Dear Christian,Thank you for asking, the second volume of the Raghupañcikā edition (sargas 7–12) is nearing completion, in fact we were just working on sarga 12 when your email arrived.
Best wishes for the new year,
Csaba
Dear Prof. Houben,dear Bihani Sarkar,perhaps another verse from the Raghuvaṁśa is of interest in this context in addition to the two verses already mentioned (13.50, 14.79). Raghuvaṁśa 11.23 describes the ascetic grove of Viśvāmitra and his pupils which is guarded by the adolescent Rāma and Lakṣmaṇa: the trees there are fancied to have their buds put forth like hands folded in reverence (baddhapallavapuṭāñjali) and the deer is not afraid but on the contrary raising their eyes (darśanonmukha, watching the sage, as Mallinātha expounds).May I use this opportunity to ask about the plans and status of the edition of the further volumes of the Raghupañcikā of Vallabhadeva by Dominic Goodall et al.?Best,Christian FerstlAm 01.01.2023 11:23, schrieb Bihani Sarkar via INDOLOGY:Dear Professor Houben,
There is a reference to this in the text of the _Kumārasambhava_, as
read and commented on by Aruṇagirinātha and
Nārāyaṇapaṇḍita, in the section on Pārvatī's tapas. In Sarga
5, Pārvatī's asceticism to win Śiva is described, and its
transformative, purifying power is said to have affected the
surrounding environment, causing even animals usually at war to become
gentle towards each other:
_virodhisattvojjhitapūrvamatsaraṃ__ _
_drumair abhīṣṭaprasavārcitātithi |__ _
_navoṭajābhyantarasambhṛtānalaṃ__ _
_tapovanaṃ tatra babhūva pāvanam ||_ 5.17
'There [on Mount Gaurīśikhara], her [very] ascetic grove, in which,
inside a newly built leaf hut, she had built the sacred fire, became
purifying: even beasts there mutually at war were free of their
ancient hostility (_virodhisattvojjhitapūrvamatsaraṃ_), and its
trees worshipped guests with choice buds.'
As the two commentators note, these--i.e. peaceful animals, and trees
being hospitable to guests (just like the ascetic)--are the special,
magical characteristics of the hermitage groves of great ascetics.
Nārāyaṇa provides the following citation to a source I am not yet
able to identify, thus:
_'tapovanocitāni viśeṣaṇāny āha--
virodhisattvojjhitapūrvamatsaram ityādinā | 'spṛśati kalabhaḥ
saiṃhīṃ daṃṣṭrāṃ mṛṇāladhiyā muhur' iti
āditapovanavṛttānto' tra draṣṭavyaḥ |_
[Kālidāsa] describes the qualities appropriate to hermitage groves
with the compound 'even beasts there mutually at war were free of
their ancient hostility'. "A baby elephant keeps touching a lion's
fang thinking it to be a lotus stem"-- such a description of a
hermitage grove is apparent in this case.'
I am not sure which _tapovanavṛttānta_ the quote about the baby
elephant placing his trunk inside the lion's mouth with utmost ease is
from. But evidently in such tales of hermitage groves, which the
commentator was aware of, there is an idea that the dharma of such
places is non-violence and generosity between man and beast, not to be
witnessed in the real world. And that this dharma is a transposition
of the ascetic's own quality onto the surrounding environment.
It would be interesting to read the _Raghuvaṃśa_ verses you mention
below in a parenthesis in relation to this.
Thank you
Bihani Sarkar MA (English, First Class Hons.), MPhil DPhil (Sanskrit),
(Oxon.)
Lecturer in Comparative Non-Western Thought,
Department of Politics, Philosophy and Religion,
Lancaster University.
On Sat, Dec 31, 2022 at 8:44 PM Jan E.M. Houben via INDOLOGY
<indology@list.indology.info> wrote:
Dear All,
Thank you all who have reacted with precious references to passages
relevant to what is perhaps a kind of "radiance of peace" concept,
expressed briefly in Yoga-sūtra 2.35,
अहिंसाप्रतिष्ठायां,
तत्सन्निधौ वैरत्यागः ।
It seems that only the extensive passages in the Rāmāyaṇa
Kakawin to which Andrea Acri referred extends the concept explicitly
to human society.
I am grateful for the references to the Mahābhārata,
Śākuntalopākhyāna (famously elaborated also by Kālidāsa), and
the Telugu commentary on it.
Also the reference to the Caitanya-caritāmṛta in Sanskritic
Bengali bring us beyond the scope of Sanskrit literature in the
strict sense of the word.
The reference to Aśvaghoṣa’s Saundarānanda I find important
because it concerns the legendary sage Kapila, known as one of the
founders of the Sāṁkhya system of philosophy (as I have argued,
Sāṁkhya was originally more a movement, partly in protest to
Vedic ritualism, and became a philosophical system afterwards).
The scene described in this reference is almost a Sāṁkhya
illustration of the concept (later on?) formulated in YS 2.35.
One part of a similar formula is perhaps found in the
saṁnyāsa-vidhi attributed to a certain Kapila, अभयं
सर्वभूतेभ्यो मत्तस्
स्वाहा ।(Baudhāyana-Gṛhya-Śeṣa-Sūtra 4.16.4).
The other part remains here apparently unexpressed, namely: the
expectation that this declaration will lead to
वैरत्यागः and to wild animals etc. to provide,
reciprocatively, abhayam to the ascetic (and, near the ascetic, to
each other).
A very similar or rather parallel concept, expressed in different
terms, is found, in my view, in the maitrī and maitrī-bhāvanā of
Buddhism, as discussed by Lambert Schmithausen in his _Maitrī and
Magic : Aspects of the Buddhist Attitude Toward the Dangerous in
Nature_, Vienna, 1997.
As we know that nonviolence was and is an important religious duty
in JAINISM it would be interesting to know whether in that context,
too, a concept of a "radiance of peace" was known or developed...
With best wishes to all,
On Sun, 25 Dec 2022 at 19:13, Jan E.M. Houben <jemhouben@gmail.com>
wrote:
Dear All,
According to Yoga-sūtra 2.35,
अहिंसाप्रतिष्ठायां,
तत्सन्निधौ वैरत्यागः ।
which apparently means that when someone is thoroughly established
in non-violence, (mutual) enmity disappears in his environment.
Commentaries and references given for aphorism and referred to for
instance in James Wood’s translation emphasize that in this
situation *even* wild animals, no more attack their prey. An
example is Kirāṭārjunīya 2.55 (meter viyoginī): Vyāsa is
looked at by Yudhiṣṭhira:
madhurair avaśāni lambhayann api tiryañci śamaṃ
nirīkṣitaiḥ /
paritaḥ paṭu bibhrad enasāṃ dahanaṃ dhāma
vilokanakṣamam //
“Calming even wild animals by his gentle looks, spreading a
blazing radiance around which burns away guilt, (but which yet)
can be gazed at (the sage, i.e., Vyāsa son of Parāśara, was
seen by the king, Yudhiṣṭhira)” (tr. following Roodbergen
1984, p. 143; cp. also Raghuvaṁśa 13.50, 14.79.)
Are any more convincing stories or anecdotes known in Sanskrit
literature, in which the peace-creating influence suggested in YS
2.35 inspires animals or *even* humans to behave in a more
peaceful way ?
With best wishes for a Peaceful Christmas New Year to all:
शान्ते ! ऽस्मिन् लोक
एधस्व विद्यातः
प्रेमतस्तथा ।
तव भक्तजनानां च
कल्याणमस्तु सर्वदा ॥
--
Jan E.M. Houben
Directeur d'Études, Professor of South Asian History and Philology
_Sources et histoire de la tradition sanskrite_
École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE, Paris Sciences et Lettres)
_Sciences historiques et philologiques _
Groupe de recherches en études indiennes (EA 2120)
_johannes.houben [at] ephe.psl.eu_
_https://ephe-sorbonne.academia.edu/JanEMHouben_
_https://www.classicalindia.info_ [1]
LabEx Hastec OS 2021 -- _L'Inde Classique_ augmentée: construction,
transmission
et transformations d'un savoir scientifique
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