Another (!) Subhashita search (the trouble with ali)

[Jan Brzezinski]

That deserves a vah vah!

--- Roland Steiner <steiner at MAILER.UNI-MARBURG.DE>
wrote:
> On 26 Nov 99, at 8:00, Jan Brzezinski wrote:
> > [...]. Now can anyone help with vaa.na? What makes
> an "arrow"
> > characteristic of a sevakaadhama?
>
> Sorry for responding so late. My guess regarding
> this is: In
> "Sriihar.sa�s Nai.sadhacarita 12.98 arrows ("sara)
> are compared
> with enemies, both of which, once let loose (mukta),
> have no
> return (na punarniv.rtti.h). By analogy, perhaps,
> bow and arrows
> could be compared with a master and his servants.
> Moreover,
> an arrow can be called tyaktagu.na.h which can be
> understood
> as a "sle.sa or double entendre: ``something which
> has been
> released from the [bow-]string (gu.na)" or
> ``somebody who has
> abandoned [his] virtues (gu.na)" (cf. Jalha.na�s
> Suuktimuktaavalii 8.24). Consquently, a bow might be
> called a
> gu.navat (``possessing a string" or ``possessing
> virtues"), which
> could evoke the idea, that an arrow which is being
> shot is leaving
> his ``virtuous master".
> Further: in the "Si.supaalavadha 9.41 (and
> elsewhere) the word
> "siliimukha is used in the sense of ``bee" and
> ``arrow" in a
> "sle.sa. Therefore, it is perhaps not by chance that
> in your stanza
> bees and arrows are mentioned side by side.
>
> With best regards,
> Roland Steiner
>

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