source of Sanskrit half-;sloka in Hindi piece

[Arlo Griffiths]

Thanks to Marina Orelskaya, Madhav Deshpande, Somdev Vasudeva, and  
Yuko Yokochi for responding to my query so helpfully. Alas the source  
remains untraced.

To answer Yuko's question about the context, here is what our  
graduate student writes to me (quickly translated from the Dutch):

"I would not expect too much from the context for the meaning of the  
verse. The piece is a farce with lots of dirty jokes, and the person  
citing the verse is a Bengali who is depicted as a dumb and  
unreliable figure. It may very well be his is trying to show off his  
would-be knowledge by reciting a piece of (grammatically and  
metrically) incorrect Sanskrit. But the context is this: the Bengali  
is speaking with a dumb pandit. The pandit is quite impressed.
huqqevaalaa: bai.thie - ab sab dharmm lop ho gaye - aur devtaa bhii  
cale gae - kyo.mki:
[half-;sloka]
gobarganes: haa.m, mahaaraaj! ab to sab devtaa bhi u.th gaye.
huqqevaalaa: par keval hari kaa naam hii pratyak.s hai - "harer  
naamaani kevalam".
gobarganes: haa.m, mahaaraaj aisaa hii hai.
[Then the waterpipe-smoker tells how he gave a dried out tree water  
and brought it back to life. Gobarganes declares that the Huqqevaalaa  
is an incarnation of the .R.sis.]"

I don't suppose the added verse-quarter (assuming it forms part of  
the same ;sloka) will be of much help to trace a source, at least  
none of the e-texts at my disposal yields a match for harer naamaani  
kevalam.

Best wishes,

Arlo Griffiths


On Nov 5, 2005, at 3:20 AM, Yuko Yokochi wrote:

> caa of bhuutalecaa may be just an error of vaa. And bhuutale vaa  
> may be
> a scribe's marginal note that has entered into the text.
> In that case, the original quotation would be
>
> kalau tri.m"sasahasraa.ni vi.s.nus ti.s.thati mediniim|. (I follow  
> Somdev's tri.m"sa.)
>
> The accusative mediniim appears to be used instead of medinyaam by  
> metrical reason.
> This usage of accusative for locative is often found in regard to  
> words of time.
> But I wonder whether this is possible for words of place.
>
> I also wonder what this half-"sloka means---what a manifestation of  
> Vi.s.nu
> stays on earth for thirty thousand years? Arlo, is there any hint  
> in the immediate context?
>
> Yuko Yokochi
>
> At 23:04 05/11/03, you wrote:
>> Dear colleagues,
>>
>> A graduate student in my department is studying the following theatre
>> piece by .Thaakur Jagmohan Si.mh (1857-1899): "Huqqevaale kaa
>> naa.tak", published in .Thaakur Jagmohan Si.mh Racnaavalii 1. 2001.
>> Raaypur: Chattisga.rh lok sa.msk.rti anusandhaan sa.msthaan (written
>> c. 1880; unpublished during his lifetime).
>>
>> At a certain point in the dialogue, a wise man cites the following
>> half-;sloka to prove that dharma and devataas are no longer what they
>> used to be:
>>
>> kalaud.r.m;sa sahasraa.ni vi.s.nusti.s.thati mediniim-bhuutalecaa
>>
>> The word division is as given in the text. Does anyone understand how
>> to read or correct d.r.m;sa, which I presume must be separated from
>> kalau? Does anyone understand bhuutalecaa, or at least the caa part?
>> Does anyone know the source of this (half) verse?
>>
>> With thanks,
>>
>> Arlo Griffiths
>> Instituut Kern, Universiteit Leiden
>> Postbus 9515
>> 2300 RA Leiden, the Netherlands
>>
>> phone: +31-(0)71-5272622
>> fax: +31-(0)71-5272956
>> email: <arlo.griffiths at let.leidenuniv.nl>