Soundarya Lahari--Verse 60

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SarasvatyAh sUktir amrta-laharI-kausala-harIh

pibantyAh sarvAni sravana-culukAbhyAm aviralam;

CamatkAra-slAghA-calita-sirasah kundala-gano

jhanatkArais tAraih prati-vacanam Acasta iva te.

 

O Consort of Sarva! while Thou hast been continously drinking in,

with the hollow of Thine outstretched ears, the sweet words of the

goddess Saraswati, which keep far in the background the flood of

nectar, and been shaking Thy head by way of appreciating the merit

[of the composition], Thy various ear ornaments echo in unison, as it

were, with loud chimes

 

The sweet words of the goddess saraswati-in praise of the Devi. The

implication is that the Goddess of Learning, in her attempt to please

her patron and win her approbation, had produced such an exquisitely

beautiful composition, wherein she had risen to the exalted heights

of the art of poesy, her own field, as to have wrung from the Devi an

appreciation indicated by the involuntary shaking of her head; not

merely that, but also the Devi's ear ornaments, inanimate thought

they were, chimed in unison with ther mistress's thoughts, as if

touched by the description of their mistress's greatness.

 

Laksmidhara construes the stanza in a different manner altogether,

taking the sweet words as coming from the mouth of the Devi herself,

on hearing which Sarasvati, the goddess of learning, is so much

overpowered by their grace, as to express her approbation by shaking

her head, when her ear ornaments also chimed in unison. LaksmIdhara

takes her last word 'Te' in the stanza as applying to 'SUktIh',

ignoring th eproximity of the word 'SarasvatyAh', which immediately

precedes it. While, therefore, the natural arrangement of the words

in the stanza support our rendering given above, it must be admitted,

in LaksmIdhara's defence, that the very design of the author in

describing the Devi from head to foot in the latter part of the poem

leand support to LaksmIdhara/s interpretaion, as this stanza is

ostensibly in praise of the 'VAg-jhari', sweet flow of words of the

Devi, and does not pertain to the profiency of Saraswati in her art,

as it is not germane to the topic of this aprt of the poem. Adopting

the same line of argument, it may be noted that the position, assumed

by the other commentators and followed by us in our rendering, is

strengthened, as the description by the poet of the Devi's shaking of

her head in appreciation of Sarasvati's VAg-jharI comes within the

design adopted by the author in the latter part of the poem, such

description being only of the Devi's face.

 

 

 

 

 

Yantra image in : SS homepage.

 

http://www.shaktisadhana.org/Newhomepage/sadhana/Commentaries.html

 

The Saundarya-Lahari of Sri Samkara-Bhagavatpada.

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