Dana-keli-kaumudi

Jagat · June 11, 2000

Lalita: (simultaneously frightened and depressed) Oh horrors, I have become polluted by the touch of this bold rascal who enjoys blackening the reputations of chaste housewives.

Radha: (smiling) Lalita, don't come near me. You have been defiled by the touch of a ravisher of women.

Lalita: Well, really. I was only joking. I did not really mean that I had been contaminated. Do you think that Krishna is capable of raising his snake arms to touch me, a veritable paragon of wifely chastity?

Radha: You little liar. I know the truth, so just keep quiet. You don't have to say anything--the hairs standing on end all over your body are all the evidence I need.

Lalita: Hey, skirt chaser!! I am really getting irritated now. You have polluted me and now my friends won't go near me any more. "Misery loves company," they say. So, do the needful and put them all in the same boat with me.

<hr>A number of proverbs are quoted in this section. I have tried to find standard equivalents in English as far as possible. Here, lit. na duHkhaM paJcabhiH saha "There is no distress when one is with others." Roughly equivalent to the familiar proverb "misery loves company." In the following bit, Krishna takes up Lalita's suggestion.<hr>

Krishna: Champakalata, you are a champaka creeper, so wrap yourself around this tamal tree with long branches that touch the clouds and burst with flowers.

<hr>payodhara ("holding water or milk") is more commonly used to mean breast than cloud. The allusion is meant to be obvious.<hr>

Champakalata: (trembling with fear, she backs off) My dashing young man, perhahs you should go and make Lalita wither. I have heard it said that one who has hit bottom can't go down any lower.

<hr>Literally, "one who is lying down cannot fall" (na zayAnaH pataty adhaH).<hr>

Lalita: How about trying Visakha. Her name means "without branches," but perhaps we soon will see her with five strong branches.

Krishna: Visakha! If you embrace this youthful tree, you will indeed become a beautiful shade tree. But don't trick me like Champakalata and run away.

<hr>The pun is on the word taruNa ("youth"), which is the same in composition as the instrumental single of tree, taruNA. Once again, the pun is meant to be obvious.<hr>

Visakha: (quickly dodging Krishna's advances) You are a fallen woman, Lalita. It is said,

<center>vidUSayati nirlajjaH

svayaM duSTaH parAn api</center>

<blockquote> "A shameless person is not content with his own wickedness, but spoils others as well."

So be it. Luckily your intentions are transparent enough. The good thing about all this is that now you can be left behind in lieu of payment for the toll fees.

<hr>Perhaps the appropriate equivalent of this proverb is "The rotten apple spoils the barrel." I have gone with the literal translation here.

Lalita has been contaminated so she is now "worthy" of being left behind. One could say that this entire play is a send-up of untouchability and Hindu society's rules of propriety. This is definitely something that Rupa and Raghunath would have been keenly aware of. <hr>

(Lalita backs off and gives Krishna a dirty look.)

Krishna: (playfully trying to grab Radha) Your eyes are so enticing, Radha. The storm winds of Lalita's dirty looks are shaking my branches (shows his shaking fingers). So please don't look on me hatefully; I promise to behave politely with you.

Radha: (fearfully, hiding behind Visakha) Sakhi! Protect yourself by protecting me, for it is said that if Radha is defiled, then Visakha is too.

<hr>Based on the astrological identity of Radha and Visakha.<hr>

Lalita: O Gandharvika! Why are you taking shelter of a feeble doe [like Visakha]? If you want protection from this rapacious hunter, you would do better to come to me, a ferocious lioness. I only have to roar and that rascal will run like the coward he is.

<hr>Here's one of those things that I would never have noticed if it hadn't been for Visvanath. According to an unnamed Sanskrit lexicon, gandharva is a kind of noble creature, probably the musk deer, its female being the gAndharvikA. lubdhaka means hunter, but its original meaning as "greedy person" applies contextually to Krishna also.<hr>

Radhika: (looking at Lalita with mixed emotions, curious, angry and humorous; speaking in Sanskrit)

<center>vizrambha-ghAtini cirAd uparudhya zuddhA

vizrambhatas tvam iha naH svagRhAd anaiSIH |

lobhAd vrataM yadi nijaM vyadhunos tad astu

kiM dUSayanty api satIs trapase na devi

Jagat · June 11, 2000

<blockquote>Traitress! You took us simple girls into your confidence

and, acting so pure, brought us her from our homes;

if, out of greed, you have now broken your vows, so be it,

but why, O goddess, does it not frighten you

to see us chaste women be defiled?</blockquote>

Lalita: Oh no, you're right! Sakhi Vrinda, what can I do to be purified again?

Vrinda: Lalita, stop worrying about it. If you go to the most holy place known as the forest bower and keep the vigil of the God of Love throughout the night, then could any sins remain afterward?

Krishna: These amusements are making me lax in my duty. I should be making an effort to collect the tolls.

Nandimukhi: Lalita, it's almost noon, so let's agree on the amount that has to be paid and settle this matter.

Lalita: Alright, toll-keeper. We think your claim is only worth five pAdikAs, but we will give you this bauble instead. (so saying, she takes a ring from Chitra's finger and gives it to him.)

<hr>One pAdika = 40 kapardikAs, or 1 gaNDA of cowries. Bheemacharya just translates paisa. <hr>

Krishna: (feigning anger) Friend, take this cheap ring and throw it on top of the mountain. (Subala pretends to throw the ring but in fact palms it instead.)

Lalita: (angrily) Vrinda, did you see how he just threw away that valuable ring?

Nandimukhi: What you have done is like offering a copper coin to who has innocently opened his hand in the expectation of getting a philosopher's stone from Kubera, the owner of the nine great treasures.

Lalita: (to herself) Radha and Krishna are getting impatient to unite, so I shall reassure them in an indirect way. (She walks over to Radha and whispers.) Radha, unless we give him something really valuable, we will never get out of here. So let's give him the necklace of jewels you are wearing. (She takes the necklace despite Radha's feigned resistance. Then, laughing,) Why are you anxious, my impatient one? This necklace will adorn your beloved and act as an entrusted go-between to bring him to you. So get ready to go to the trysting place!

<hr>The nisRSTArthA dUtI is one of the categories of go-between or messenger entrusted by one or the other of the lovers to arrange a specific meeting or tryst. Here, the term is used fancifully. An entire chapter of Ujjvala-nIlamaNi (7.57) is devoted to the dUtI:

<center>vinyasta-kArya-bhArA yA

dvAbhyAm ekatareNa vA |

yuktyobhau ghaöayed eSA

nisRSTArthA nigadyate

Jagat · June 11, 2000

The nisRSTArthA is a subcategory of Apta-dUtI, standing between the amitArthA, who has carte-blanche to arrange meetings, and the simple letter carrier (patrahArI). The definition of Apta-dUtI:

<center>na vizrambhasya bhaGgaM yA

kuryAt prANAtyayeSv api |

snigdhAca vAgminI cAsau

dUtI syAd gopa-subhruvAm

Jagat · June 11, 2000

This is doing some weird things. It keeps cutting my text. I lost a lot of corrections and I can't go back and reedit afterwards. Can this be fixed? Thanks.<hr>

Jagat

Jagat · June 12, 2000

<hr>The nisRSTArthA dUtI (UN 7.57) is one of the categories of go-between or messenger entrusted by one or the other of the lovers to arrange a specific meeting or tryst. Here, the term is used fancifully. An entire chapter of Ujjvala-nIlamaNi is devoted to the dUtI:

<center>vinyasta-kArya-bhArA yA

dvAbhyAm ekatareNa vA |

yuktyobhau ghaöayed eSA

nisRSTArthA nigadyate

Jagat · June 12, 2000

Why does it show only a portion of the text that I gave?

Jahnava Nitai Das · June 12, 2000

I am not sure what the cause of the problem is. Some other people have had similar problems posting long articles. I have never had a problem with it. What method are you using to copy the article to the message box? I use notepad or wordpad and copy and paste and it hasn't caused any problems yet.

Gauracandra · June 20, 2001

This is a real old posting, but I remembered when Jagat first put it up. For some reason I thought of it today, so many months later, and was wondering how this play continues. Jagat, if you've done some more translation of this, please share with the rest of us Posted Image

Gauracandra

Jagat · June 20, 2001

I have to revise this translation and make it publishable, but I am busy with lots of other things. Hopefully, once the Puri book is finished, we'll get back on it. Please be patient.

Gauracandra · June 21, 2001

One thing that I found very interesting about this posting was your comment that to some degree this play might have been a “send up” of untouchability in India. I found this interesting because it would mean that Srila Rupa Goswami was perhaps bringing together spirituality, art, and politics as a way of engaging in social reform. On the one hand we have his spiritual vision revealing universal truths about a relationship to the Supreme. And at the same time, this spiritual truth is used to subvert an injustice in society. Those who have been embraced by God have become “untouchable”.

I have heard that for the most part the writings of the Goswami’s were communicated simply one to the other. So I’m guessing that perhaps this play was not known by simple villagers. I’d be interested in any background on this play. I would also be interested in knowing to what degree such plays (whether by the Goswami’s or others) were performed by various troupes going from village to village as a way of social commentary. Often the art world is at the forefront of social commentary and reform, and it would be interesting to see how this may have taken place in India. A simple villager would be able to watch such a play and relate both to the spiritual message and to the subtext. Anyways, I think that’s what reminded me of this posting – the idea of art, spirituality, and politics coming together.

Gauracandra

atma · June 21, 2001

From what I observed in India, 'plays' are an important part of life in the villages. Many times the women that used to work with me in Mayapur came completely worn out because of lack of sleep due to some play that took part the night before. In Vrindavan was the same thing. Where is everybody going at 10PM? To watch the new play about Radha-Krsna.

In Bangladesh the most popular part of the preaching program was at the end with the devotees acting. Everything strted late to beat the heat and thousands of people used to stay until past midnight to see the 'drama'

If you want to convey any message in India, of any kind, make it into a play and you'll be heard and seen. Troupes go from village to village and their fame precedes them. I saw some of them and they're quite good. I believe that in the past the tradition was the same.

Ananga · June 21, 2001

Good to see that you have picked up on this thread where you left off at VNN, Jagat Ji (what the heck is up with that site?). How is the Sanskrit repository going? I have not heard from Neal for awhile now.