[INDOLOGY] Does anyone know of Sanskrit works that use 2nd-syllable rhyming?

Wed Jul 29 10:52:15 UTC 2015

Dear list members,
To clear up a possible misunderstanding: in the publications I cited I do not provide examples of rhyme. In the message I react to Dominic Goodall's claim that the various types of rhyme as found in the Bhagavatapurana are first attested in Tamil Bhakti poetry and *therefore* point to a South Indian origin of the text. As I have tried to show in the publications mentioned, Tamil Bhakti poetry used song types typical of Prakrit/Apabhramsa literature, e.g., catuspada and lasya, on the one hand (examples also found in the Kalittokai), and caccari, on the other (examples also found in the Paripatal, the kuravai poems in the Kalittokai). So how can we be certain that the instances of rhyme in the Bhagavatapurana were inspired by Tamil literature and not directly by Indo-Aryan literature, this, irrespective of whether this influence took place in North or South India? In any case, Sanskrit, Prakrit and Apabhramsa literature were well known in the south as well, from at least the 8th or 9th century AD onwards, as shown by the so-called Old Tamil Cankam literature.
Best, Herman

Herman Tieken
Stationsweg 58
2515 BP Den Haag
The Netherlands
00 31 (0)70 2208127
website: hermantieken.com<http://hermantieken.com/>
________________________________
Van: Jan E.M. Houben [jemhouben at gmail.com]
Verzonden: dinsdag 28 juli 2015 13:04
Aan: Tieken, H.J.H.; indology at list.indology.info
Onderwerp: Re: [INDOLOGY] Does anyone know of Sanskrit works that use 2nd-syllable rhyming?

Dag Herman,
This is an interesting observation, no doubt relevant for the history of the intertwined sanskritic and prakritic traditions (and yes, the traditions of tamil kannada malayalam language metrics/poetics and literature are also somehow intertwined, but how).
Do you have any examples as illustration for those who do not have the mentioned publications on their lap (or in their laptop)?
Hartelijke groet,
jan

     [https://docs.google.com/uc?export=download&id=0B-TN0Ek0VfGDX1RqVTJKdjBuWWs&revid=0B-TN0Ek0VfGDdVF4aXhNb1F5czA4bFhBRzI1S2l3UitFeFBjPQ]

Jan E.M. HOUBEN

Directeur d’Études

Sources et histoire de la tradition sanskrite

École Pratique des Hautes Études

Sciences historiques et philologiques

54, rue Saint-Jacques

CS 20525 – 75005 Paris

johannes.houben at ephe.sorbonne.fr<mailto:johannes.houben at ephe.sorbonne.fr>

https://ephe-sorbonne.academia.edu/JanEMHouben

www.ephe.fr<http://www.ephe.fr>

On 28 July 2015 at 10:15, Tieken, H.J.H. <H.J.H.Tieken at hum.leidenuniv.nl<mailto:H.J.H.Tieken at hum.leidenuniv.nl>> wrote:

Dominic Goodall wrote:

“Second-syllable rhyming, in which just the consonant of the second syllable of each verse-quarter is rhymed, is abundantly present in post-Sangam Tamil literature and ubiquitous (or, if not, at least pretty nearly so) in the devotional literature of the Āḻvārs and Nāyaṉmārs, while being extremely rare in Sanskrit verse composition.”

For such instances of rhyming in Indo-Aryan literature rather than to Sanskrit verse composition we should to the Prākrit and Apabhraṃśa “song” literature. As I have argued elsewhere Tamil devotional literature borrowed from Prākrit and Apabhraṃśa models. See, apart from the relevant chapters in my Kāvya in South India. Old Tamil Caṅkam Poetry from 2001, “Bhoja's Śr̥ṅgāraprakāśa and the kuravai poems in Kalittokai”, in Kannan M. and Jennifer Clare, Passages: relationships between Tamil and Sanskrit, 145-162, and “Songs accompanied by so-called bhaṇitās in dramatic texts”, in Karin Steiner and Heidrun Brückner, Indisches Theater: Text, Theorie, Praxis, 63-75.

As to Jayadeva‘s Gītagovinda, may I quote myself?:

“Its composite nature marks the Gitagovinda as a literary experiment. In fact, this is evident in yet another respect, namely the use of Sanskrit. For, both genres combined in the Gītagovinda, namely the lāsya and catuṣpadā, were in Prākrit. The Gītagovinda is a “translation” into Sanskrit of an original Prākrit type of composition. Interestingly, as such the Gītagovinda does not stand on its own. A similar development is seen in the Āryāsaptaśatī, a Sanskrit translation of the Prākrit Sattasaī. It cannot be a coincidence that the author of the Āryāsaptaśatī, a certain Govardhana, was patronized by the same Bengali king Lakṣmaṇasena who was believed to have been the patron of Jayadeva (see Pischel 1893).”

(“The Genre of Yayadeva's Gītagovinda” in Cracow Indological Studies, Vols 4/5, 586-608, esp. p. 605.)

Herman Tieken

Herman Tieken
Stationsweg 58
2515 BP Den Haag
The Netherlands
00 31 (0)70 2208127
website: hermantieken.com<http://hermantieken.com/>
________________________________
Van: INDOLOGY [indology-bounces at list.indology.info<mailto:indology-bounces at list.indology.info>] namens Andrew Ollett [andrew.ollett at gmail.com<mailto:andrew.ollett at gmail.com>]
Verzonden: dinsdag 28 juli 2015 7:14
Aan: Dominic Goodall
CC: Indology List
Onderwerp: Re: [INDOLOGY] Does anyone know of Sanskrit works that use 2nd-syllable rhyming?

Second-syllable rhyme is also a sine qua non in Kannada poetry, and Jayakīrti uses it in his definitions/examples (all in Sanskrit) of different verse-forms in the Chandonuśāsana (ca. 1000 CE)---not just in the seventh chapter, where J. exemplifies some Kannada meters, but also occasionally in the sixth, which treats of Prakrit and Apabhraṃśa meters.

According to Yigal Bronner and David Shulman ("A Cloud Turned Goose" in IESHR 43 in 2006), it's also used in later Sanskrit works by Tamil authors (Śākalya Malla's Udārarāghava and Nīlakaṇṭha Dīkṣita's Śivalīlārṇava).

On Tue, Jul 28, 2015 at 10:15 AM, Dominic Goodall <dominic.goodall at gmail.com<mailto:dominic.goodall at gmail.com>> wrote:
A late reaction to an earlier thread.

Setting aside the question of dating, which is so often contentious, I am always *amazed* when people tell me that they are not convinced that the Bhāgavatapurāṇa is a Southern production.  The work is full of Southern touches, many of which have been pointed out by a variety of scholars over the last century.  Yes, ok, there are also Northern touches, but why should that be surprising for a Southern work ?  The South seems always long to have been more conscious of the North than the North has been of the South.  It is full, for example, of rather long-standing Northern sacred toponyms (Tenkasi = “Benares of the South”; Madurai = Mathurā, etc.; and, of course Southern rivers are regularly equated with the Gaṅgā and Yamunā), whereas there are no old instances of a “Northern” Kāñcī or Śrīraṅgam or Chidambam, nor of the "Kāverī of the North”.

Or are there ?

Similarly, the high literary style of the Bhāgavata, involving, in some parts, a high concentration of Vedic archaisms seems sometimes to be mentioned as though it were a factor that might suggest high antiquity and a provenance somewhere in the North.  But at what time in any part of the Sanskritic world would Vedic literature not have been prestigious and accessible to Veda-knowers seeking to write in a consciously archaising style?

But what about an element of style that not nearly as many authors would have been similarly motivated to copy ?

Second-syllable rhyming, in which just the consonant of the second syllable of each verse-quarter is rhymed, is abundantly present in post-Sangam Tamil literature and ubiquitous (or, if not, at least pretty nearly so) in the devotional literature of the Āḻvārs and Nāyaṉmārs, while being extremely rare in Sanskrit verse composition.  An example will make this clear:

BhP_10.31.001/1 jayati te 'dhikaṃ janmanā vrajaḥ śrayata indirā śaśvad atra hi
BhP_10.31.001/3 dayita dṛśyatāṃ dikṣu tāvakās tvayi dhṛtāsavas tvāṃ vicinvate
BhP_10.31.002/1 śaradudāśaye sādhujātasatsarasijodaraśrīmuṣā dṛśā
BhP_10.31.002/3 suratanātha te 'śulkadāsikā varada nighnato neha kiṃ vadhaḥ
BhP_10.31.003/1 viṣajalāpyayād vyālarākṣasād varṣamārutād vaidyutānalāt
BhP_10.31.003/3 vṛṣamayātmajād viśvato bhayād ṛṣabha te vayaṃ rakṣitā muhuḥ
BhP_10.31.004/1 na khalu gopīkānandano bhavān akhiladehinām antarātmadṛk
BhP_10.31.004/3 vikhanasārthito viśvaguptaye sakha udeyivān sātvatāṃ kule

I had long thought that this argument, expressed in 1996, would be a clincher, at least for the devotional verses in which second-syllable rhyming occurs, for proving Southernness, since I don’t know of any other Sanskrit works that use this feature.

But Sanskrit literature is vast, hence this appeal:

Does anyone know of any other Sanskrit works that use such 2nd-syllable rhyming?

Dominic Goodall
École française d'Extrême-Orient,
19, rue Dumas,
Pondicherry 605001
Tel. +91 413 2334539<tel:%2B91%20413%202334539>

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