The adbuction of the lotus-flower by the king of elephants

[Christophe Vielle]

[Matthew Kapstein wrote:]

>It would be helpful if you would provide a bit more
>context -- when and where does your citation come from?

it is from the unpublished Jaiminiiyasa.mhitaa of the Brahmaa.n.dapuraa.na,
a south-western "kaavya-kathaa" puraa.na from about 1150-1350 AD (contra my
first attempt of dating in Proceedings of the DICSEP2, 2002), in the story
of the conflict between the Hehayas and the Kosalas, an episode happening
at the svaya.mvara of the daughter of the king of Videhas:

athottasthau narendrANAM  madhye hehayavardhanaH |
jihIrSur hariNIM tUrNaM  bhadrazreNyaH pratApavAn ||
tRNIkRtya nRpAn sarvAn  kSaNena balagarvitaH |
jahAra rAjatanayAM  gajarAD iva padminIm ||
vikSobhya rAjasamitiM  tarasA rAjakuñjaraH |
dorbhyAM gRhitvA hariNIM  nizcakrAma samAjataH ||6

>
>In any event, although the word padminii is not used,
>the first story in K.semendra's Avadaanakalpalataa
>concerns a lust-maddened bull-elephant wreaking havoc
>while chasing down a female in heat. Perhaps something
>like this is the reference intended?
>

Thank you for the reference. I was also now thinking about the drama
Kamaliniiraajaha.msa by Puur.nasarasvatii (active in Kerala in the
beginning of the 14th century), which describes the love between the king
of swans and a lotus flower of the Pampaa lake and in which the hero's
rival is an elephant chief of the Vindhya mountain - however, here the
furious elephant is stopped before being in position to abduct the flower.


[Martin Gansten wrote]

>
>Couldn't this simply mean 'like a mighty elephant [plucking] a lotus
>flower'? Elephants pulling up lotus flowers (to eat, I presume) is not an
>unusual image.
>
>Martin Gansten

Of course that could be well simply mean that, and the qualification of the
gaja as raaj is justified by the play with the word  raajakuñjara of the
following verse.
(in a previous /sikhari.nii verse, the princess was already presented:
dvipAnAM mattAnAM mukham abhi madAndheva kariNI
I shall thus try to find poetic examples for the image of the elephant
pulling up lotus flowers.

Thank you.



[I wrote]
>Dear List,
>
>about a king abducting a princess, I come across the following simile:
>
>jahaara raajatanayaaM  gajaraa.d iva padminiim
>
>I do not know any mythological story about a king of elephants abducting a
>lotus-flower (of course, a possible meaning of padminii is "female
>elephant", but the male elephant usually do not abduct the female).
>Has somebody already come across this simile in kaavya, or such a story in
>any kathaa?
>
>Thank you,
>
>Dr. Christophe Vielle

Dr. Christophe Vielle
Centre d'Etudes de l'Inde et de l'Asie du Sud
Institut orientaliste
Place Blaise Pascal 1
B - 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve
BELGIUM
Tel. +32-(0)10-47 49 54 (office)/ -(0)2-640 62 66 (home)
E-mail: vielle at ori.ucl.ac.be