oorvaSi, varoodhini et al - once more!

Venkateswara Rao Veluri (vrveluri@worldnet.att.net)
Sat, 14 Sep 1996 01:35:03 -0500 

Dear friends:

About a month ago I wrote that taara, raMbha, varoodhini et al were concubines
from the court of indra, that were sent by the lecher from time to time to aaryaavarta 
to seduce the ascetics, kings etc. And, I said that depicting them as 'feminists'
is doing injustice to the current feminist movement. I have been attacked and chastised 
by my scholarly friends on the net for describing dEvatas in such unpardonable and  
unacceptable terminology. 

This post should not be construed as a defense. It is merely to expiate my unwarranted 
transgressions, if any.

First about oorvaSi:

This is from the mahaabhaarata, araNya parva, pradhamaasvaasa:

arjuna prays Siva and gets all sorts of goodies. indra appears before arjuna and
praises him for his accomplishments with Siva and extends an invitation to arjuna to 
visit amaraavati, an all expense paid vacation! arjuna cheerfully accepts, and is taken 
to amaraavati by maatali in the famed chariot of indra.

It is a moon-lit evening and arjuna is resting in the guest palace. Oorvasi hears of the 
visit and wants to 'meet' arjuna. I will give only parts of sanskritised prose from the 
mahaabhaarata: "....oorvaSi arjuna saMgama kaaMkshaM jEsi candrikaa dhavaLa dukoolaMbu 
gaTTi ......(and it goes on and on; the same sentence!)......maMda gamanaMbuna purandara 
nandanu maMdiraMbuna karudeMci......"

arjuna salutes her with folded hands and says:

nanu putra snEhaMbuna 
manamuna manniMci Subha samagruni jEyaM
janudeMcitivi mudammuna
janitree yE krutaartha janmuDanaitin  (araNya parva : pradhamaasvaasa - 359)

oorvaSi was 'love-struck.' She says " I heard about you from naarada et al. I came to 
go to bed with you. How come you are addressing me as janaitree?"

neeku nEnaaTi tallini nijamu sepuma
amara lOkaMbu vEsyalamaina maaku
niTTi tagavulu naDava vaheena baahu
veerya iccaTa vaaviyu vedaka janune? (op cit - 362)

And she further adds: " ee lOkaMbuna vanitalu purushulu viccala viDi kreeDiMturu. 
iccaTi kidi aninditambaina aacaaraMbu......"

The second one is about varoodhini:

This is from manucaritra, third canto: 

varoodhini was the virahiNi. She was crying because she could not go to bed 
with that brahmin pravara. She was devastated(!). After a couple of pages no-pause
-sanskritized-prose describing her state, peddana finally, gets varoodhini's 
girl friends to say the following:

poota pasiMDi vaMTi valapuM bacariMcu kulaMbu neetikin
lEta gadamma itteragu lEma suraangana lella niTTinee
cEtaku metturamma dayasEyaka tinnani mEnu vennelan
vEturaTamma iMta kanuvEduru sellunaTamma iMtikin        (3-33)

In a nut shell it means that varoodhini was born in the caste that shows nothing but 
'cilakalapooDi baMgaaraM-type' love(poota pasiMDi vaMTi valapu). And the are saying that 
'by your virahaM for a mortal's refusal, you are bringing bad name to your caste.'

Actually, komaandoor anaMtaacaarya's taatparyaM clearly says varoodhini belongs to
'bOgamu jaati.' True. It's politically incorrect. But who am I to say one way or 
the other? I have merely repeated what has been said about the dEvataas.

I hope my past sins are abated!

Regards,

Venkateswara Rao Veluri