[INDOLOGY] Help with a simile

[Ananya Vajpeyi]

Jim, picking up from Prof. Kapstein and Andrea Acri, I am reminded that in
Hindi, the "key" or "Cliff Notes" that people use to study for exams here
in India is called a kuñjī. Basically, with the right kuñjī, you can
"crack" an entrance exam. I realize that the door-key-opening-breaking
through metaphor is continuing here, from kuṇḍalinī yoga to the IIT
qualifying test, which yields its own version of mokṣa for the successful
candidates. And certainly getting through such ordeals to breach the
portals of these vaunted institutions -- engineering / medical /
architecture / management / law colleges -- requires a certain haṭha,
determination, force, effort, discipline, rigour, zor-zabardastī!

I see you don't really need our help, except as a form of "time-pass" in
this unending lockdown...

Yours,

AV.


On Sat, May 15, 2021 at 10:38 AM alakendu das via INDOLOGY <
indology at list.indology.info> wrote:

> Dr.Mallimson,
> I find "Kunchika" may be loosely translated as "Ripper" i.e a tool to rip
> open something.
>
> Alakendu Das.
>
> Sent from RediffmailNG on Android
>
>
>
>
> From: James Mallinson <jm63 at soas.ac.uk>
> Sent: Sat, 15 May 2021 02:14:28 GMT+0530
> To: Indology <indology at list.indology.info>
> Subject: [INDOLOGY] Help with a simile
>
> Dear colleagues,
>
> I wonder if anybody can help me understand a simile in a *haṭhayoga* text
> I’m editing, the *Vivekamārtaṇḍa*. Verse 34 reads:
>
> udghāṭayet kapāṭaṃ tu yathā kuñcikayā haṭhāt |
> kuṇḍalinyā tathā yogī mokṣadvāraṃ vibhedayet ||
>
> My incomplete translation is as follows: “The yogi should use Kuṇḍalinī to
> break open the doorway to liberation in the same way that one might use a
> *kuñcikā* to force open a *kapāṭa*.” I had been translating *kuñcikā* as
> “key” and *kapāṭa* as “door”, but this isn’t altogether satisfactory. A
> key does not force a door to open. But I am unable to think of what this
> *kuñcikā* and *kapāṭa* might be. I am aware that a *kapāṭa* is usually a
> double door (I think of saloon doors in cowboy films) but what then is the
> *kuñcikā*? Of course it is quite possible that it is just a rather sloppy
> simile.
>
> All the best,
>
> Jim
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-- 
*Ananya Vajpeyi*
https://www.csds.in/ananya_vajpeyi
http://www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/people/profile/ananya-vajpeyi
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