The aim of this work is primarily to provide access to the first third of an 11th century Old Javanese Kakawin. Mpu Kaņwa's Arjuna Wiwaaha, through translation and commentary. The translation itself makes use of a transliteration from Javanese into Roman script by Poerbatjaraka (along with a translation into Dutch) (Poerbatjaraka 1926), which he based on several manuscript versions.
Accompanying the translation is a set of notes in which I deal, on a case by case basis, with various difficulties in translation and interpretation, and also with particular points of interest regarding Old Javanese language and literature, In organizing the work in this way, my goal has been to keep the poem as central as possible; the notes are mainly a means of contextualizing the poem, not an explication of Old Javanese language or literature per se.
This structuring of the notes around the poem results in a work that is coherent with reference to the poem, but dispersed with reference to particular analytical constructs (such as "verb morphology", "deixis", "stanza structure", etc.). While this approach has the advantage of maintaining the centrality of the poem, it has the disadvantage of separating material which, from an analytical point of view, should be grouped together. This introduction attempts to compensate for this disadvantage by providing an overview of some of the features of the analysis. In addition, a brief index (see Appendix A) will cite particular analytical points and cross-reference the places where they appear in the notes and in the introduction
The central problem remains that of bringing a distant text closer. Translation alone cannot achieve this, as is pointed out by M. Zurbuchen in her recent dissertation:
Translations and abstractions, which are actually transformations, allow too many opportunities for unmotivated concepts to slip into the interpretation; the analysis of the formal coherence of texts in foreign languages must be firmly anchored in the language of the text.
(Zurbuchen 1981:27)
Pandanus ’09: Nature in Literature, Art, Myth and Ritual.
Volume 3, No. 2 (2009)
To the Memory of Kamil V. Zvelebil
Editor-in-chief: Jaroslav Vacek
Deputy Editor: Martin Hříbek
Members of the Editorial Board:
Giuliano Boccali (University of Milano, Italy)
Alexander Dubianski (University of Moscow, Russia)
Adalbert J. Gail (Freie Universität, Berlin, Germany)
Oldřich Král (Charles University in Prague)
Dagmar Marková (Oriental Institute, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague)
Chettiarhodi Rajendran (University of Calicut, Kerala, India)
Danuta Stasik (University of Warsaw, Poland)
Lidia Sudyka (Jagiellonian University of Krakow, Poland)
Eva Wilden (EFEO, Paris, France)
Gyula Wojtilla (University of Szeged, Hungary)
Reviewed by Prof. Emanuela Panattoni (University of Pisa)
and Prof. Oldřich Král (Charles University in Prague)
English correction: Dr. Mark Corner, formerly lecturer at Charles University, presently HUB University, Brussels
Institute of South and Central Asian Studies, Seminar of Indian Studies
Philosophical Faculty, Charles University in Prague
Celetná 20, 116 42 Praha 1, Czech Republic
http://iu.ff.cuni.cz
Publisher: Stanislav Juhaňák - TRITON
http://www.triton-books.cz
First edition, Praha (Prague) 2009
ISSN 1802-7997
(Registration number of MK ČR) E 17677
The publication of this journal was financially supported by the Ministry of Education of the Czech Republic as a part of the Research Project No. MSM0021620824, “The Foundations of Modern World in the Mirror of Literature and Philosophy”, a project of the Faculty of Philosophy, Charles University in Prague.
Contents
Summaries:
Late Vedic rupakas based on nature imagery: Ritual identifications as a sort of alamkara-pattern
Tiziana Pontillo, University of Cagliari, Italy
E-mail: pontillo@unica.it
The hypothesis according to which “many of the Vedic identifications might be understood as metaphors” was already advanced thirty years ago. The fresh approach of this paper consists in verifying a supposed cultural and technical connection of the earliest conceptualizing of the rupaka as an extended homology with the ritual and speculative procedures of substitution, rearranged by the Vedanga and Darśana-traditions. The structure of some late Vedic passages based on nature imagery is compared with the most ancient śastra-definitions of this alamkara, by paying special attention to the relationship between the whole and its parts. To theVarttika of Katyayana is attributed the value of being a source of inspiration to the alamkaraśastra-writers for the exceptional role accredited to the upamana inside the rupaka.
Nature and inner peace in the Theragathas
Daniela Rossella, University of Potenza, Italy
E-mail: ghezziem@tin.it
The first and principal aim of my paper is to list the natural phenomena and the animals taken into consideration by the Theragathas, with particular attention to those associated with monks’ spirituality. In fact, the presence of nature in the Monks’ Stanzas is considerable; it appears both as a scenario of monastic life, and in the framework of similes or tropes intended to depict it, the Buddhist faith and the Enlightened himself. Moreover, since the text of the Theragathas is universally considered to be the most important forerunner of the kavya proper, I would like to suggest some preliminary hypotheses regarding the existence, at the time when “the literature as a form of art” originated, of the “calmed rasa”.
The forest of meditation: The poetry of the paradoxical connotation in the Buddhist Theragathas
Paola M. Rossi, University of Milan, Italy
E-mail: usaskanta@hotmail.com
This paper aims at analyzing the poetical devices of the Buddhist Theragathas, focusing attention on the antithetical and paradoxical stylistic structures, especially on the compounds in -kama. The starting point is the famous article of Professor Lienhard, Sur la structure poétique des Theratherigatha (1975), in which “tension” is considered the core of the new Buddhist poetry. Here, such a concept is highlighted and extended through some considerations about the use of punning in the Buddha’s teaching, so that a poetry of paradoxical double meaning is outlined. Moreover, the new Buddhist poetry of paradoxical connotation seems to be not only a device to parody the profane and “courtoise” world, in order to stigmatize its mundane values, and the Brahmanical tradition, the religious “rival” of the Buddhism, but also a means to avoid every dogmatic assertion, as representation of the paradoxical inconsistency of existence itself. Such an awareness results from the meditative process, which constitutes the main subject of the bhikkhus’ poems. Therefore, the new Buddhist poetry represents the path of meditation itself, which implies both an ethical attitude and a cognitive approach.
“The snow did not destroy his glory” – Kalidasa’s perceptions of Himalaya
Chettiarthodi Rajendran, University of Calicut, Kerala, India
E-mail: crajenin@yahoo.com
The present paper is an attempt to investigate the mythological and geographical features of Himalaya in Kalidasa’s poetry and to unravel the cultural context in which the great mountain is located in the imagination of the poet. The paper will address such questions as the sources utilized by Kalidasa in his portrayal of the mythical elements, the factual accuracy of the descriptions of the geographical features of the mountain, the common elements of the description in Kalidasa’s different works and the overall emotive dimension of the descriptions. It can be seen that of the main descriptions from the pen of Kalidasa, the one we find in Kumarasambhava, the longest one of the three, is centred on the mythical and physical aspects of the great mountain which, apart from being the location of the story is also a character in the story. In Meghasandeśa, Himalaya serves as a fine resting place for the cloud in his onward journey slightly further northwards, to reach Alaka on its slopes. In stark contrast with these two descriptions, in Raghuvamśa, Himalaya is a place to be conquered by Raghu, set on his victory over all the directions (digvijaya) and hence a hostile terrain. In all these descriptions, Kalidasa brings to the fore the rich biodiversity and uniqueness of Himalaya which has an unparalleled place in his imaginative world.
Sattasai, between nature and court poetry
Giuliano Boccali, University of Milano, Italy
E-mail: giuliano.boccali@unimi.it
Western scholars have often considered the setting in the countryside to be one of the most characteristic features of Hala’s Sattasai. However, an accurate analysis of the anthology seems to disprove this statement: a minority of the stanzas are explicitly set in the countryside. Furthermore, though hardly anybody has taken into consideration the possibility that setting the gathas in such an environment had some programmatic purpose on the part of the compiler, by both looking at the socio-historical situation at the time of the Sattasai, and valuating the level of formalization of kavya poetry, whose rules were already well established, and the opinion of traditional Indian theoreticians, the role played by the rural setting might be put in quite a different perspective.
Fidelity worthy of mullai: Meta-poetic games in Sangam poetry
Eva Wilden, EFEO/Hamburg University, Germany
E-mail: wilden.eva@gmail.com
Sangam literature went through several successive productive phases which can roughly be characterised as formulaic, referential and self-referential. After an initial stage where themes are associated with formulae (as is typical of an oral tradition), there follows a stage of explicit formulation of conventions (no doubt supported if not initiated by theoretical texts), during which poets overtly submit to rigid regulation while secretly subverting it. The poetic strategy of this stratum is the intertextual reference. This is followed by a stage of self-reflection: tradition turns upon itself, reasserting convention only half in earnest by way of meta-poetic jokes. This is the time of the uyar-tinai uman (KT 224.5), the “uman that is a high-class [noun]”, that is, a dumb man, not an owl, or of mullai canra karpu (for example NA 142.10), a fidelity worthy of jasmine (or mullai tinai ?). The present paper will deal, firstly, with isolated instances of such games in the early anthologies, and secondly with (apparently later) texts whose matrix is inscribed with a meta-poetic attitude, such as AN 122, an exercise in the various reasons that make night trysts a hazardous undertaking, and the Cirupanarruppatai, with its playful repetitions of the Sangam repertoire.
Non-realistic images of animals in the Rgvedasamhita: a glance into the hymns of Dirghatamas (RV 1.140–164)
Elena Mucciarelli, Universita degli Studi, Milano, Italy – Eberhardt Karl Universität, Tübingen, Germany
E-mail: elena@mucciarelli.it
In many of the Rgvedic hymns ascribed to the rsi Dirghatamas, it seems that the author takes advantage of the whole spectrum of poetic devices in order to obscure, intentionally, the concrete starting point of his verses. Thus the ritual action he is referring to seems to fall apart and everything the actual context involves, including natural elements, loses its organic unity. Within this poetical and visionary structure it is interesting to see how animals enter into his world and how he manages to let us share the vision he has of the nature surrounding him. While hymn 1.162, dealing with the sacrificial horse, is clearly a practical ritual-hymn, hymn 1.163 treats the same subject under a more speculative perspective, and the horse, though always a concrete horse, slips into the shape of the Urpferd, losing the distinctive features of the natural animal.
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