[INDOLOGY] From the Mahabharata

Tue Apr 26 07:30:05 UTC 2016

The context is also relevant. I am copying my response sent offline to Prof
Artur Karp yesterday. Hopefully this will add some value to the discussion.

-------------------

I believe the verse has to be seen in its context. A Brāhmaṇa family,
observing a penance in which they ate only once a day, went without food
for several days in the summer (Jyeṣṭha) due to a great famine (not because
they voluntarily abstained from food). Then one day the Brāhmaṇa succeeded
in getting some food. However, just as the family sat down to eat, a
Brāhmaṇa guest (actually Dharma Himself) arrived. The family parted with
their own food to feed the guest. The Brāhmaṇa guest then uttered these
verses, saying that the host Brāhmaṇa had conquered Heaven by this act
(giving food to the guest even when the host was himself hungry).

“Since thou hast made this gift, in a season of great difficulty, with a
pure heart, thou hast, by this act of thine, conquered Heaven.

Hunger destroys one's wisdom and drives off one's righteous understanding.
One whose intelligence is overwhelmed by hunger casts off all fortitude.

He, therefore, that conquers hunger conquers Heaven without doubt.”

The Brāhmaṇa says hunger destroys righteous intellect (‘dharmyā buddhi’),
i.e. makes people give up Dharma. The Pañcatantra expresses this as
“bubhukṣitaḥ kiṃ na karoti pāpaṃ kṣīṇā narā niṣkaruṇā bhavanti” (“What sin
is not committed by one who is hungry? Those who are emaciated are
merciless.”). But the Brāhmaṇa family did not give up Dharma even when they
were emaciated. Therefore, to me the essence of “conquering hunger” in this
context is not abstention from food even when the body is hungry, rather it
refers to the Brāhmaṇa family's [one-time] act of upholding atithi-dharma
and feeding a hungry guest even though the family was itself hungry. The
host Brāhmaṇa and his family conquered their own hunger to satisfy the
hunger of a guest.

Another thing to note is this is not a prescriptive statement or
recommended action like “One should conquer hunger to conquer Heaven.” The
form jayate is in ‘laṭ lakāra’ (present mood) which is not used for
prescriptive statements: the ‘vidhiliṅ lakāra’ (optative mood) is. As it is
not a prescriptive statement, the author does not want the reader to
wilfully abstain from food in order to reach Heaven.
On Apr 26, 2016 12:30 PM, "Nagaraj Paturi" <nagarajpaturi at gmail.com> wrote:

bubhukṣāṃ jayate yas tu sa svargaṃ jayate dhruvam

bubhukṣāṃ jayate yas tu  does not mean one who loses hunger or one who can
stay without being hungry. It means one who keeps one's hunger under one's
control .

kṣudhā nirṇudati prajñāṃ dharmyāṃ buddhiṃ vyapohati

means uncontrolled hunger destroys one's wisdom and drives off one's
righteous understanding.

Issue is bubhukShaajaya and not bubhukShaateevrataa or bubhukShaasaumyataa.

On Tue, Apr 26, 2016 at 10:53 AM, Artur Karp <karp at uw.edu.pl> wrote:

> Masterly exposition.
>
> But (I already used this twice, sorry), there is always a but lurking
> there, somewhere behind the screens.
>
> How do you measure 'desire'?
>
> To my uneducated (no Amarakoṣa in the list of necessary readings) mind
> the desiderative form itself guarantees the connection between the word
> and the idea of desire.
>
>  'lipsā' - ‘labdhum *icchā*’ is self-explanatory.
>
> How intense the desire is - it's all a matter of context.
>
> Let me guess: in certain contexts 'lipsā' could be used to describe a
> momentary, inconsequential wish, to obtain something without explicit
> effort ; in other contexts, perhaps, the wish to obtain something of
> lasting value, the act itself coldly planned for.
>
> Same for ‘bubhukṣā’ - intensity of the desire depends on the context.
>
> Who *bubhukṣāṃ jayate*  - that person overcomes the feelings, the
> emotions that are linked with enjoyment of food. In our example - quite
> strong emotions, considering "the season of great difficulty".
>
> "The choice of food metaphor in the context of bliss hails from a
> tradition going back to Upaniṣads, where the experience of bliss was
> linked with enjoyment of food" [V. Aklujkar, *Sharing the Divine Feast*,
> in: R.S. Khare (ed.), *The Eternal Food: Gastronomic Ideas and Experience
> of Hindus and Buddhists*, 1992, p. 99]
>
> The epic story tellers  do not want their heroes to be perfect, and go
> around trying to do things in the "grammatick" way; they supply them with
> words - to use as they see fit, not always properly; their heroes act, they
> are full of, more often than not, only dimly felt emotions, and they act on
> them, and are known to commit mistakes.
>
> And that is why we like them, and want to hear more about them, again and
> again
>
> Let them have their emotions.
>
> Best,
>
> Artur
>
> 2016-04-26 3:37 GMT+02:00 Nityanand Misra <nmisra at gmail.com>:
>
>>
>>
>> On 25 April 2016 at 18:58, Howard Resnick <hr at ivs.edu> wrote:
>>
>>> The desiderative at times is used to indicate strong desire. Example:
>>> desiderative forms of labh — lipsu, lipsA. In MW, this can mean the simple
>>> desire to gain or obtain, or “longing for”. To long — to have “a strong
>>> wish or desire.”
>>>
>>> Best,
>>> Howard
>>>
>>>
>> Monier Williams has errors. An example is meaning of the gavī as an
>> “independent word” for speech and the citation of Śiśupālavadha 2-68 which
>> is incorrect. In this case (‘lipsā’) there is no precise citation also.
>>
>>
>> The etymology (yoga) of ‘lipsā’ (‘labdhum icchā’, labh + san + a + ṭāp)
>> does not suggest any intensity in the desire. If one wants to go for usage
>> (rūḍhi), it is better to cross-check with Sanskrit Koṣa-s and attested
>> usages than take M-W for granted.
>>
>>
>> As per Amarakoṣa (1-7-27,28), there is a clear distinction between
>> ‘lipsā’ which is listed with words for desire, and ‘lālasā’ which is
>> explained as intense desire or longing (grammar would confirm this):
>>
>>
>> ……………………………………………………………. dohadam
>>
>> icchā kāṅkṣā spṛhehā tṛḍvāñchā lipsā manorathaḥ
>>
>> kāmo’bhilāṣastarṣaśca *so’tyarthaṃ lālasā dvayoḥ*
>>
>>
>> The Vyākhyāsudhā on above verses explains that the first twelve are
>> synonyms of ‘icchā’ (and also ) and the word ‘lālasā’ is a synonym of
>> ‘atiprīti’
>>
>>
>> If any other authentic Koṣa or commentary on a Kāvya usage confirms that
>> ‘longing’ or ‘intense desire’ is also a meaning of ‘lipsā’, M-W can be
>> accepted. Same for ‘bubhukṣā’.
>>
>>
>
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-- 
Nagaraj Paturi

Hyderabad, Telangana, INDIA.

Former Senior Professor of Cultural Studies

FLAME School of Communication and FLAME School of  Liberal Education,

(Pune, Maharashtra, INDIA )

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