Buddha kathā - part 3

ekadā rātrau siddhārtho bhāryāṃ putraṃ prāsādañcātyajat | so aśvam ārohad vanañ cāgacchat | vane so'śvamapyajat | sa keśānakṛntannadyāñcākṣtipat | sa sarvāṇi bhūṣaṇānyapyanale'kṣipat | so'vadat - adhunāhammunirbhaveyamiti | tataḥ sa satyasya darśanāya grāmādgrāmaṃ vanādvanaṃ deśāddeśamabhrāmyat |
In a night, Siddhārtha abandoned the wife son and palace. He mounted the horse and left to the forest. In the forest he also abandoned the horse. He cut the hair and threw it in the river. He also threw in the fire all ornaments. He said: now I will become an hermit. Therefore for the sake of the vision of truth he wandered from village to village, from forest to forest from region to region.
sa yaṃ yaṃ munimapaśyattaṃ taṃ so'pṛcchat | sa yadyatpustakamalabhata, tattat pustakaṃ so'paṭhat | tathāpi sa satyaṃ nābodhat | ekadā so'cintayat - yadyahamammaṃ na bhakṣayeyam, jalamapi na pibeyam, tarhyahaṃ satyaṃ paśeyam iti | tataḥ so'annaṃ jalañcātyajat | sa vṛkṣasyādho'sīdat |
He questioned each and every hermit he saw. He read each and every book he obtained. However he didn't learned the truth. Once he was thinking: If I'll not eat food nor drink water then I may see the truth. So he renounced to the food and water. He sat below a tree.

Buddha kathā - part 2

yadā māyādevī sukhārthaṃ vane'bhrāmyat tadā vana(y) eva tasyāḥ putro'jāyata | sa siddhārthaḥ |
When Māyādevī was wandering for pleasure in the forest, then, right in the forest her son was born. He is Siddhārtha.
yadā bālaṃ siddhārtham munyo'paśyaṃs tadā te'bhāṣanta - he śuddhodana, eṣa tava putro yadi nṛpo bhavettarhi sa sarvasya lokasya nṛpo bhavet | kintu yadi sa loke duḥkhaṃ paśyettarhi sa munireva bhavet | tadā sa sarvasya lokasya gururbhavediti |
When hermits saw the boy Siddhārtha they spoke: Oh Śuddhodana, if this son of you will become a king then he will become the king of entire world. However if he will see the suffering in the world then he will became an hermit. Then he will became the guru of entire world.
yadā śuddhodano nṛipo munīnāṃ tadvacanam abodhat tadā so'cintayat - mama putro nṛpa eva bhavatu | sa sarvasya lokasya nṛpo bhavatu | sa mā vanaṅ gacchatu | mā ca sa munir bhavatv iti |
When king Śuddhodana learne this word of the hermits he thought: let my son to be king. Let he be hte king of entire world. Let him not go to forest. An he should not become hermit.

Buddha kathā - part 1

purā bhāratadeśe kapilavastunagare śuddhodano nāma nṛpo'bhavat |
Long ago, in India in Kapilavastu town lived a king named Śuddhodana.
tasminnagare sarve janāḥ sukhenāvasan |
In this town all people lived with happiness.
janānāṃ sukhena nṛpo'pi sukhamalabhata |
By people's happiness even the king was happy.
sa nṛpaḥ sarvāṇi śāstrāṇyabodhat, sarvadā ca satyamevābhāṣata |
This king kew all sacred writings and always talked the truth only.
tasya bhāryā māyādevī |
His wife was Māyādevī.
tasyāḥ sarve guṇā avartanta |
She had all the qualities.

Kaliyugasaṃghātaka - I

Thanks to Somdev Vasudeva who pointed towards and to amazing people who made it available the NGMCP Newsletter is a rich source of high quality Indological information. In the following lines is an article from the first issue about a kāvya work named Kaliyugasaṃghātaka. I chose it because the poem charmed me with its ever changing rhythms (...so far. I'll try to read it in the following days).

[The text of the article without the notes. Click this to download the issue]

Kaliyugasaṃghātaka
Diwakar Acharya
(University of Kyoto)

I discovered this text of 50 verses in various metres entitled Kaliyugasaṃghātaka in the NGMPP microfilms. The original palmleaf manuscript is preserved in the National Archives, Kathmandu. Its manuscript number is 1-866 and the NGMPP reel number is B 4/7. It has 12 folios of 22 x 4 cm size, including a blank folio at the end serving as a cover. Each folio contains four lines on both sides, a line contains about 36 akṣaras. The author of the text is not known, and none of these 50 verses are known to be included in any anthology. However, the manuscript is dated, the colophon telling us that it was copied on the first of the waning half of Mārga, NS 501 (November, 1380 A.D.), a terminus ad quem.

It is possible that the text was written in, and did not circulate beyond the boundaries of, mediaeval Nepal. The author is innovative in choosing metres, and critical in presenting his feelings and reflections on what was going on around him. It is conceivable that the poem reflects some particular events that took place in the society in which the poet lived. His vocabulary is spectacular; he uses many rare words.

As the title says, it is ‘An Assemblage [of Verses = A Poem] on the Dark Age’. The Kāvyādarśa of Daṇḍin knows saṃghāta[ka] as a type of poem. Daṇḍin names muktaka, kulaka, kośa and saṃghāta[ka] as categories of poem inferior to an epic poem with chapter divisions, and one of its commentaries takes saṃghāta[ka] to be a poem on a certain theme in one single metre. However, our text which contains the (categorical?) element saṃghātaka in its title is not written in one but 32 various metres. The poem begins with a metre of six syllables and goes on increasing up to 24 syllables till verse 49, with the exception of the last verse, written in a 14 syllable metre chosen as conclusion. I present here the list of these metres in the consecutive order of their use in the poem: Vidyullekhā, Uṣṇik, Acala, Pramāṇikā, Ravipulā, Anuṣṭubh, a new metre that I have not traced in Sanskrit works on prosody, another new metre, Viyoginī, Svāgatā, Rathoddhatā, Indravajrā, Upajāti, Upendravajrā, Mandākinī, Vaṃśastha, Drutavilambita, Aparavaktra, Puṣpitāgrā, Praharṣiṇī, Rucirā, [Dvir]Uddhatā, Vasantatilakā, Mālinī, Hariṇī, Pṛthvī, Śikhariṇī, Śārdūlavikrīḍita, Sragdharā, Śaṅkha Daṇḍaka and [Dvir]Uṣṇik.

Here I present my edition of the text with a positive apparatus. I do not report irregularities concerning sibilants and gemination. A translation of the text and comments on the content will follow.

[The text follows]