This is a mandākrānta verse from the introduction of Dhanapāla’s Tilakamañjarī, which I am reading with a few colleagues, in praise of King Bhōja of Dhārā: Blessed are those trees that drop heaps of flowers from their branches in worship upon those liṅgas, the stumps, which are bathed every morning by drops of water from…
Continue Readingकिं त्वनुष्ठाननित्यत्वं स्वातन्त्र्यमपकर्षति ।संकटा ह्याहिताग्नीनां प्रत्यवायैर्गृहस्थता ॥ But it’s the constant pull of obligationsthat carries off their freedom.For those who keep the sacred fireeven domestic life is fraughtwith the danger of failing in one’s duty. From the beginning of Bhavabhūti’s Rāma’s Last Act (Uttararāmacaritam), echoing an observation made in the course of the deontic logic…
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