[INDOLOGY] Touching one's nose with the left index finger

[Nagaraj Paturi]

Finger on nose is almost a universal gesture. Whenever 'finger on nose is
mentioned while describing gestures, in most of the cases, it is the index
finger which is kept in mind. That gesture could have variegated semiotics
in each of the cultures where it is used.  What the thread initiator said
he was looking for was the specific cultural connotation in the context
that he cited, Viśvanātha Cakravartin's commentary (ca. late 17th century)
on the Bhāgavata Purāṇa 10.9.7 (uttārya gopī...).

There are two bases of context here, the verses  before and after 10.9.7.
BhP_10.09.006/1 sañjāta-kopaḥ sphuritāruṇādharaṃ sandaśya dadbhir
dadhi-mantha-bhājanam
BhP_10.09.006/3 bhittvā mṛṣāśrur dṛṣad-aśmanā raho jaghāsa haiyaṅgavam
antaraṃ gataḥ
BhP_10.09.007/1 uttārya gopī suśṛtaṃ payaḥ punaḥ praviśya saṃdṛśya ca
dadhy-amatrakam
BhP_10.09.007/3 bhagnaṃ vilokya sva-sutasya karma taj jahāsa taṃ cāpi na
tatra paśyatī

Second, the cultural background of the user of the expression Viśvanātha
Cakravartin and his period:ca. late 17th century.

Why I say period is the following:


Among the Telugu speakers, apart from the universal meaning of
"silence!" there is the meaning of intense surprise/amazement found in
expressions such as mukkuna vēlēsukunnāru = they put (past) the finger on
the nose, meaning they were all amazed at what happened or at what they
saw/heard.

But I observed another finger on nose gesture in my previous generation, in
which the index finger moved from the tip of the nose vertically straight
upwards upto the forehead while waving the head horizontally, showing the
tongue out usually folded with its tip upwards or downwards, to communicate
the meaning (usually expressed in words immediately after removing the
tongue part of the gesture), " Oh! nno! is it not so wrong, so
inappropriate?"

This expression is no longer found used. It seems to get considered as
oldish.

So time ca. late 17th century and the region and cultural group of
Viśvanātha Cakravartin .





On Sun, Oct 23, 2016 at 8:48 AM, rajam <rajam at earthlink.net> wrote:

> Not sure if it would help, but there’s a reference in Old Tamil literature
> to women’s gossip around town about a woman’s relationship with a man. The
> reference is “mūkkin ucci cuṭṭu viral cērtti (மூக்கின் உச்சி சுட்டுவிரல்
> சேர்த்தி). Women talk about the relationship between an unmarried woman and
> a man, and their gesture is indicated by ‘touching the tip of their nose
> with their index finger.’
>
> Recently, when I was watching a music event on YouTube where Prince Rama
> Varma was teaching a group of students he touched the tip of his nose with
> his index finger, perhaps to express ‘shame shame’ or something like that.
> I’d have to search for that video again.
>
> So I guess it was a practice in the south.
>
> Regards,
> rajam
>
>
> On Oct 22, 2016, at 7:26 PM, Nityanand Misra <nmisra at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> On 20 October 2016 at 07:44, Buchta, David <david_buchta at brown.edu> wrote:
>
>> Dear colleagues,
>>
>> I hope someone might have insight (or better yet a textual reference) for
>> a cultural convention.
>> In Viśvanātha Cakravartin's commentary (ca. late 17th century) on the
>> Bhāgavata Purāṇa 10.9.7 (uttārya gopī...), where Yaśodā finds the curd-pot
>> that Kṛṣṇa had broken, he adds a comment that she touched the tip of her
>> nose with her left index finger (vāmatarjjanyā nāsāgraṃ spṛṣṭveti
>> jñeyam).
>> Can anyone identify the significance of this? Does it indicate
>> exasperation? Surprise?
>>
>>
> Not a definitive answer, but some pointers which may help.
>
> Compare the use of *nāsāgrārpitatarjjanī* in the following verse from
> Prabodhānanda Sarasvatī’s *Vṛndāvanamahimāmṛtam* (15.33)
>
> *mithyāvādinī kiṃ mudhā pralapasi pratyakṣametatkathaṃ sakhyaḥ paśyata kiṃ
> tadāha yadiyaṃ kiṃvā’haha sā pṛcchyatām*
> *evaṃ satyamidaṃ kathaṃ prakupitāsyevaṃ sakhīnāṃ girā nāsāgrārpitatarjjanī
> kamahasadrādhā śiraḥkampinī*
>
> There is an idiom in Hindi: नाक पर उँगली रखना (nāka para um̐galī rakhanā).
> I do not have my Hindi Muhavara Kosh with me now, but I have heard the
> idiom being used in Hindi to convey a feminine gesture of embarrassment,
> bashfulness, or no longer being able to remain angry [at somebody or
> something] upon realizing something.
>
> Wiktionary lists the meaning of this idiom from an unnamed dictionary
> under https://hi.wiktionary.org/wiki/नाक as
> नाक पर उँगली रखकर बात करना = औरतों की तरह बात करना
>
> While the Chambers English Hindi Dictionary gives नाक पर उँगली रखना as the
> idiomatic translation of *make a long nose* [?]
> https://books.google.co.in/books?id=L-tVgTbV980C&pg=PA750
>
>
> PS: The comment by Viśvanātha Cakravartin is also to be found in
> Vaṃśīdhara *Bhāvārthadīpikāprakāśa*: *vilokya vāmatarjjanyā nāsāgraṃ
> spṛṣṭveti bhāvaḥ*
>
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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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