शान्ते ! ऽस्मिन् लोक एधस्व विद्यातः प्रेमतस्तथा ।
तव भक्तजनानां च कल्याणमस्तु सर्वदा ॥
Jan E.M. Houben
Directeur d'Études, Professor of South Asian History and Philology
Sources et histoire de la tradition sanskrite
École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE, Paris Sciences et Lettres)
Sciences historiques et philologiques
Groupe de recherches en études indiennes (EA 2120)
johannes.houben [at] ephe.psl.eu
https://ephe-sorbonne.academia.edu/JanEMHouben
https://www.classicalindia.info
LabEx Hastec OS 2021 -- L'Inde Classique augmentée: construction, transmission
et transformations d'un savoir scientifique
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Hello Jan E. M. Houben,
The Mahakavya Soundarananda of Ashvaghosha has the 13th shloka of its 1st Sarga referring to wild animals living peacefully in the Ashram of Kapila Gautama.
अपि क्षुद्रमृगा यत्र शान्ताश्चेरुः समं मृगैः ।
शरण्येभ्यस्तपरोस्वभ्यो विनयं शिक्षिता इव ॥
Unfortunately I currently seem to only have access to a Hindi translation which may not work for you. Will look for an English translation and try and share.
Best Regards
Dhiren N. Sheth
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Dear Jan,while not belonging to Sanskrit literature, it seems worth mentioning an extensive passage in the Old Javanese Rāmāyaṇa, sargas 24 and 25. The former sarga describes the idyll in Laṅkā after Vibhīṣaṇa had succeeded Rāvaṇa, where both nature and human society are dominated by harmony (and yet, various animals allegorically representing ascetics take the opportunity to tease one another about their respective behaviours and religious observances). The latter describes sage Bharadvāja’s hermitage and the banks of the river Sarayū, populated by all kinds of birds and plants.
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Dear Professor Houben,There is a reference to this in the text of the Kumārasambhava, as read and commented on by Aruṇagirinātha and Nārāyaṇapaṇḍita, in the section on Pārvatī's tapas. In Sarga 5, Pārvatī's asceticism to win Śiva is described, and its transformative, purifying power is said to have affected the surrounding environment, causing even animals usually at war to become gentle towards each other:virodhisattvojjhitapūrvamatsaraṃ
drumair abhīṣṭaprasavārcitātithi |
navoṭajābhyantarasambhṛtānalaṃ
tapovanaṃ tatra babhūva pāvanam || 5.17
'There [on Mount Gaurīśikhara], her [very] ascetic grove, in which, inside a newly built leaf hut, she had built the sacred fire, became purifying: even beasts there mutually at war were free of their ancient hostility (virodhisattvojjhitapūrvamatsaraṃ), and its trees worshipped guests with choice buds.'
As the two commentators note, these--i.e. peaceful animals, and trees being hospitable to guests (just like the ascetic)--are the special, magical characteristics of the hermitage groves of great ascetics. Nārāyaṇa provides the following citation to a source I am not yet able to identify, thus:
'tapovanocitāni viśeṣaṇāny āha-- virodhisattvojjhitapūrvamatsaram ityādinā | 'spṛśati kalabhaḥ saiṃhīṃ daṃṣṭrāṃ mṛṇāladhiyā muhur' iti āditapovanavṛttānto' tra draṣṭavyaḥ |
[Kālidāsa] describes the qualities appropriate to hermitage groves with the compound 'even beasts there mutually at war were free of their ancient hostility'. "A baby elephant keeps touching a lion's fang thinking it to be a lotus stem"-- such a description of a hermitage grove is apparent in this case.'
I am not sure which tapovanavṛttānta the quote about the baby elephant placing his trunk inside the lion's mouth with utmost ease is from. But evidently in such tales of hermitage groves, which the commentator was aware of, there is an idea that the dharma of such places is non-violence and generosity between man and beast, not to be witnessed in the real world. And that this dharma is a transposition of the ascetic's own quality onto the surrounding environment.
It would be interesting to read the Raghuvaṃśa verses you mention below in a parenthesis in relation to this.
Thank you
Bihani Sarkar MA (English, First Class Hons.), MPhil DPhil (Sanskrit), (Oxon.)
Lecturer in Comparative Non-Western Thought,
Department of Politics, Philosophy and Religion,
Lancaster University.
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