Samayamatrika 2
English (machine translation) 2
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2.1
Second Chapter:
Recital of Her Life
Then, when Kalāvatī was properly paying attention,
Kaṅka recounted the story of the bawd, based on deception:
2.2
"Having bowed to that very Bhavabhairavī who devours everything,
I relate the deeds of her in whose belly the three worlds dwell.
2.3
Formerly, in Parihāsapura, there was a keeper of an inn for travelers
named Bhūmikā, […]
2.4
[…] / born by the millstone row, named Arghagharghaṭikā.
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Growing up, the fair-faced girl was honored by citizens at festivals,
and she caused the disappearance of the vessels of worship by stealing in their houses.
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At only seven years of age, precocious in speech, out of greed
she was made into a marketable commodity by her mother at the market gateway under the name Jālavadhā.
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With a well-shaped shell-like necklace and deceitful bodice over her breasts,
she gratified paramours with kisses and embraces.
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Then there arrived a youthful merchant's son seeking saffron,
handsome, named Pūrṇika, having plenty of high-grade gold.
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Drawn in the assembly by the amorous charms of her rolling eyes and dancing brows,
curious, he met with the fickle girl at night.
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While he was sleeping from drunkenness at night, hanging around his neck,
she slowly swallowed all his gold earrings;
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and pulling the golden rings from his fingers,
as if seized by thieves, she cried out aloud: 'Alas, I am ruined!'
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Then the merchant, waking up suddenly, robbed by her,
went off with his head covered by a cloth, ashamed before his own people.
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Then, having reached full youth and wearing charming ornaments and clothes,
she lived in Śaṅkarapura under the name Mahlaṇā.
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Attached to a crowd of paramours by the immense weight of her fortune,
she found no rest from intercourse, neither by night nor by day.
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There was no counting the lovers outside her house,
departing, entering, and waiting, as if they were dogs.
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At a well, a public water booth, a garden, cooks' and florists' houses,
and in a female friend's home, she served equally well-off paramours by day.
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At the beginning of night, having tossed the drunken man onto the bed like an infant,
she went to another while he was lost in the deep sleep of exhaustion from lovemaking;
in the remainder of the night, on the pretext of visiting a friend racked with colic,
she constantly went to yet another in her burden of transactions.
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Fiercely sought by handsome men angered by various deceits,
she fled and stayed in the hidden houses of [other] paramours.
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Then at night, she was brought by the temple guardian Nandisoma,
blinded by passion, into the inner sanctum of Gāurī.
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When he had turned into a piece of wood in a snoring sleep,
she seized all the ornaments of the goddess and swiftly fled.
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Then, having become the concubine of the feudal baron Samarasiṃha,
who lived in Pratāpapura, under the name Nāgarikā,
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grown fat on an abundance of meat meals,
she became beloved to that Bhīmasena like Hiḍimbā.
2.23
Having obtained mastery over all the possessions of that passionate man,
she urged him into feuds with relatives, desiring his destruction.
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When that father was slain, firmly rooted in the house,
she became the concubine of his other son, Śrīsiṃha.
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Her youth slipping away, wishing to overcome her co-wives,
she gained control over that young man with roots of subjugation.
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With fish broth, ghee, milk, onions, garlic, and the like,
she was intent on restoring her beloved's youthful vigor.
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Then, out of fear of the king, when the governor drew near, / she took abundant wealth and entered another city.
2.28
Then, clad in very thin, pure white garments, with her face downcast, / she became a widow named Mṛgavatī, a ground of longing for touch.
2.29
Always going to Sureśvarī on the bank of the Śatadhārā for a long time, / marked with river-bank sand and darbha-grass, she made offerings to the ancestors.
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Stationed at that sacred ford, she seized a very wealthy horseman / named Bandhurasāra, just as a female heron seizes a fish.
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Skilled at capturing his mind, having grasped the household as if in her fist, / she alone became the mistress in all matters of his income and expenditure.
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When within a month he had met his death, leaving abundant accumulation, / she stood clutching his feet, eager to follow him [in death].
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Being restrained by his relatives, merely feigning an obstinate resolve, / she spoke like a noble lady, grave with the support of courage:
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"Widowhood in a high family leads in widowhood to ruin of virtue; / if virtue falls, this separation of mine shall end through fire."
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Having said this, as motionless as stone through her fierce resolve, / she displayed the appearance of courage through her delight at obtaining his wealth.
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Then, having obtained ownership of that wealth by royal decree / upon the plea of the king's officers, she remained, resorting to playful ease.
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Then, taking possession of a clerk of the royal stables, an underwater fire of lust, / she altered the name of the living world [of his household].
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Always attending upon his bath-chamber to obtain that, / she stole the clerk's heart with talk stumbled through coquetry.
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Having carried out plunder all day long through abundant uses of birch-bark documents, / eating and drinking heavily at night, acting like Kumbhakarṇa, / becoming the ground for honouring the water with the art of morning bath rites, / the clerk quenches his inner burning intoxication with water.
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Then, having grown-up stepsons, devoted to attending upon the clerk, / she sold the entire living world [of the estate] and took the money.
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When the sale and seizure of the house were dragged back and prevented by the sons, / she went to court and paid court to the high priest of the monastery.
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Through priests like Kūṭaratha who stirred up friction through bribes, / she attained the fulfilment of her desire as ordered, and seized the certificate of victory.
2.43
Having sold the house and seized all the property, suspicious of the sons, / disguised in strange attire, she went to take refuge in a Śākta monastery.
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With her white hair made black by an abundant dye application, / she became there a fresh courtesan, as if she were a young girl.
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"A merchant's wife has arrived, having run away […]"; / through this rumour about her, there was an even higher sale price.
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Without examining the truth or falsehood of a story, people run / in blind imitation of others, enamoured of rumour.
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With worn tongue, lower lip, and hands, through drinking the cups of lovers, / with cut fingers, she took the time of passion again and again.
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Having received stolen wealth, she was seized by rogues and servants; / concealing what was before her eyes, she was bound tight and held in prison.
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Uniting there with the jailer named Bhujaṅga, / in carefree pleasure she brought about the destruction of fish, cakes, and wine.
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Then, during a tight embrace with the intoxicated jailer, / while intent on kissing him, she bit off his tongue to secure her release.
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Leaving him unconscious from having his tongue severed, unable to cry out, / she dressed him in women's clothes with her own garments and went off, casting off her chains.
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Having broken her fetters, she arrived at night in Vijayeśvara; / she declared the name Anupamā, saying, "I am the daughter of the prime minister."
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There, out of love for Bhogamitra, she covered with jewels / the slight remnant of youth that had the appearance of an old painting.
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Her breasts thrust up with effort, […] by the length of her hair, / bound with a pale-red ribbon, showing straight, thick collyrium, / and covering her face with a garment down to half her nose, / she produced bewilderment in the foolish, [who wondered], "What new Vidyādharī has emerged?"
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Having seen her naked just once out of initial curiosity, / no one ever returned even along that path, out of disgust.
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Like a cold hall in winter, like a row of lamps by day, / an old courtesan is like an old leftover garland—to whom is she of any use?
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There, suffering from the absence of clients, she begged travellers passing by / in the evening for a small fee, pulling at their hems.
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Becoming an ascetic named Śikhā, she formed a union / with an ascetic named Bhairavasoma there, who gave her half of his begged alms.
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Her collected radiance flashing on a body smiling with ashes, applying life-giving collyrium to her eyes, / wearing an immaculate crystal rosary, a companion of variety, on her neck, / with stiff arms and breasts in a tight bodice that clung without shrinking, / she went out at the hour of alms-begging, causing agitation among the foolish.
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When a famine arose there and begged alms became extremely scarce, / she went away at night, having stolen the ascetic's mother-goddess image and other things.
2.61
Going to Kṛtyāśramaka monastery, having lost her standing, / she became a Buddhist nun named Vajraghaṇṭā, motionless in meditation.
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Placing in her hand a bowl suited to her virtue as a receptacle for alms, / and taking an ochre robe, worn out like the false passion of a paramour, / she made an ornament of shaving her head, which resembled a piece of ripe gourd, / wandering among rows of familiar rakes and rogues to obtain rice-balls.
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Always clever at teaching the mystic circles to those who bowed down, / in house after house she gave instruction in unchastity to noble women.
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Through subjugation rituals for courtesans, prosperity-increasing rites for merchants, / and recitation of mantras for fools, she attained supreme veneration.
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Uniting there with a lay-servant named Maṅgala, / she conceived a pregnancy, like an embodied obstacle to the enjoyments of deceit.
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When the collection of alms was interrupted, her huge belly hanging low, / having given birth, she abandoned her monastic rule and went to the city again.
2.67
Wearing false hair, upon the birth of a son to the minister Citrasena, / she was introduced as a wet-nurse by his wife because of her merits.
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Sitting on a lion-footed wicker seat, the wet-nurse named Sārdhakṣīrā, / holding the child in her lap, looked as though she would swallow the entire house.
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Provided with rich meals to preserve her milk, / that wet nurse was made the vessel of fortune in the minister's house by fate.
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A coral necklace around her neck, a pair of silver palm-leaf earrings in her ears, / arms heavy with large, thick lumps of barley-paste fritters, / the expanse of her hips beginning to swell beneath a blanket trailing down to her ankles— / the wet nurse's old body was rejuvenated through lavish meals.
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Then, when through her misconduct the child developed a fever, / though put on a fast by the physician, she finished off some fish soup.
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"Water is harmful and must be avoided; what need to speak of cooked rice? / Out of mercy as a nurse, drink only herbal decoctions for two or three days! / Let this child live, and enjoy wealth through his various festive celebrations!"— / everything thus enjoined by the physician, she simply ignored.
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Seeing the child sick there, caring for the boy no more than for a blade of grass, / the pitiless woman fled in the night, taking the golden birth-amulet.
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Then in a border region, possessing vast pastures of goats, / renowned by the name Dhanavatī, she maintained a prosperous household.
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Then, when a violent storm struck that forest, and her wealth of livestock, / like her own body, was brought to ruined peril, reduced to mere skin and bones,
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she took the herdsman's thick pawned blanket, / went to Avantipura, and sold pastries under the name Tārā.
2.77
Buying a basket of sweet cake-offerings dedicated to Gaṇeśa, / she constantly resold them on the road with the heat of re-cooking.
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She devoured the copious advance-grain belonging to the housewives; / for those greedy for exorbitant profits, even the principal is lost.
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Anointing a traveler's daughter with ghee, under the name Kuśalikā, / she begged from house to house for a bogus impending wedding.
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Then, under the name Pañjikā, stationed outside a gambling hall, / she conducted a secret trade in loaded dice.
2.81
As the flower-girl Mukulikā, selling used temple flowers, / she pocketed the price owed to the temple guardians and slipped away into the night.
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At village festivals, managing a free-water booth under the name Himā, / she stole bracelets and other ornaments from children watching the stage.
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Falsifying lunar asterisms even in inauspicious astrological alignments, / under the name Varṇā she arranged marriages through fraudulent descriptions.
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She gained fame as a fortune-teller through the blind faith of fools; / she knew merely how to recognise names, but could never find the thieves.
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Named Bhāvasiddhi, pretending to be possessed by a deity, / she said nothing other than "Offer gifts!"
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Then, pretending to be a madwoman, naked and embraced by dogs, / renowned as Goddess Kumbhā, she received a succession of offerings.
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Worshiped by the minister Kuladāsa, who was eager for quick spiritual instruction, / she departed, carrying off the silver vessel of worship.
2.88
Then, during the pilgrimage to Takṣaka, restlessly roaming for three days, / she sold liquor as a vintner named Kalā.
2.89
From an ascetic named Kaṭighaṇṭa who had become drunk / and was sleeping there at night, she stole his seven bells.
2.90
Then, taking everything from the travelers whose senses were lost / through datura-laced wine, she went to Śūrapura in the night.
2.91
Making a porter her nominal husband on the Salt Route in this manner, / while he surrendered to sleep, she passed the night with other men; / in the morning, tying up her broad hips with a long rope in the narrow pass, / she carried the burden upon her head throughout the entire day with playful grace.
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Traversing terrifying mountains along precipitous paths of deep snow, devoid of dried provisions, / named Bambā, appearing as a respectable lady at day's end, / in winter, her face veiled in cloth, wrapped in a thick, trailing blanket, / shivering from the cold, the timid woman longed for shelter at the hospice of Pañcāladhārā.
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Then, as an old woman named Satyavatī claiming to be a brahmin, / she wandered the earth girt by the oceans and islands.
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Here skilled in discourse on yoga, there keeping month-long fasts, / elsewhere feigning a desire for pilgrimage, she attained supreme veneration.
2.95
Generating faith in fools by shaking incense during alchemy, / she gained great respect in the houses of kings.
2.96
Promising kings, "I will paralyze the enemy's army," / she pocketed their gold and fled at night when battle drew near.
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Boasting of the water of Kedāra, the ancestor-rites at Gayā, and bathing in the Gaṅgā, / she took money from caravans by offering their religious merit as a pledge.
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Implored on the road by robbers to give them instruction to become invisible, / she rode in a palanquin for a year and then fled from there.
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Then, under the pretext that they were rudrākṣa beads, / she sold Chinese soapberry seeds to her disciples at a price, proclaiming their superior sanctity.
2.100
Seizing the ornaments and clothes of those who put faith in subterranean treasures, / she threw those men eager for underworld maidens into blind wells.
2.101
Claiming "I am immune to poison," / under the name Viṣajāṅgulikā, she wore a garland around her neck made of sleek, deadly vipers.
2.102
At all the toll stations, as was her nature, / she gave the toll-collectors a flower that caused momentary stupor, and walked away at will.
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"More than a thousand years of mine have passed; I understand alchemy; / my mastery of magical speech is accomplished; the Tripura lore of erotic secrets is in my palm"— / by such talk, through the devotion of an entire host of elders humbled of their pride on this earth, / local barons licking the soles of her feet were reduced to dogs.
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Ready with worship, Kāmbojas and Bhojas bow in every direction with hymns of victory; / the Turuṣkas are parched with servitude, and the Chinese are dissolved in the delight of attendance; / the Trigartas are distressed with longing, the Gauḍas press forward in their acts of service, / and the Aṅgas and Baṅgas fill her lap with flowers under the sway of her deceit.
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Having wandered the entire earth renowned for its oceans, / her unceasing prestige recognized through her witchcraft, / she returned again to her own homeland, with only a slender vestige of vigor remaining; / for who abandons their homeland, even when worn away, just as one does not abandon one's body?
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Familiar with the dress and speech of every land, / claiming, "I am the daughter of a deposed king," / with a severed finger, the tip of her nose bitten off by teeth, / she was recognized by me alone from the blue marks upon her forehead.
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"If she, who creeps like a concealed treasure into homes of scattered wealth / and stirs up greed, assumes the place of a mother to you, / then know that all this prosperity of wealth belonging to paramours / has come into your hands without effort, O slender girl!
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Therefore I myself shall go for your sake and entreat her, / who is crooked with fraud and all-knowing, for success on the road to the whole caravan of wealth. / What more can I say? She alone knows how to conquer the world by her wit; / there is no other resort." Having spoken thus, the well-wishing barber swiftly departed.
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Thus ends the second chapter, entitled "The Account of Past Deeds", in the Samayamātṛkā composed by Kṣemendra, who is also known as Vyāsadāsa.
Linked texts (1)
- Samayamātṛkā — Kṣemendra, Sanskrit