UNNERSITÀ DEGLI STUDI DI MILANO

FACOLTÀ DI LETTERE E FILOSOFIA

Quaderni di Acme 112

Dipartimento di Scienze dell'Antichità Sezione di Glottologia e Orientalistica

KINGS AND ASCETICS IN INDIAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE

Edited by Paola M. Rossi and Cinzia Pieruccini

International Seminar 21-22 September 2007. Proceedings

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CISALPINO Istituto Editoriale Universitario

www.monduzzieditore.it/cisalpino

QUADERNI DI ACME - Comitato scientifico

Isabella Gualandri (dir.) - Livio Amonielli, Giorgio Bejor, Claudia Berra, Elisa Bianchi, Giovanni Cianci, Gianfranco Fiaccadori, RenatO PettOello

Cover image: King Vi$IfUVardhana Hoysala. TempIe of CeIfIfa Kesava, Belur (Karnataka), dedicated in 1117. Photo Cinzia Pieruccini.

Realizzazione editOriale: Simonetta Pavesi ... , ....... - .~. ".

ISBN 978-88-6521-005-5 Copyright © 2009 CISALPINo. Istituto Editoriale Universitario - Monduzzi EditOriale S.r.l. VIA B. EUSTACHI, 12 - 20129 MIlANO Te!. 02/20404031 cisalpino@monduzzieditore.it

FinitO di stampare nel mese di ottObre 2009 da GECA S.p.A. Cesano Boscone (MI)

Kings and Ascetics in Indian Classica. literature

International Seminar Milan, 21 st-22nd Septembert 2007

promoted.by

Università degli Studi di Milano Facoltà di. Lettere é Filosofia

Dipartimento di Scienze dell'Antichità .

with

Ministero dell'Università e della Ricerca

and

Istituto italiano per l'Africa e l'Oriente

Library ofGlottologia e Orientalistica Via Festa del Perdono, 3/7

CONTENTS

Preface Giuliano Boccali. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. p. XI

Editors' Note. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..» XVII

Abbreviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..» XIX

EPICS

Kings and Ascetics in Indian Classical Literature. A Case-Study of King DaSaratha and the f!is in the Val.rn1ki-Ramaya~

Danielle Feller ................ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. » 3

Bharadvaja's Hermitage and the Paradise of the Warrior (Ramaya~ II 85)

Cinzia Pieruccini ..............................» 25

Where the Ascetics Lead their Life of Austerities, there Peace and Beauty are. What Makes a PIace an aframa in the Mahabharata and in Kalidasa's Work

Tiziana Pontillo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..» 43

KAVYA

The Description of the Hermitage. Raghuva7[tfa I 35 -55 Anna Bonisoli Alquati .......................... p.

The Vari ed Picture of Kings in the na!ya Literature Klara Gò'nc Moaeanin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. »

The Angry Ascetic and the PacifYing King: A Socio-Cultural Study in Kalidasa's Poetry

Chettiarthodi Rajendran ......................... »

Some Observations on Sanskrit as Court Language Bruno Lo Turco. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. »

Satire, Wit and Humour on Kings and Ascetics in kavya Literature. «He who laughs last, laughs best»

Daniela Rossella . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. »

Desire and Non-Desire. The Forest of Asceticism in the Poetry of Asvagho~a

Paola Maria Rossi ............................. »

Innuendo and 1rony in Bfu:1a's Treatment of Kings and Ascetics

David Smith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. »

The Kings of the Sifupalavadha Anna Trynkowska . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. »

SAsTRAS

King-Priest Relations in the Tradition of the Na!yafastra

61

79

93

103

117

135

149

163

Natalia R. Lidova ..............................» 177

The King Is Hunting: 1s it Good or Bad? Gyula Wojtilla . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..» 199

MIDDLE AGES AND DEVOTION

The King and the Ascetic in Kesavadasa's ] aharhglra ] asa Candrika

Stefania Cavaliere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. p.

Kings, Ascetics and Sidelong Glances Cezary Galewicz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. »

The sa7[tnyasin and the King. Plays of Society and Acts of Devotion

Alessandro Graheli .............................. »

Why Would a King Become an Ascetic? A Few Political Answers from Hindi Mediaeval Literature

Giorgio Milanetti ............................... »

Ravaç.a King of Lanka in Tamil Saiva and Vai~ç.ava Devotional Poetry

Emanuela P anattoni ............................. »

A PICTURE GALLERY

215

231

253

267

297

Cinzia Pieruccini . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..» 311

1ndexes 1ndex of N ames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. » 1ndex ofLiterary Works ......................... » 1ndex of Places ................................ »

349 355 359

WHERE THE ASCETICS LEAD THEIR LIFE OF AUSTERITIES, THERE PEACE AND BEAUTY ARE

WHAT MAKEs A PLACE AN ASRAMA

IN THE MAHABHMATA AND IN MIDÀSAS WORK

Tiziana Pontillo

1. Are the asramas idyllic or edenic places?

The motive of «the contrast between the city and the forest» is a well-known commonplace of classical Indian literature, as is singled out e.g. in Kalidasa's works by Ingalls1, but according to Pollock it becomes palpable, perhaps for the first time in Indian history, [ ... ] in the Ayodhyakar.z!a», when «Rama finds himself banished from Ayodhya», «with an unmistakabie sense ofliberation»2. Thereabout Pollock quotes some passages from sargas 50, 88 and 89, where Rama extols the life in the forest and on the mountains as far better than the Iife in the town. At least in one case Rama seems to allude to an even more ancient «opposition between the settled agricultural community (grama) and the alien outside sphere of the jungle (arar.zya)>>, respectively the official seat for the king, who must belong to the grama, and the source ofhis author­ity, which relies on his access to esoteric knowledge.

Living in the forest - as the royaI seers of old, my ancestors, used to say - is the real drink of immortality for kings, and leads to well-being after death3.

l INGALLS: 1976,22 ff. 2 POLLOCK: 1986, 3. 3 Ram II 88.19: idam evamrtaf!l- prahurajfiiirrt rajar!ayal; pare I vanaviiraf!l- bhavarthaya

pretya me prapitamahal; Il 19 Il; transI. POLLOCK: 1986, 269.

44 Tiziana Pontillo

This is according to an ancient paradigm of the Indian civilization anaIyzed by Heesterman4, recognizabie both in Vedic texts, above alI in Brahmar;as and in Kalpasiitras, and in the Epic literature, e.g. in some episodes of the Mahabharata, connected to the character of Drof.la, the fencing master of Kauravas and PiiI).çlavas and above alI a master of exo­teric knowledge - applied to weapons -, which he has Iearned from his father Bharadvaja and from Rama Jamadagnya5.

In this generaI context aiso appears a minor though fascinating motive, of nature which surprisingIy escapes its common Iaw in the proximity of aframas. It is alluded to in Ram II 88. 7, where the unex­pected miIdness of animais currently regarded as fierce and dreadful is imagined as an enchanting effect of the ascetics who live in the same piace, on the Citrakuça mountain6. This same minor motive aiso recurs in some kavya-passages: e.g. in Kum V 17 the grove itseIf, where Urna performed her penance to win Siva's heart, became a hallowed pIace. Creatures (sattva) which first were hostile towards each other, according the Iaws ofNature, abandoned their enmities7 .

We wonder if in the first passage it dealt with the «Edenic quality» which Pollock8 points out as a preserved feature of forests in the Ramayar;a and if we may extend the same definition to the kavya-quota­tion. Mter all, what is the cause-effect relationship between ascetics and their aframas? Is the aframa an «idyllic pIace»9 whose boundaries are

4 HEESTERMAN: 1985, 117-125. 5 Cf. PONTILLO: 2007, 436 ff. 6 Ram II 88. 7: niinamrgagapadvipitarakfv rkfagapair vrtal; I aduttair bhaty aya1'(t failo

bahupaktisamakulal; Il 7 Il. For this allusion see both POLLOCK: 1986, 145 and BOCCALI:

2001, 105. The motive of paeified nature in the asrama must have been so popular at the time of the Ramayapa and the Kumarasa1'(tbhava, that it did not need to be made explieit: we probably have to suppose that useful clarifying intertextual referenees were available to be resorted to with ease.

7 Kum V 17: virodhisattvojjhitapiirvamatsaram drumair abhT!taprasavarcitatithi I navotaja-bhyantarasa1'(tbrtanala1'(t tapovana1'(t tac ca babhiiva pavanam Il 17 Il.

8 POLLOCK: 1986,3: «[ ... ] they regarded the 'desolate forest' as a zone of mystery, where supernaturai forces carne into pIay, yet where a certain Edenic quaIiry had been preserved, as well».

9 Here the adjeetive "idyllie" does not generieally mean "quiet" nor does it allude to its Greek etymology referring to the homonymous short literary eomposition, but rather it aims at quaIifying the piaces where an ideaI of peaeefui living together pre­vaiis among ali ereatures.

The Ascetics Lead their Life of Austerities: Peace and Beauty 45

defined by its inhabitants, that is by the quaIity of Iife they Iead there, or a pIace with specific native materiai features which have remained up unchanged since before the origins of the civilization?lO. Moreover is this relationship so stereotyped that we cannot register any changes from the itihasa- to the kavya-tradition?

2. The cause-effect relationship between the ascetics' presence and the portentous features 01 the pacilied asramas is not unequivocally stressed in the Mahabharata

In the Mahabharata the majority of the passages which can be classi­fied as pertaining to aframas are inserted into broader depictions of mountain Iandscapes and they are often mere hints of a certain peacefui and often supernaturai atmosphere of piaces where the ascetics Iive.

2. 1. When the main characters are on a quest for a proper pIace where they can spend their time after having been banished 11, the pres­ence of pious men recurs both among the requested features listed by Yudhighira, who asks his brothers to find a proper pIace for their exiIe12, and among those for which Arjuna chooses the region on the banks of Iake Dvaitavana13 . In addition, a Iot of brahmanas aiso follow the exiled PiiI).çlavas14: they are "hundreds of ascetics fir~y adhering to vows, faithfui to ttuth,,15. There are different kinds of these, renouncers, silent ascetics, eminent twice-born16. Someone Iives on alms such as the

lO In PIERUCCINI: 2006, 120, some other pertaining Ramayapa passages, emphasiz­ing the «fully paeified" nature of the asramas, are quored: in the hermitages «tiger and deer Iive in peaee» (Ram III 71. 3: vifvastamrgafardiilo), so thar they are considered a «refuge for alI creatures» (Ram III 1. 3: farapya1'(t sarvabhiitanam). Moreover, it is already notieed that on rhe one hand the peaee of the forest is one of the «neeessary presuppo­sitions for rhe settlement ofhermirs», on the orher hand «the presenee itself of the her­mirs determines the peaceful features of the pIace», and moreover <dt is very often dif­fieult to isolate rhe asrama [ ... ] from the forest which eontains it».

11 Mbh III 25-27.

12 Mbh III 25. 2cd-3ab: samzk!adhva1'(t maharapye defa1'(t [. . .] Il [. . .] pupyajanocitam l. 13 Mbh III 25. 10ab: ida1'(t dvaitavana1'(t nama saraI; pupyajanocitam l. 14 Mbh III 25. 13: f..l paP4ava f..l I brahmapair bahubhil; sardha1'(t f..] 1113 Il. 15 Mbh III 25. 15 cd: tapasvinal; satyas71al; fatatafal; sa1'(tfitavratal; Il 15 Il. 16 Mbh III 26. 2: yatT1'(tf ca sarvan sa munT1'(tf ca rajii tasmin vane [. . .] I dvijatimukhyan

f..] 112 Il.

46 Tiziana Pontillo

bhikfUS, someone lives in the forest, not all are faithful to orthodox obser­vances 17 . However, we only know that this pIace becomes, perhaps as a result, a sort ofheaven. In fact Indra who enters heaven is compared with Yudhisthira who enters that forest with his brothers and the brahmin who f~Ùow him 18. He is a sort of father for all the forest-inhabitants, ascetics included 19. Analogously, some verses below, a second simile compares the same pIace with the Brahmaloka just because it is inhabit­ed by so many brahmins20. lt is not explicitly stated whether the pIace was effectively inhabited by ascetics before the arrivaI ofYudhighira and his followers or not and consequently if that pIace - which however is never denoted with the term iiframa - was an idyllic pIace simply because of the presence of ascetics. Nevertheless before the quoted simi­les there is one of those detailed lists of specific plants and animals21 ,

which we recognize as a striking feature of the descriptions of forests in the Mahabharata22 , here as a more specific feature of enchanting holy places.

2. 2. At the beginning of the renowned kirata-episode, when Indra had already promised his extraordinary weapons to Arjuna, provided he faces Siva in a contest, we are witnesses to Arjuna's austerities23 . The pIace on the mountains he chose for carrying out his peni tence seems to change after Arjuna's time as an asceti c. The forest is defined as fearful and thorny when he entered it alone24. On the contrary, when he had already gone in, it is adorned with ftuits and flowers of all sorts and crowded with birds and other auspicious beings25 . Is it only a specific narrative

17 Mbh III 25. 14: brahmapiip sagnihotraf ca tathaiva ca niragnayap l svadhyayino bhikJavaf ca sajapa vanavasinap Il 14 Il.

18 Mbh III 25. 21: [..} raja [..} Idnanarrz tat I vivefa [..} trivi,taparrz fakra ivamitaujal? 1121 Il; Mbh III 25. 23cd: f. . .} vivefa sarvaip sahito dvijagryaip f. .. } 1123 Il.

Il. 19 Mbh III 25. 24: sa f. .. } pi~rvan f. .. } tapasvibhir [..} upetya l pratyarcitap [..} 1124

20 Mbh III 27. 2cd: brahmalokasamarrz purryam iistd dvaitavanarrz sarap Il 2 Il. 21 Mbh III 25. 17-20. 22 Cf. PIERUCCINI: 2002, 96 f. 23 Mbh III 39. 12-20. 24 Mbh III 39. 12c: [..} vanarrz karttakitarrz ghoram eka evanvapadyata 1112 Il. 25 Mbh III 39. 13: nanapu,paphalopetarrz nanapak,ini,evitam l nanamrgagapiikfrparrz sid­

dhacara/7asevitam Il 13 Il.

The Ascetics Lead their Life of Austerities: Peace and Beauty 47

pattern or is it a logically ordered sequence? Perhaps we have to suppose that Arjuna's austerities are capable of arousing this wonderful land­scape, i.e. ascetic practices are fecund. On the other hand, Arjuna's way through the desert forest is framed by some supernatural events such as a sound of conchs and drurns echoed in heaven, a shower of flowers and a sudden shading gathering of clouds26.

Even this passage taken as a whole does not look like a landscape made "idyllic" by the presence of ascetics. It is ttue that Arjuna shone in his own effulgence just as each mighty ascetic by dwelling on the breast of the Himruaya27, but the marvels of that pIace are only objects of his perception rather than fruit of his actions. He saw there trees which are full-blown and the crooked rivers with great eddies, dark blue like cat's eye gems, he heard the lovely notes of birds and cuckoos28. He is delighted by this fascinating river-landscape29. He does not directly determine anything of these wonders.

2. 3. Not even in the rare hermitages, which are identified by the name of the renowned asceti c who lives there, do we find such plain statements of whatever cause-effect relationship between the features of a hermitage and the presence of hermits. For example as regards Vf~aparvan's her­mitage we only have a swift mention of his sacred iiframa, which besides being an exceedingly beautiful aframa is frequented by both the gods and the maharfis30.

Analogously in the context of the depiction of Nara and Narayaç.a's iiframa31 , refuge of alI creatures32, some natural features such as trees

26 Mbh III 39. 14-15: tatap prayate kaunteye vanarrz manu,avarjitam l fa'(lkhanarrz patahanarrz ca fabdal? samabhavad divi Il 14 Il pu,pavar,arrz ca sumahan nipapata mahftale l meghajalarrz ca vitatarrz chadayam iisa sarvatap 1115 Il.

27 Mbh III 39. 16cd: fufubhe himavatpmhe vasamiino 'rjunas f. .. } Il 16 Il. 28 Mbh III 39. 17-18: tatrapafyad drumiin phullan vihagair valgunaditan l nadff ca

bahulavarta nflavaic/iiryasarrznibhap Il 17 Il harrzsakaratulavodgftap sarasabhirutiis tatha l purrzskokilarutaf caiva krauficabarhi/7anaditap Il 18 Il.

29 Mbh III 39. 19cd-20: purryas7tamalajalap pafyan prftamanabhavat 1119 Il rama?1fye vanoddefe ramamiipa 'rjunas tada l tapasy ugre vartamiina [..} 1120 Il.

30 Mbh III 174. 6cd: [..} asedur atyarthamanoramarrz vai tam aframiigryarrz vr,aparva/7as te 116 Il Mbh 174. 8ab: purryaframe devamahar,ijufte Il 8 Il.

31 Mbh III 145. 15-29. 32 Mbh III 145. 27c fararryarrz sarvabhutanarrz f. .. } l

48 Tiziana Pontillo

which blossom and which bring fruits to ripeness in every season33, are merely listed side by side with the mention of the great nis' presencè4,

of the resounding recitations of the Veda35 , without any explicit logical link. Some inauspicious featutes from which the pIace is blissfully free are also mentioned: for example there are neither gad-flies nor thorns36. By good luck all miseries and sorrows, such as hunger and thirst, heat and cold are far from here37 . The inborn nature of these features is explicitly noted once, with the almost technical term svabhava, when the land is defined naturally blessed and beautiful, although the same verse seems to contai n an opposed hint to a credible material cause of its sur­face "perfectly made smooth" surface38. likewise the hermitage's fasci­nating nature is explicitly improved by the roaming about of the gods and of the ascetics, who live on fruits and roots, who keep their passions under control, who wear black deer skins, looking as effulgent as the sun, but it explicitly deals with a heavenly incomparable hermitage, mysteri-

33 Mbh III 145. 16: f.--1 dadrfur naranarayopiiframam l upeta7!Z padapair divyai~ sadiipu,paphalopagai~ Il 16 Il; Mbh III 145. 20: f.-.J defe bahumiilaphalodake nflafadvala­sa7!Zchanne f.-.J 1120 II.

34 Mbh III 145. 19b:{badarf7!Z}f.--1 mahar,igapasevitam l; Mbh III 145. 25ab: mahar,igapasa7!Zbadha7!Z {'.-1 l.

35 Mbh III 145. 25ab: f.-.J brahmya f.--1 samanvitam l; Mbh III 145. 27c: f.--1 brah­magho,aniniiditam Il 27 Il.

36 Mbh III 145. 20ab: ada7!Zfamafake defe f.--1 l; Mbh III 145. 21cd: ('.-1 defe 'pahatakapthake Il 21 Il.

37 Mbh III 145. 24cd: k,uttrtfTto,pada,aif ca varjita7!Z fokanafanam Il 24 Il. 38 Mbh III 145. 21 ab: susamTkrtabhiibhage svabhavavihite fubhe l. N evertheless, we can­

not be so sure about the agent of this levelling work, if we try to compare a renowned etymology of the name of the earth as Prthivf, according to Nir I 13-14: «They declare that earth Iprthivi) is (so called) on account of being spread Iprath-); bm who spread it, and what was the base? [ ... ] (we reply that) it is indeed broad Iprthu) to look at, even if it is not spread Iprath) by others» Iprathanat Prthivftyahu~ l ka eniim aprathayi,yat l kim iidharaf ceti f.--1 atha vai darfanena Prthu~ l aprathita ced apy anyai~ Il; transL SARUP: 1920-1927, 14-15). However, the Mahabharata case does not deal with the whole earth, bm rather with a specifìc land, a particular piece of ground, which is more or less smooth, more or less fìt for inhabitation. We are facing a human horizon rather than a cosmic one. Therefore, it is reasonable to wonder who makes that land so smooth or rather if it was always naturally smooth. In Ram VI 115. 5 the same verb samfkr is employed by Bharata to command that the soil be made smooth aiming to prepare for the meeting with Rfuna: samfkuruta nimnani vi,amani samani ca l sthanani ca nirasyantam nandigriimiid ita~ paral'(l Il 5 II.

The Ascetics Lead their Life of Austerities: Peace and Beauty 49

ously full oflighé9. It is free from darkness, although it is untouched by the sun's rays40: it might be lit up by the natural brightness of these ascetics41 or be rather a generic portentous pIace, which escapes the law of the current human world.

2. 4. We find a more explicit hint at ascetics as peacemakers in the above-mentioned kirata-episode, when Arjuna meets Indra, aiming to conquer his extraordinary weapons. Yudhighira summoned him to prac­ti se austerities as a silent ascetic both armed with a bow and sword and even wearing armour42. After having cross ed the Himruayas, Arjuna reached the mountain ofIndrakIla where he even met the god Indra dis­guised as a simple asceti c sitting at the foot of a treé3. It is precisely the god Indra, who prohibits Arjuna from wearing armour and from enter­ing the hermitage bringing his weapons. The explicit reason for this pro­hibition is effectively the presence o~eaceful ascetics and conversely their conquered freedom from passion .

Some verses later an ascetic presence, more precisely a celestial appear­ance is put in relation with an explicit effect of peace and above aH of silence. Nature is kept suspended between the current time and a supernat­ural dimension in the same place where Arjuna is practising his austerities:

The auspicious deity was accompanied by the goddess Urna who was in the same attire and with the same aim (as those of Siva) and by many merry goblins of various forms and attires. O king, o descendent of Bharata, the god disguised as a hunter bIazed forth exceedingIy with his thousands of women. And in a moment alI the forest was pervaded with silence. The sound of waterfalls and birds ceased45 .

39 Mbh III 145. 28-29: divyam iifraya'(lfya7!Z tam iiframa7!Z framaniifanam l friya yutam anirdefya7!Z devacaryopafobhitam Il 28 Il phafamiilafanair diintaif cfrakr,pajinambarai~ l siiryavaifvanarasamais tapasa bhavitatmabhi~ Il 29 Il.

40 Mbh III 145. 24ab: tamasa rahita7!Z pU!7Yam anamnta7!Z rave~ karai~ l. 41 Mbh III 145. 29cd: cf above. 42 Mbh III 38. 11: tapasa yojayatmanam ugrepa bharatar,abha l dhanu,man kavacf

khac/gf muni~ sarasam anvita~ l f.-.J Il 11 Il. 43 Mbh III 38. 31: tato 'pafyat savyasiicf vrkeamiile tapasvinam l brahmya friya

dTpyamana7!Z pi'(lgafa7!Z jati1a7!Z krfam Il 31 Il. 44 Mbh III 38. 33: neha fastrepa kartavya7!Z fiintanam ayamalaya~ l vinftakrodhahar,ana7!Z

brahmapiiniir'(l tapasvinam Il 33 Il. 45 Mbh III 40. 4-6: devya sahomaya frTmiin samanavratavC!aya l nanavC!adharair hr!!air

50 Tiziana Pontillo

3. The idyllic atmosphere 01 the hermitages in Kalidasa's work is unequivocally determined by the ascetics

As we bave seen, in the MahalJharata the cause-effect relationsrup between the ascetics' presence and the portentous features of places is not unequivocal­ly stressed. If we try to briefly compare them with some renowned idyllic her­mitages mentioned by Kalidasa, we find a noteworthy difference.

If we come back to some verses, which precede the quoted Kumarasa?'(lbhava passage pertaining to Uma who tames animals in her iiframa, we can easi­ly see that the holiness of the hermitage is not caused by the mere presen­ce of the goddess engaged in ascetic practices in that pIace. In fact Uma nurtured the saplings herself, tirelessly, pouring water from jars as if they were her daughters to be milked with her breasts46 and she herself fed the fawns with wild ~rain from her cupped hands so that she inspired in them an implicit trust 7. She even seems to consider them as her friends and she is used to comparing herself with them48. This dose relationship between the presence of the ascetic Uma and the holiness of the aframa is also con­firmed by the speech Siva addresses to Uma, when he has finally fallen in love with her. In order to extol her and above alI her ascetic goals, he sta­tes that the mountain "was not sanctified as much by the Mandakinl" as by her unblernished acts49. On the other hand in another passage, praising Uma, the god also recalls the tenderness with which she took care ofboth the tender shoots on the shrubs she gently watered and the devoted fawns she used to feed lovingly giving them kufa grass with her hands50.

The reciprocal trust between human beings - that is between the ascetics - and the animals, a sort of cooperating harmony even with the plants is also underlined as a specific fearure of a charming hermitage:

bhiitair anugatas tada 114 Il kiratavefapracchannab strTbhif ciinu sahasrafab l afobhata tada rajan sa devo'tTva bhiiratal15 Il k!apena tad vana1'(l sarva1'(l niJ;;fabdam abhavat tadalniidab prasravapiinam ca pakfiptim ctipy uparamat 116 Il; ali translations are my own unless otherwise stated.

46 Kum V 14ab: atandrita sa svayam eva vrk!akiin ghatastanaprasravapair vyavardhayat l. 47 Kum V 15ab: ara'(IYabijafijalidanalalitas tatha ca tasya1'(l haripii vifafvasub l. 48 Kum V 15cd: yatha tadTyair nayanaib kutiihalat purab sakhTnam amimTta locane Il

15 Il. Cf. Raghu I 50: utQ the gazelles used tQ receive a portion of wild grain" (nTvarabhagadheyocitair mrgaib).

49 Kum V 37: [..] tatha na ga'(lgaib salilair divaf cyutaib l yatha tvadTyaif caritair anavilair mahJdharab pavita efa [..] 1137 Il.

50 Kum V 34ab: ayi tvadavarjitavarisa1'(lbhrta1'(l pravalam asam anubandhi vTrudham l; Kum V 35ab: ayi prasanna1'(l hari'(ll!!u te manab karasthadarbhaprapayapaharifu l.

The Ascetics Lead their Life of Austerities: Peace and Beauty

How beautiful the hermitages now look: deer enter the courtyards; cows that provide the essentials of the sacrifices come home; young trees glisten moist, freshl y watered at the roots; fires are kindled 51.

51

This passage apparently competeS with Citra.kiiça's praise devoted by Rama to his wife in Ram II 88, as the just mentioned praise ofUma, where she is compared by Siva to the MandakinI, alludes to Ram II 89. On the contrary it is self-evident how differently the interaction between ascetics and nature depicted in Mahiibhiirata passages sounds.

Also in the Abhijnanafakuntala a tamed landscape is recognized by the king as a mark of an ascetic presence52. In particular the confidence acquired by the otherwise wild animals (mrga ), which proceed with undeviating step, even bearing the sound of DuQ.~anta's advancing cha­riot53 is noticed by the same king DuQ.~anta, who defines the pIace shor­tly after "pacified"54. Moreover, just how lovely the young girls who inhabit the aframas are, as they take care of the plants there, is hinted at by the words of Sakuntala, who explains to her friend AnasiJya that she waters them so assiduously. It is not only because of her father's com­mand, but rather because she considers them as her sisters, literalIy "born from the same womb"55. Her feelings towards the natural ele­ments of the hermitage are shown tO be strong when she is going to leave it. Her affection is returned by the penance-grove itself according to the speech made by Priya.qwada on her departure:

The bitterness of departure is not merely yours; look around! See how the holy groves grieve, knowing the hour of separation from you is near56.

In these passages the peaceful attitude of brahma1Jas is of course oppo­sed to the hunter's instinct of the !qatriyas, as we can see in at least five

51 Kum VIII 38: avifadbhir utaja'(lgana1'(l mrgair mwasekasarasaif ca vrk!akaib l iiframii/;; pravifadagnidhenavo bibhrati friyam udTritagnayab Il 38 Il; transl. RAJAN: 1997,205.

52 Sak I 13: sUta, akathito 'pi jfiayata eva yathayam iiframabhogas tapovanasyeti l. 53 Sak I 13: vifvasopagamiid abhinnagatayab fabda1'(l sahante mrgas l. 54 Sak I 14: fantam idam iiframapada1'(l. 55 Sak I 16: na kealam tadanioo evva l atthi me sodarasaneho edesu. 56 Sak N Il; pa kevaia1'(l ta;ovapavirahakadara sahT evva i tue avattidavioassa tavovapassa

vi dava samavattha dTsai I.

Tu:.iana Pontillo

\\'h:cn me asceti es alarmed by the king's arrivaI hasten to n"1'1ffYt:.,, .... tbé animals of me iiframa57 , when an elephant is terrified by the same , and when Bharata is recognized as a fetatriya rather than a briihma7Ja, beeause he likes to play at hunting a lion cub59. In fact as we have already seen the animals which live in the hermitage are not afraid of the human beings, even when they should effeetively be afraid of Dul:).~anta's eventual hunting aetivity. On the contrary the elephant which does not live in the iiframa and which is not tamed by aseetics, is terrified by the king's arrivaI and enters into the iiframa and, bewildered, naturally carries out some violent aets sueh as scaring the deeéo.

In the mentioned Kalidasa passages an "Edenie" nature does not seem to prevail. The healthy and tidy plants and the tame animals seem to be a predictable fruit of the care devoted to them by the inhabitants of the iiframas rather than a mysterious and quite magical affect of the presenee of ascetics or of their virtues. The ciry life, governed by the interests of the court and by the fetatriya usages, aiming at strietly dynastie targets which sometimes involve hostilities, is compared here with and opposed to an ideaI of a higher civilization aiming at peaceful living together, briefly to what the iiframa-life would historically become later.

How this purpose was regarded in Kalidasa works as an intentional and quite intellectual principle, can be deduced by noticing in the KumiirasartZbhava the contrast between the luxuriant nature and joyous­ness diffused by the premature arrivaI of the spring and Siva's reaction. The god remains perfeetly self-eontrolled, concentrated on his medita­tion. The veritable spirit of spring - although not in proper time, trans­gressing the fixed order (samayartZ vilanghya) - is opposed to the self-con­trol of the asceticé1. The afoka did not wait for the touch of the foot of beautifulladieé2; peace as a pieture is only artificially intimated by Siva through Nandin63 .

57 Sak I lO: rwo occurrences; I 28. 58 Sak I 29. 59 Sak VII 17-18. 60 Sak I 29. 61 Kum III 24: tasmin vane sal(Zyaminiil(Z muniniil(Z tapaf?saméidhef? pratikiilavartT l

sal(Zkalpayoner abhimanabhiltam atmanam adaya madhur jajrmbhe Il 24 Il. 62 Kum III 26: [...] afokal? [...] l padena napaik!ata sundarT,17iir{I sal(Zparkam f. . .] 1126 Il. 63 Kum III 41: [...] nandT [...] l [...] ma capalayeti gapan vyanai!Tt Il 41 Il; Kum III

42cd: kananam eva sarval(Z citrarpitarambham ivavatasthe Il 42 Il.

The Ascetics Lead their Life of Austerities: Peace and Beauty 53

4. The two kinds of dePiction ofasramas are not absolutely overlaPPing

In the Mahabhiirata we did not find any eomparable example of such a deep interaction between nature and the human being desti tute of any pas­sions but there is a long tale in XII 117. 1-44 told by Bhi~ma, who heard it in the penance-grove ofRama, son ofJamadagni. In a eertain forest there was an ascetic to whom alI the beings living in the forest, fieree animals included, lions, tigers and farabha as well as huge furious elephants, leop­ards, rhinoeeroses, bears and other dreadful animalé4, used to stay neaé5, as they were their humble disciples, although they were beings living upon bIood66. One in particular, a dog, was devoted to him and never Ieft that silent ascetic, living as if it were an ascetic itself, constantly emaciat­ed and weak because of fasting, living only upon fruits, roots and rubbish, as calm as one who has a disciplined behavioué7 . Once upon a time when he was afraid of a Ieopard, the dog sought help from to the ascetie to

remove its every fear and the ascetic metamorphosed the dog into a leop­ard68 and later into a tiger and into various other animals, until it became wieked and foolish, ready to eat even the afore-Ioved ascetiCo Then the lat­ter transformed it back into a dog again.

This aseetie is shown to be able to tame animals, even becoming a sort of sorcerer, but this tale is aimed explicitlyat teaehing how a king would be able to control alI his subjecrs, eaeh fit for the office assigned to him69. There is not any similariry with the idyllic atmosphere actively determined by ascetics occurring in Kalidasa's works and neither does it deal with an Edenie quality of forests. On the contrary there are some interesting hints at a different interpretation. This tale is included in a context ofkingly wis­dom, among the precepts handed on by the lifelong brahmaciirin BhI~ma to the winner, a k!atriya who had been been banished for a long time to the forest to live as a brahmin. There is a reference to the renowned warrior-

64 Mbh XII 117. 6: sil(Zhavyaghriil? safarabha mattiif caiva mahagajal? l dVTpinaf? khcuJgabhalliika ye canye bhTmadarfana/; 116 Il.

65 Mbh XII 117. Scd: [...] sarvasattvaf? samTpastha bhavanti vanacaripaf? Il 5 Il. 66 Mbh XII 117. 7: [...] k!atajafaniif? l f. .. ] tasyar!el? fi!yavac [...] 117 Il. 67 Mbh XII 117. 8-9: [...] tv ekaf? pafus tatra najahacchva mahamunim Il 8 Il [...] sata­

tal(Z upavasakrfo'balaf? l phalamiilotkaraharaf? fantaf? fi!takrtir yatha 119 Il. 68 Mbh XII 117. lScd: efa fvariiparahito dvTpT bhavasi putraka Il 15 Il. 69 Mbh XII 118.2-4.

Footillo

beffi BhI~ma70 and Drol}a (e.g. Mbh I 154. 8-.·Zn1fi:V!"-/w.jì'J"numa himself, probably known by Bhl?ma before t:hI: courr of Kurus 71, perhaps just at Rama's penance-grove.

masters of the knowledge of exoteric weapons. Both this tale omer quoted Mahabharata passages seem to preserve some traces of

a.lfli AI'lciem traditional pattem of the kingly power, that is outlined as Vedic Yrarya tradition by Heesterman72 and recemly has been shown as also occurring here and there in the Mahabharata73, perhaps even in the episodes depicting the relationship between Drupada and Drol}a and between Drol}a and his pupils74. IYatriyas and brahma1JtZs do not yet represem separated vaY1JtZs but merely differem roles cydically and rirually played as ruling and exiled party respectively75. The dose relationship among disciples high­lighted by Falk and connected to the Vratya model76 seems to be shared both by the banished Yudhighira and ascetics who follow him as a father77

and by gods and maharfis who frequent the Vr?aparvan's hermitage and Nara and NaraYal}a's one7S. In this second case they wear the typical black

70 In the course of the duel between Rfuna and BhI$ma (cf. Ambopakhyana in Mbh V 170-194) and four other times «it is mentioned that BhI$ma learned weapons from Rfuna, but nowhere in the Pune text is there a direct narrative of this tutelage», accor­ding to FITZGERALD: 2002, 97; for the four quotations, cf. FITZGERALD: 2002, 122 table I #30; cf. GAIL: 1977, 35-9.

71 Mbh I 122. 12-22; cf. PONTILLO: 2007,43. 72 HEESTERMAN: 1962; 1964. The image ofVratyas as dogs is extensively analyzed

in WHITE: 1989; 1991,87-113. 73 Cf. HILTEBEITEL: 2001, 132-139; 184. Already HEESTERMAN: 1964, 26 recog­

nizes «this pattern in the epic, in the vicissitudes of the P1ir,l<;lavas», whose forrunes «alternate between royal coun and forest». WITZEL: 2005, 41 compares «the Karhakasan,zhita story about King Dhftaragra Vaicitravlrya who does not accept the Kuru Vratyas» with the Mahabharata where «the P1ir,l<;lavas become virtual Vratyas».

74 Cf. PONTILLO: 2007. 75 After the cycle of violence rooted in the enmity between Drupada and DroJ;la a

new order shall emerge, in which the two groups shall be distinct but allied. Moreover, BhI$ma seems to wish they are inspired by a principle of noncruelty (anrfan,zsya), as we can also see in the last quoted episode, where the asceti c who «is putting the dog in his pIace» is compared with Yudhighira who on the contrary treats a dog as his bhakta during his heavenly ascent (HILTEBEITEL: 2001, 201-202). For a ritual connection between Vratyas and dogs, cf. FALK: 1986, 18 f. and HILTEBEITEL: 2001,134 f.; 170 f.

76 FALK: 1986, 66; 69. 77 Cf. above § 2. l. 78 Cf. above § 2. 3.

The Ascetics Lead their Life of Austerities: Peace and Beauty 55

deer skins ofVratya79. The kiréita-episodeSO is openly orieuted to Arjuna's target of mastering some extraordinary weapons before conquering the rul­ing power at the end of the period of exile.

In the Vedic literature pertaining to the Vratya it is clair how this kind of ascetic is able to dominate the whole of nature, how he rules plants, trees, animals, waters, seasons, asterismsSl . The relationship with nature is not a daily though loving effort practised by inhabitauts of the hermitage with an idyllic affect on the pIace, as an «autidote to the court»S2. It is the ideaI aim of the temporary or lifelong ascetics' auster­ities, the access to a higher knowledge which synergically inserts human beings iuto the otherwise mysterious cycle of life govemed by the laws of nature (rta), gets princes ready to ruleS3 and dik[itas ready to sacrifice. In such a context the absence of an unequivocal depiction of the cause­effect relationship between the ascetics' presence and the porteutous fea­tures of places is consequent.

The compared kavya-motive might have had this Mahabharata­motive as a remote model, although it had been remarkably elaborated, probably resorting better to the more concise and allusive examples of Raméiya1JtZ or of the Buddhist tradition. In fact we find comparable motives of the animal-world which is actually tamed by the ascetics for instance in the TheragathasS4 and in the Buddhacarita:

When he saw it [the hermitage] with the deer sleeping in perfect trust and the birds sitting at peace, he felt, as it were, rested and as if the goal were attained85 .

The specific diachronic developmeut of this analyzed specific motive, however, brings us to exclude that it deals with a mere case of universal hermitage poetry.

79 Cf. HAUER: 1927, 124-42; FALK: 1986, 19-28. 80 Cf. §§ 2. 2; 2. 4. 81 AV XI 5; XV 6; cf. BLOOMFIELD: 1899,94; PONTILLO: 2007,424 f. 82 INGALLS: 1976, 22. 83 Cf. Ram II 88. 19. 84 Th 1113: «There in the jungle you wiU dwell regarded as chiefby panthers and

by tigers» ([...) kanane dlplhi byagghehi purakkhato vasam f. .. }). 85 Be VI 2: suptavifvastaharirtan,z svasthasthitavihapgamam I vifranta iva yad dmva

krtartha iva cabhavat Il 2 Il; transi. ]OHNSTON: 1936, 81.

56 Tiziana Pontillo

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