Soundarya Lahiri Verse 13 [ Sri Samkara-Bhagavatpada ]

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, venkat bhasksr

<sitam_subba wrote:

>

>

> naram varsheeeyamsam nayana virasam narmasu jadam

> tavaapaangaalokey patitamanudhavanti shatashah

> galadveynee bandhaah kuchakalasha visrastasichayaa

> hataath thurtyathkaancho vigalita dukoolaaa youvatyah

> --------

 

Damsels in hundreds, with their locks dishevelled, their saris

flying off their figures, their girdles bursting asunder with force,

their silk garments slipping down, run after a decrepit, ugly and

impotent man, who falls within the range of thy side-glances.

 

This stanza may be characterised as one wherein the poet]s fancy has

run riot in extolling the potency of the Devi's side-glances. If any

description, in the true classic style, of women unhinged by the

influence of passion is to be attempted by the saintliest of poets,

it is to be met with in this stanza.

 

Run after- madly follow in the wake of, in the belief that he is

Madana incarnate. To the exquisitely beautiful side-glances of the

Devi is attributed the virtue of converting even the most repulsive

into the most attractive in this stanza, and the same feature is

dwelt upon futher in the eighteenth and nineteenth stanzas infra,

th emotif in all the three cases being to raise KAma, the

satisfaction of desire and passions, to the rank of one of the four

PurusArtha-s, the ends and aims of human existence. This is what is

known as the MAdana-prayoga.

 

 

The Ocean of Beauty.

Saundarya-Lahari of Sri Samkara-Bhagavatpada

Pandit S. Subrahmanya Sastri and T.R Srinivasa Ayyangar.