A History of Sanskrit Literature c27.s2.11

c27.s2.11

A phenomenon of interest, common to prose and verse alike, is the tendency to use homely metaphors or similes and to illustrate doctrines by the facts of ordinary life. The danger of such illustrations was, of course, not avoided; similitudes were held to explain difficulties, without realization that they did not cover adequately the ground; the lamp which illumines itself is given us to explain self-consciousness, without recognition that the parallel is really misleading. But a number of popular illustrations became hardened into regular use, and figure as Nyāyas.¹ Thus the grammatical principle that the more important element in a compound coupling two things should come first is popularized and generally used as a scientific principle, *abhyarhitaṁ pūrvam*. The amusing proverb *avatapte nakulasthitam*, ‘a mongoose's standing on hot ground,’ serves to describe the man who does not stick to his undertaking. The expert who forgets his rules is hit by the proverb, *açvārūḍhāḥ kathaṁ cāçvān vismareyuḥ sacetanāḥ*, ‘How could intelligent people, when sitting on horses, forget their mounts?’ A painful dilemma is well expressed by *ito vyāghra itas taṭī*, ‘A tiger on the one side, a precipice on the other.’ An embarrassing position is not badly described as *ubhayataḥpāçā rajjuḥ*, ‘a rope which binds at both ends.’ The *tṛṇabhakṣaṇanyāya* illustrates submission, for the ancient Indian usage spared the man who took grass in his mouth to signify that he yielded himself to the mercy of the conqueror. Wasted effort is expressed by the maxim of *çvapucchonnamana*, ‘trying to straighten a dog’s tail.’ The united effect of words in conveying meaning is likened to the joint action of men in lifting a palanquin, *çibikodyacchannaravat*. Quaint and interesting is a very old Nyāya: *mahārṇavayugacchidrakūrmagrīvārpaṇanyāya*, ‘the chance of a tortoise putting its neck into the hole of a yoke which is floating about on the mighty ocean.’ The allusion is to a thing of great difficulty, illustrated by the mere chance which would cause a tortoise, which comes to the surface once only in a hundred years, accomplishing the difficult feat referred to.