'sAhityamlO aUcityam'

vissa@cortex.neuro.mssm.edu
Tue, 12 Dec 1995 14:11:18 -0500

'aUcityamu' (appropriateness) is obviously the key point in every aspect
and walk of life. This being a literary net, let us confine to the same.
All the writers take good care of it, before letting their literary works
get to the public. However, sometimes, unfortunately, some critical
ambiguities, mistakes or blemishes do slip (not the typos). Sometimes, the
writer may be lucky as himself or a supporting knowledgeble fan may come up
with an explanation or interpretation to justify the writer's version,
which may not be possible on all the occasions. Of course, sometimes we
come across people taking a dig at the writer in an unreasonable and
deliberate way to exploit a very simple slip ('randhrAnveshaNa') due to the
reasons best known to them. On the other hand, sometimes, the writer may
create something, in order to save the grace of an important character to
maintain 'aUcityamu' also. The best and well known example is, kALidAsa
converting 'SAkuntalamu' to 'abhij~nAna SAkuntalamu' to save the grace of
hero 'dushyanta'. So, this 'aUcityamu' (appropriateness), ranges quite a
lot based on the situation.

Here is one of my strange acquaintance of such a situation about a very
very famous and popular 'SlOka'.

kausalyA suprajA rAmA! pUrvA sandhyA pravartatE
uttisTha naraSArdUlA! kartavyam daiva mAnhikam

Please let me describe it as still I remember it very vividly. This
incident happened almost a decade ago, during my Ph.D.days. One day, all of
a sudden, a close friend of mine rushed to my room; without any
introduction, directly quoted this 'SlOka' and asked me to explain the
context. He is a sanskrit and telugu scholar, apart from being a
mathematician and as a person very very enthusiastic. Knowing fully well
his literary antics and expecting something strange out of it, I answered
well in explaining the context. He nodded his head in approval and came up
with the surprizing question, which many people in general, tend to
overlook very often. The question looks funny, because it is very simple,
however, it is an extremely legitimate one and questions the
appropriateness with reference to its context.

So, now, may someone please explain the context and come up with what is
the inappropriateness in it. (Even today, I do not know whether his
question is right or wrong. But it is right, if my explanation of the
context is right, which he agreed to. So, it still remains a mystery to
me.)

With regards and best wishes,

Prabhakar Vissavajjhala, Ph.D.
Fishberg Research Center for Neurobiology
Mt. Sinai School of Medicine
New York, NY 10029