Malavikagnimitram (9 page)

⁷⁵
‘gift' is
ācāra,
a customary offering.

⁷⁶
Literally ‘placed in my hand'.

⁷⁷
candrikā
is also moonlight and hence the pun.

⁷⁸
There is double usage of
vadana
and
suvadana
that I was unable to carry over.

⁷⁹
‘unfaithful' and ‘fickle' are both
aviśvasanīya,
spoken by both Agnimitra and Gautama in Sanskrit and Prakrit respectively.

⁸⁰
pañca-bāṇa,
an epithet of the god of love who carries five passion-inducing arrows.

⁸¹
anugṛhītāsmi,
literally ‘I am beholden'.

⁸²
There is a play on the word
bimba,
a fruit used as a conventional metaphor to describe full, red lips, and
baimbika,
here as a reference to Agnimitra as a descendant of King Bimbaka.

⁸³
A special bull let loose at funeral time.

⁸⁴
‘who's afraid of snakes' has been omitted.

⁸⁵
kim ṇu khu daddurā vāharantitti devo puḍhavim visumaredi
is a Prakrit saying used to compliment Irāvatī. The idea is that frogs croak as a call to Lord Indra to give them rain, but in doing so he would naturally shower the earth. Mālavikā and Bakulāvalikā are the frogs, Agnimitra is Indra and Irāvatī is the earth.

⁸⁶
‘accepted terms' is
upāyanī-kṛtya,
employing one of the four types of strategies used in war:
sāman
(conciliation),
dānam
(bribery),
bheda
(sowing dissension) or
daṇḍa
(punishment); see Apte,
Practical Sanskrit-English Dictionary,
p. 474.

⁸⁷
‘in private' is a reading of
sakāśam
meaning near or in the presence of.

⁸⁸
‘busy making pronouncements' is a loose translation of
dharmāsana-gatam,
literally ‘gone to the seat of dharma', that is, engaged with adjudicating on state and other matters.

⁸⁹
daṇḍa,
one of the four stratagems of warfare; see n. 86 above.

⁹⁰
varadā,
play on
vara-da,
one who bestows boons/favours.

⁹¹
kratha-kaiśika
refers to Vidarbha; see Devadhar,
Mālavikāgnimitram of Kālidāsa,
p. 291 for more information.

⁹²
jāla
as in a net or lattice (of fruit) has been omitted.

⁹³
‘uncommon' is
ananya-sādhārana,
common to no other.

⁹⁴
kautukālaṅkāra
is decorations for engagement ceremony, can also apply to her special dress.

⁹⁵
‘draped' is
anati-lambi,
not hanging down low.

⁹⁶
‘suffered much' is a unique phrase
tathā-gataḥ
, literally ‘thus gone' in reference to the fateful condition of Mādhavasena; the term is also a common appellation for Buddha.

⁹⁷
The phrase
śāntam p
ā
pam
(‘pacified sin') is often repeated, as it is here, and means ‘oh no!', ‘how can it be', ‘God forbid such an untoward or unlucky event'; see Apte,
Practical Sanskrit-English Dictionary,
p. 1544.

⁹⁸
‘in my presence' has been omitted.

⁹⁹
‘excuse the interruption' is translating
katha antareṇa antaritam
which actually means the minister's order was delayed because of another matter.

¹⁰⁰
‘elders' is
guru-jana,
here in reference to Pusyamitra, Dhāriṇī's father-in-law.

¹⁰¹
‘mighty' is
āyuṣmantam,
literally long-lived or full of life.

¹⁰²
The
rājasūya-yajña
is a famous Vedic rite carried out by kings to establish their universal sovereignty. A royal steed is released to wander freely, claiming all the land it traverses for the king. If an enemy king should impede or seize the horse, it would mean he was challenging the king's suzerainty. Both King Yudhiṣṭhira and Lord Rāma consecrated this rite during their reigns.

¹⁰³
Greek is
yavana
as in Ionian.

¹⁰⁴
Lord Rāma's ancestor King Sagara also consecrated the rājasūya rite and dispatched his grandson Aṃśuman to retrieve the sacrificial horse. These events led to the famous story of Bhagīratha and the descent of the river Gaṅgā.

¹⁰⁵
There is a hint here of the reportedly strained relationship between Puá¹£yamitra and his son Agnimitra. See the introduction for more historical information.

¹⁰⁶
The comparison here is between
vīra-patnī
and
vīra-sūḥ,
the wife versus mother of a hero.

¹⁰⁷
‘mighty' is
a-pradhṛṣya,
literally ‘unassailable' and ‘maker' is
prabhava,
a source or origin. The mythological reference here is to Aurva who was born from his mother's thigh, hence the epithet used in the verse:
uru-janmā.
‘Beholding him, the sons of Kārtavirya were struck with blindness, and his wrath gave rise to a flame which threatened to consume the whole world, had he not, at the desire of his Pitṛis, the Bhārgavas, cast it into the ocean, where it remained concealed with the face of a horse; cf. Vaḍavāgni': see Apte,
Practical Sanskrit-English Dictionary,
p. 512.

¹⁰⁸
‘gifted' has been supplied.

¹⁰⁹
actually
asyāḥ prabhavasi,
‘you will have power over her'.

¹¹⁰
‘officially' is
caritārtham
or successfully, as in the desired objective has been accomplished.

¹¹¹
‘warm regards', literally
sabhājanākṣarāṇi
or respectful words.

¹¹²
bharata-vākyam,
the last verse of a play in honour of Bharata, the master of dramatic arts.

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