Rtusamhaaram - Reposted from Sanskrit Digest
Rao Veluri (rveluri@smtpgate.anl.gov)
Fri, 28 Mar 97 15:16:59 CST
Sid Harth <bakula@earthlink.net>, as I mentioned in one
of my earlier posts, frequently writes in the Sanskrit Digest.
His notes and comments are unique, humorous and often
quite ticklish.
Any way, I like them! I hope you do too!!
With his permission, I am reposting a couple of slOkaas
from Rtusamhaaram.
Rtusamhaaram varshaa - 21
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kaalaa guruprachura chandanachachirtaangya@h
pushhpaavatan sasurabhiikRta keshapaashaa@h |
shRtvaa dhvanim jalamuchaam tvaritam pradoshhe
shayyaagRham gurugRhaatpravishanti naayar@h
Young women, wearing sandalwood-like aloe wood paste,
hair adorned by sweet-smelling flowers behind their ears,
hearing roar of the clouds, in the evening,quickly
enter bedrooms from their in-law's houses.
[Sid Harth..."It is sex-lore for Kalidas, for women,
just another chore." ]
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Rtusamhaaram vasanta - 5
kusumbharaagaaruNitaidurkuulai
nirtimbabimbaani vilasiniinaamh |
raktaanshukai@h kunkumaraagagaurai
rlankriyante stanamanDalaani
Coquettish women showing off their silk sarongs dipped in safflower
dyes and pale peachy breasts decorated with blood-red colored upper
garments.
Kalidasian society could neither allow their housewives flaunting their
bodies in diaphanous silk garments nor practically naked with bejeweled
girdles, that we see in the paintings and sculptures of that era.
The literature and arts, however, abound with such high fashion
references. In the literature, therefore, they have to have bad
characters wearing such outrageous fashion articles. The reference,
here, to coquettish women--prostitutes--wearing them is a cop-out on
the part of Kalidas.
Not that there were no prostitutes then. They were plentiful and full of
fame, fortune and fantastic mansions to ply their trade. They parlayed
their wares to aficionados and artsy crowd. Their high status afforded
them certain social status. They did not have houses of ill repute but
"Maison d'art"--Paris salons. Their clientele included royalty's
underlings, the ones who couldn't afford personal harems like their
masters. Such "maisons", were the place to be for artsy crowd. Painters,
poets, writers, musicians, and dancers not to mention priests and
potentates, proud and profligates, cautious and precotious had their
atrocious dreams acted out in such "maisons."
[Sid Harth..."Pompous, plump, plums of prostitutes make felons out of
fellow men."]
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With regards, V R Veluri wishes you all a fruitful egg hunt!