that is (therefore) not visible.

 

Let us now visualize the imagery which the poet is bringing

before us. An archer (here, it is Manmatha) is holding the

bow. The hand holding the bow will have its clenched fist

in the middle of the bow and thus it is the fist that is

hiding the middle of the bow. Similarly the other hand will

have its wrist in front of the middle of the bowstring and

thus will hide that middle. Thus if we do not further think

about it, both the bow and the bowstring will have a vacant

space in their middle. And a little more observation will

tell us that it is the wrist and the fist that are filling

up the corresponding hidden space and so neither the bow

nor the bowstring is in two pieces. This is how the pair of

eyebrows of ambaaL with the vacant (browless) middle and

the two eyes with the nasal ridge in the middle exhibit a

bow and bowstring with their middle hidden by the fist and

the wrist respectively.

 

Now we have to further enquire which hand is doing what.

The words “savya-itara-gRhItaM” (meaning, held by the

other-than-right hand) tell that story. Even in the very

next shloka which talks about the right and left eyes of

ambaa as the Sun and Moon respectively, “savya” is used for

‘right’ , though “savya” also means ‘left’ in most other

places.

 

Incidentally, there are some Sanskrit words which have

valid contradictory meanings for the same word. “chhAyA”

stands for both shadow and light. “nyAsa” means

‘abandonment’ as well as ‘seizure’. “shiti” means both

‘black’ and ‘white’.

 

In this shloka it is important to understand which hand is

holding the bow and which hand is ready to shoot off the

arrow. Recall also that Manmatha is also capable of

shooting arrows with left hand just as Arjuna is. But if he

is shooting the arrow with the left hand the bow will be in

his right hand. We are watching this standing before

ambaaL.

 

First understand that Manmatha has to be in a lying

horizontal posture a little below the level of the eyebrows

of ambaal to shoot the arrow upward; because the line of

eyes (bowstring) is below and the central stem of the bow

(line of eyebrows) is above. Now if Manmatha is holding the

bow (of eyebrows) in his right hand and we are looking at

it from his left ( because on his right is ambaal’s face,

so we cannot be looking from that side), the two things

that are in our view at the middle portion of the whole

system are: one, his right fist closing in on the middle

of the bow and two, his right forearm on the farther side

from us. What we see of the fist is only the fingers

closing in on the middle of the bow, but they cannot

completely hide the bow as much as they would if we were

seeing from the other side. From the other side we would

have seen only the back portion of the palm and that would

have completely hidden what he is holding. Again, coming to

the right forearm hiding the middle of the bowstring, there

is no chance at all for such hiding, for the forearm is on

the farther side.

 

On the other hand, if he were holding the bow by his left

hand the back portion of the clenched fist would be

completely, really completely hiding the middle of the bow;

not only that, the forearm (the prakoshhTa) being between

us (the viewer) and the bowstring, would be completely

hiding the middle of the bowstring. And this is exactly

what is happening. The interspace between the eyebrows of

ambaal is hidden – in the poet’s imagery, by manmatha’s

prakoshhTa (forearm and wrist) - and the nasal ridge

causing the discontinuity in the line of the moving eyes –

in the poet’s imagery, this is hidden by the mushhTi

(clenched fist).

 

This, I think, is what the shloka depicts in the last two

lines of this four-line verse! But don’t think that it is

all only poetical gymnastics only. There is a great

significance for this shloka.

(To be Continued)

Thus spake the Paramacharya

 

praNAms to all advaitins and Devotees of Mother Goddess

profvk

 

 

=====

Prof. V. Krishnamurthy

My website on Science and Spirituality is http://www.geocities.com/profvk/

You can access my book on Gems from the Ocean of Hindu Thought Vision and

Practice, and my father R. Visvanatha Sastri's manuscripts from the site.

Also see the webpages on Paramacharya's Soundaryalahari :

http://www.geocities.com/profvk/gohitvip/DPDS.html