Soundarya Lahari--Verse 75 { end of commentary ]

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The previous commentary on Verse 75 is incomplete. Here is the

balance of the commentary

 

[stop at] - .... Just then the child's father returned from his

journey and greeted him with inexpressible joy. The Devi soon

appeared to the father in a dream and prophesied a remarkable career

for the child by her breast-feeding.

 

KAmesvarasUri, after narrating the above, gives another version of it

adding that that version was current at KANcI and its neighbourhood

in his days. In this version the father, who is very poor, is out on

his begging excursion, while the mother is away fetching water from

the river, the child suddenly waking up in his cradle, cries for

milk. PArvati and Paramesvara who happen just then to pass that way

in their AkAsayAna, hear the appealing cries of the infant and hie

thither, when PArvati takes the child in her arms and suckles him out

of compassion. The rest of the story is the same as the previous one.

 

There is yet another account given in the Malayalam edition of

saundarya-lahari by Kantiyur MahAdeva SAstrin, in his commentary on

the forty-first stanza, ie the last of the Ananda-lahari portion.

According to his version the entire work was by a Siddha of the name

of Dravida-sisu, who had it inscribed on the slopes of the Mount

KailAsa and when Samkara-bhagavatpAda paid a visit to the Mount as a

pilgrim an dwas reading the work, the Devi called the attention of

the Siddha thereto and commanded h im to wipe off the work as it

contained profound secrets not to be revealed to mortals. Even before

the Siddha carried out the said command, Samkara was able to commit

to memory forty-one stanzas at random out of the hundred. Before he

could memorize the rest of the entire work has been cleanly wiped off

by the Siddha.

 

On his return home Samkara wrote out from memory the forty-one

stanzas, which now form the first part of the work and composed the

other stanzas requisite to make up the one hundred. The difference i

nthe style and theme between the two parts is given out as a reason

for credence being attached to this story of the authorship of the

work.

 

Dravida-sisu marvellous powers of word portraiture are ascribed in

this story to his having been fed on the Devi's milk. MahAdeva

SAstrin gives this story for what it is worth and does not express

any opinion of his own on its authenticity.

 

 

Another commentator, the author of SudhA-vidyotinI, says that the

Dravida-sisu referred to is one Pravarasena, son of Dramida, a

Ksattriya prince of the Dramida country. This commentator, whose name

cannot be traced, says that he is the son of Pravarasena and claims

that the account given by him is authentic as it is based on the

dirct testimony of the Dramida-sisu himself, ie his father, the child

Dramida.

 

The story is that Dramida, as soon as Pravarasena was born, was

advised by his minister Suka that the birth of the son was an evil

portent for his family an dshould the child be allowed to survive, he

would lose his kingdom. The King ordered his men to abandon the child

in the neighbouring hill tracts. A tiger carried the child to its

cavern and left him at its mouth taking him to be a bundle of gems.

The child soon became reminiscent of his Yogic powers acquired during

his previous birth and began to praise the Devi, who, taking pity on

the child, nursed him. Some time thereafter the child was rescued by

a party of hunters and restored to the throne.

 

 

Yet others look upon Sri JNAnasambandha as the Dravida-sisu. He is

one of the four reputed Tamil saints [the other being Appar, Sundarar

and MAnikyavAcakar] who are the authors of several hymns in praise of

Siva and are almost deified throughout the Tamil country. Sri

JNAnasambandha is said to be a native of Sirkazhi. His father,

SivapAda-hrdaya and his mother, Bhagavati, were pious BrAhmana-s,

ever devoted to the worship of the deity presiding over the local

Siva temple.

 

By the Lord's grace a child was born to them after a long penance.

one day, when this child was about three years old, he was taken to

the temple tank by SivapAda-hrdaya, who leaving him to the ghat, went

to bathe in the tank. The child, left alone in an unfamiliar

environment, soon began to cry calling out " Mother! Father! " This

touched the heart of the Lord Siva of the temple, who at once asked

his spouse to take the child and feed him with her milk. The child

was soon appeased and stood there with milk flowing out of his mouth.

 

On noticing this, the father who returned after bathing, questioned

him as to who had suckled him Whereupon the child burst forth into a

song in praise of Siva and became later in life one of the recognized

bards of Tamil hymns. Sri JNAnasambhandah is said to have flourished

about twelve centeries ago and was hence possibly a contemporary of

Samkara-bhagavatpAda.

 

It has to be noted, however, that the two stories narrated here,

which have a direct bearing on Samkara-bhagavatpAda as the Dravida-

sisu, are not borne out by any accounts of Sri SamkarAcArya's life an

dtimes, and the fact that SamkarAcArya whould not have given such a

high testimonial to himself as indicated by the last line of the

stanza, but would probably have crouched a reference to hi scapacity

as a poet in much milder language, militates against the position

taken by Laksmidhara and others.