Sanskrit Tidbits-37:Valmiki’s Poetry
In the last tidbits, I talked about Valmiki.
देवि सुरेश्वरि भगवति गङ्गे त्रिभुवनतारिणि तरलतरङ्गे।
शङ्करमौलिनिवासिनि विमले मम मतिरास्तां तव पदकमले॥
This isn’t Valmiki. It is Adi Shankaracharya. It is his famous stotram on the Ganga, recited quite often. Once one breaks up this shloka, I don’t think there is any need for explaining it, apart from stating that मौलि means head. Everyone knows the story about Ganga being caught in Shiva’s (Shankara’s) head. The entire stotram is 14 shlokas long. Many people will recognize the first shloka, but not the rest of it. I am not going to reproduce all of it, since it floats around in different places.
देवि सुरेश्वरि भगवति गङ्गे त्रिभुवन-तारिणि तरल-तरङ्गे।
शङ्कर-मौलि-निवासिनि विमले मम मतिः-आस्तां तव पदकमले॥
I will jump to shloka no. 11. This is not obvious without explanations. Let us break it up first. कमठः is a turtle or tortoise. मीनः is a fish. सरटः is a chameleon/lizard and क्षीण: is weak or small. वरम् is better, इह means this and नीरेis in this water. Thus, it is better to be a turtle or fish in this water, or to be a small lizard along the banks than…I have talked about the word श्वपचो in an earlier tidbit. It can be translated as someone who eats dogs, but I questioned that earlier. For the moment, let us just take it as someone who is inferior, in whatever sense. दीनःmeans poor/wretched. गव्यूति is an interesting word. It is a measure of distance, but is actually the distance from which a cow’s mooing can be heard. The dvi-vachana indicates that we are talking about two गव्यूति-s. It is better to be a wretched and inferior person within a distance of two gavyutis from the river than.. The “than” part is easy. कूलीनः is noble. So it is better to be all these things than a noble king at a distance.
वरमिह नीरे कमठो मीनः किंवा तीरे सरटः क्षीण:।
अथ गव्यूतो श्वपचो दीनो न पुनर्दूरे नृपतिकूलीनः॥
वरम् इह नीरे कमठः मीनः किं वा तीरे सरटः क्षीण:।
अथ गव्यूतो श्वपचो दीनः न पुनः दूरे नृपति-कूलीनः॥
That was Adi Shankaracharya. Let me now jump to Valmiki. In the Valmiki Ramayana, there are shlokas composed in honour of the Ganga. Here is one of these, unbroken and then broken up. करटः is a crow and कृशः is thin/emaciated. शुनी is a bitch and शुनी-तनय: is a puppy. Thus, it is better to be a lizard, a weak crow or a puppy along the banks of the Ganga than… दूरतरस्थ: is far away, at a distance. नृपतिः is king. अयुत is ten thousand, though it is also used for any large number. So the king is surrounded (परिवृतः) by hundreds of tens of thousands of beautiful women. करि is an elephant. So the king is being described as the lord (master) of crores of best of elephants. It is better to be near the Ganga than a king like this. The imagery is striking, because clearly, Adi Shankaracharya borrowed his imagery from Valmiki’s. Indeed, almost everyone who wrote in Sanskrit has been influenced by Valmiki, including Kalidasa. Valmiki was not just the first poet, he was probably the most influential too.
वरमिह गङ्गातीरे सरट: करटः कृशः शुनीतनयोः न हि दूरतरस्थ:।
अयुतशतवरनारीभिः परिवृतः करिवरकोटीश्वरो नैव हि नृपतिः॥
वरम्-इह गङ्गा-तीरे सरट: करटः कृशः शुनी-तनय: न हि दूरतरस्थ:।
अयुत-शत-वर-नारीभिः परिवृतः करि-वर-कोटी-ईश्वर: न-एव हि नृपतिः॥
Adi Shankaracharya may have written beautiful strotrams and there are several such. But he was not a poet. His compositions are simple, beautiful to hear when they are chanted. Easy to remember and memorize. However, he wasn’t a great poet.
In Valmiki, in that description of the Ganga, we have the following. You see this and you wonder, what on earth is this? Can’t make head or tail out of it. Don’t even know where to begin. This is one of the problems with appreciating Sanskrit poetry. The language is such that it enables words to flow and merge, making comprehension difficult. Therefore, let us break it up.
एतत्तालतमालशालसरलव्यालोलवल्ली
गन्धर्वामरसिद्धकिन्नरवधूत्तुङ्
एतत्-ताल-तमाल-शाल-सरल-व्यालोल-
गन्धर्व-अमर-सिद्ध-किन्नर-वधू-
निर्मलम् is spotless/clean and is a description of the waters of the Ganga (गाङ्ग्यं जलं). Let me (भवतु मे) have access to this water every day (प्रति-वासारं) for my bath (स्नानाय). We now have further descriptions of this (एतत्) water. च्छन्नं is to be covered by and वल्लीलता is creepers. व्यालोल is to wave around. ताल, तमाल, शाल and सरल are different kinds of trees. I am not going to waste words in identifying them in English. The banks of the Ganga are covered by these trees and their branches are waving around with creepers in them. In this context, प्रतापmeans heat. This saves (रहितं) the water from the heat of the sun’s rays (सुर्य-कर). उज्ज्वलम् is bright/sparkling. The waters are as bright as a conch-shell (शङ्ख), the moon (इन्दु) and the कुन्द flower (the jasmine). There is no need to explain गन्धर्व-अमर-सिद्ध-किन्नर, gandharvas, amaras (imortals or gods), siddhas and kinnaras. वधू is wife. Hence we are talking about the wives of these. They have lofty/high (उत्तुङ्ग) breasts (स्तन). When they bathe in the water, these lofty breasts agitate (आस्फालितं) the water.
I hope you will agree that this is great poetry. But this example also tells you why it is so difficult to read and understand some of Sanskrit poetry. The beauty of the language, and the principles of compounding and combining words, creates a bit of a barrier.