Re: [INDOLOGY] Nārāyaṇagarta and Kayyaṭa Kashmiri pandits [Correction]

Sun Feb 9 09:34:52 UTC 2014

Please remove the erroneous space in *dharaṇy eva *and translate
accordingly.
Drawn up in Sunday morning haste, thanks, W.

2014-02-09 10:12 GMT+01:00 Walter Slaje <slaje at kabelmail.de>:

> Dear Ashok,
>
> thank you for your critical remarks concerning my message. Let me briefly
> address these points.
>
> 1) > I would be grateful for a specific reference to discussions of the
> Sharada script that suggest such a possibility.
>
> On page 56 of my booklet (with the original akṣaras reproduced from a
> Śāradā manuscript) you can check this possibility for yourself, the
> difference being that a halfcircle below the mātrā is open to the left
> (rta) or closed (rbha). This applies of course to actual handwriting only,
> but not to the abstracted shapes of Śāradā akṣaras, which is why I did not
> categorize such forms under the heading of "Semi-homographe Akṣaras" (pp.
> 43 ff), where you therefore might have looked in vain.
>
> 2) > Srikanth Kaul' himself does not specify that he has emended the text
> the way he has because "rbha" could be a miscopying of "rta".
>
> I have quoted Kaul's editorial note verbatim, and he writes indeed:
> " (*mislec[tion] for Śār. rtā*)". Kaul considered rbha a Śāradā
> mislection for an original -rta and emended his text accordingly.
>
> 3) > Sriivara describes an unceremonious funeral, one in which a body
> brought in a coffin and covered with a single sheet is simply dumped into a
> space that exists in/on the ground, although it is the body of a royal
> person
>
> Actually, Śrīvara here solemnly describes a royal funeral in accordance
> with Muslim rites. This is the context of the stanza quoted by me:
>
> Ḥasan, Sulṭān Zayn's grandson and heir to his deceased father, buries his
> father Sulṭān Ḥaydar Šāh (who unfortunately died of excessive alcoholism).
>
> Regrettably, vocabulary and modes of expression of the largely ignored
> post-Kalhaṇian Rājataraṅgiṇīs are nowhere recorded in our standard
> dictionaries.
>
>
> 4) > In such a context, "bhuu-garta" conveying the idea of a 'ditch' or
> 'trench' seems more appropriate than "bhuu-garbha" (which would connote
> greater depth).
>
>
> From the actual context as given above a different picture emerges. The
> new Sulṭān would hardly have dumped his father into a ditch, for he was publicly
> buried at the royal cemetery in Śrīnagar.
>
> Śrīvara was a poet and expressed himself as such a one. That he had indeed
> a "womb of the earth" in mind when composing his stanza can be seen from a
> telling parallel, where he depicts Zayn's burial as an eyewitness, at the
> occasion of which he had been present as well:
>
>
> *yatra suptā ivaikatra bhānti pūrve mahībhujaḥ |*
>
> *bhartṛpremṇā dharaṇy eva nihitā hṛdayāntare* || Zayna-T. 1.7.227 ||
> "There, [where] *the Earth had taken them inside* for love of her [royal]
> husbands, the previous Sulṭāns appeared to be asleep [together] in the same
> place."
>
>
> That is the way a cremation-accustomed Hindu poet conceived of the strange
> impression interments left on his mind, when the earth, who is supposed to
> have always only one husband (ruler) at a time, takes them all together
> inside herself (hṛdayāntare = bhu-ga*rbh*e), where they now seem to sleep
> comfortably side by side.
>
>
> I am sorry that I had not clarified the full context in my earlier mail
> and so unintentionally caused some confusion. I just wanted to be brief
> in pointing out the theoretical possibility that -rbha might have been
> misread for -rta, and that an early mislection of that sort may have easily
> survived in copies made from such an exemplar.
>
>
> Warm wishes,
>
> Walter
>
>
>
> -----------------------------
> Prof. Dr. Walter Slaje
> Hermann-Löns-Str. 1
> D-99425 Weimar
> Deutschland
>
> Ego ex animi mei sententia spondeo ac polliceor
> studia humanitatis impigro labore culturum et provecturum
> non sordidi lucri causa nec ad vanam captandam gloriam,
> sed quo magis veritas propagetur et lux eius, qua salus
> humani generis continetur, clarius effulgeat.
> Vindobonae, die XXI. mensis Novembris MCMLXXXIII.
>
>
> 2014-02-09 0:29 GMT+01:00 Ashok Aklujkar <ashok.aklujkar at gmail.com>:
>
>> I have a few questions to ask:
>>
>> Is "garbha" found after a male name in a compound that could serve as
>> someone's personal name or epithet?
>> (The late grammarian Naage;sa speaks of himself as "satii-garbhaja", but
>> in that compound "satii" is his mother's name.)
>>
>> Dr. Stern observes: "A Google search will give you references for this
>> scholar [= Naaraayana-garbha]." I made a Google search in all ways I could
>> think of, but did not hit upon anything resembling "Naaraayana-garbha".
>> Either Dr. Stern was expressing a hope or I need to get a list of the
>> references he found.
>> (The reference in the NCC is based on the published edition. It does not
>> add to what we know.)
>>
>> I had checked Prof. Slaje's excellent booklet that introduces the Sharada
>> script for the benefit of those who do not know that script, but I did not
>> find anything in it that would suggest that "rbha" and "rta"" could be so
>> similar as to be mistaken for each other. I would be grateful for a
>> specific reference to discussions of the Sharada script that suggest such a
>> possibility. Alternatively, a presentation of what the shapes of rbha" and
>> "rta"" are according to Prof. Slaje will be useful.
>>
>> (The details of the book to which I referred in my last post for a
>> one-time confusability of "rta" and "rga" are: OJHA, Gaurishankar
>> Hirachand. The palaeography of India = Bhaaratiiya praaciina
>> lipimaalaa. Delhi : Munshi Ram Manohar Lal, 1959.  Third edition. New Delhi
>> 1971.)
>>
>> It certainly deserves admiration that Prof. Slaje has recollected an
>> occurrence that could serve as an exact parallel to what we find in the mss
>> of Naaraaya.na's commentary. However, Srikanth Kaul' himself does not
>> specify that he has emended the text the way he has because "rbha" could be
>> a miscopying of "rta". Therefore, we are free to think that he took the
>> editorial action he did only for a semantic reason. At the most we can
>> infer that he did not hesitate to emend or did not feel the need to justify
>> his action because he was aware of the confusability of "rbha" as "rta" and
>> "rta" as "rbha".
>>
>> What kind of semantic reason? In the passage concerned, ;Sriivara
>> describes an unceremonious funeral, one in which a body brought in a coffin
>> and covered with a single sheet is simply dumped into a space that exists
>> in/on the ground, although it is the body of a royal person (note
>> "ak.sipat," note absence of any reference to preparation of the burial
>> ground etc.). In such a context, "bhuu-garta" conveying the idea of a
>> 'ditch' or 'trench' seems more appropriate than "bhuu-garbha" (which would
>> connote greater depth).
>>
>> (I could not find any occurrences of "bhuu-garbha" in Classical Skt with
>> our standard reference tools. Apte's dictionary records the word only as an
>> epithet of Vi.s..nu. In many modern Indian languages "bhuu-garbha-;saastra"
>> is used for 'geology'.)
>>
>> Whether we go along with Kaul or view his emendation as unnecessary or as
>> an attempt to improve ;Sriivara's original, does it not seem that the
>> evidence given for favoring the change of "garta" to "garbha" in the
>> pu.spikaa of Naaraaya.na's commentary is not as strong as it may initially
>> seem?
>>
>> I will conclude with a clarification. I take Kayya.ta to be a Kashmirian,
>> but Naaraaya.na (= Naaraaya.na-garga, less probably  Naaraaya.na-garbha)
>> may be from Kashmir or any part of western India to the south of Kashmir.
>> Also, he may not be close to Kayya.ta in time. He could belong to a time
>> when the gotra names began to be used after personal names to identify
>> oneself.
>>
>> a.a.
>>
>>
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>
>

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