I recently received a query from Jorge Flores at the University of Lisbon about a passage in a source he is working on. In this words,
"
The piece revolves around a peculiar Portuguese text penned by a Hindu Brahman of Goa called Bahuguna Kamath in 1739 who worked for the Portuguese as interpreter and political broker. Bahuguna is at that point involved in diplomatic negotiations with the Marathas and one of his opponents is a Maratha general called Dadaji Rao. Among other discussions, they have an interesting dialogue anchored in a brief exchange of Sanskrit verses. It goes like this (my rough English translation from the Portuguese original):
(Dadaji says:)
Friend is the one who comes to a friend’s rescue by providing aid in a timely manner, like the hand helps the foot by removing a thorn at once when [the foot] happens to step on one. [A friend] is ready to expose himself to the great danger of being wounded in order to stop the blow of a sword when it hangs over one’s head or any other part of one’s body”
(And Bahauguna responds:)
Discord will never affect the solid friendship between worldly, constant men who have plenty of fine qualities. It is like the moon, even if distant and covered with snows; when that flower called cumoda blooms in the moonlight the snows are unable to erase the love the said flower feels for the moon”.
My question is: does this make any sense to you? Are these "real" sanskrit verses, close to something one can recognize as such, or rather an artful, "exotic" creation of the author?"
[end JF quote]
While I was able to confirm to Prof. Flores that these sounded like they could *potentially* be "'real' Sanskrit verses", and to explain a tiny bit about the portable nature of subhāṣita-s, and to point him to a few pieces of secondary scholarship, I could not identify any possible originals. I was hoping that these might be apparent to my learned colleagues on the INDOLOGY list. For whatever it might be worth, I suggested to Prof. Flores that the first of these (i.e. Dadaji's 'turn')
this might in fact consist of two verses in succession, making a total three possible Sanskrit padyas.
Thank you all very much. Please don't hesitate to write to me directly (I am no longer on the listserve) at wmcox@uchicago.edu
Best wishes,
Whitney