Dear Roland,

The passages that you quote look like they are from epic/puranic works.  The norm in classical literature is to use padma in neuter gender, like other words for the lotus.  I would stick with the neuter usage as far as possible. Best wishes,

Madhav M. Deshpande
Professor Emeritus, Sanskrit and Linguistics
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
Senior Fellow, Oxford Center for Hindu Studies

[Residence: Campbell, California, USA]


On Sun, Apr 5, 2020 at 6:26 AM Roland Steiner via INDOLOGY <indology@list.indology.info> wrote:


> Please excuse my awkward previous stanza! This version is now
> corrected and improved by Girish K. Jha:
>
> हा हेति भूपा मुनिपुंगवाश्च
> सर्वे विलेपुः सहभृत्यलोकाः ।
> वृथैव सीते वयमागताः स्मो
> न स्पर्शनीये तव पादपद्मे ॥

Just for the indological record (without wanting to encourage or discourage anyone here):
1. padma is also used as a masculine (examples: rāghavaś cintayitvaivam upetya caraṇau pituḥ /
haṃsaḫ padmāv iva navau jagrāha nakhakesarau; or: adya tv atitarāṃ brahman mama bhāgyaviparyayāt /
himenevāhataḫ padmas sampanno haritaẖ kṛśaḥ). 2. The metre in the "original" stanza is a (correct) Upajāti. Now it is a (correct) Indravajrā.

RS

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