Many thanks to all those who replied to me, on and off the list, with their valuable suggestions. Having been altogether unable to make sense of the simile I now find myself with a surfeit of possible solutions.
In particular I thank Andrea Acri for reminding me that I myself have written about kuñcikās. Chasing up that lead led me to a half-verse in the Khecarīvidyā (2.105ab) in which udghāṭya refers to removing an argala or “bolt”:
udghāṭyārgalam ākāśe jihvām ūrdhvaṃ prasārayet |
I find a similar usage in the Haṭhasaṃketacandrikā. Because of these usages, and the suggestions from colleagues that udghāṭayet and vibhedayet might have subtly different meanings in the Vivekamārtaṇḍa verse, I now suspect that udghāṭayet is being used in the sense of “unlock”. And that haṭhāt, as some colleagues suggested, gives a sense of certainty or inevitability. (By the way, I should have noted that the Vivekamārtaṇḍa does not call its yoga haṭha, so it is unlikely that there is any connotation of a particular type of yoga in haṭhāt.)
My latest translation of the verse is: “In the same way that by means of a key one may be sure to unlock a door, by means of Kuṇḍalinī the yogi may [be sure to] break open the doorway to liberation ”
But I feel a long footnote coming on. To help with that, would any colleagues be able to point me towards a pdf of the book by von Hinüber that Sven Sellmer kindly mentioned (or provide just the relevant pages)? Here are the details again:
Oskar v. Hinüber: Sprachentwicklung und Kulturgeschichte. Ein Beitrag zur materiellen Kultur des buddhistischen Klosterwesens. Stuttgart: Steiner (Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur. Geistes- und Sozialwiss. Klasse. Jg. 1992, Nr. 6)., esp. pp. 14–24, 30–34.
All the best,
Jim
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.
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@soas.ac.uk>
Sent: Sat, 15 May 2021 02:14:28 GMT+0530
To: Indology <
indology@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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