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

Sun Oct 23 07:37:47 UTC 2016

Completing the incomplete last sentence:

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

On Sun, Oct 23, 2016 at 12:44 PM, Nagaraj Paturi <nagarajpaturi at gmail.com>
wrote:

> 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 )
>
>
>
>

-- 
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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