Butterfly motif in Sanskrit Literature

[abhay singh]

Greetings to all scholars!

I've got a question from a student that how common is the butter fly motif in Sanskrit Literature. I would be grateful if someone could help me with this. Thank you

[G S S Murthy]

Virtually nil, according to my search. There does not seem to be a word denoting a "butterfly". "चित्रशलभ" "चित्रपतङ्ग" seem to be coined words. Here is an example of its usage.

"चित्रशलभमभिधावसि चेत्त्वं तं ग्रहीष्यसि कदापि न मित्र ।

त्वं भविष्यसि यदा निरपेक्षः स्वैरमेव स उपैति खलु त्वाम् ॥"

Thanks and regards,

Murthy

On Tue, 7 Jul 2020 at 01:14, abhay singh <abhay...@gmail.com> wrote:

 Greetings to all scholars!

I've got a question from a student that how common is the butter fly motif in Sanskrit Literature. I would be grateful if someone could help me with this. Thank you

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My web site : http://murthygss.tripod.com/index.htm
and also my Sanskrit blog :

http://simplesanskrit.blogspot.com/

http://gssmurthy.blogspot.com

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKzrC4a5BEo&feature=youtu.be

[Ashok Aklujkar]

The coined words deserve to be made popular in Skt.

Contrary to expectation, “butterfly” is not based — at least directly –– on any objective reality. I heard it about three  decades ago from a good authority (Prof. George Cardona) that it is just a changed form of “flutter-by”).

a.a.

On 06-Jul-2020, at 4:37 PM, G S S Murthy <murt...@gmail.com> wrote:

Virtually nil, according to my search. There does not seem to be a word denoting a "butterfly". "चित्रशलभ" "चित्रपतङ्ग" seem to be coined words. Here is an example of its usage [—> use].

"चित्रशलभमभिधावसि चेत्त्वं तं ग्रहीष्यसि कदापि न मित्र ।

त्वं भविष्यसि यदा निरपेक्षः स्वैरमेव स उपैति खलु त्वाम् ॥"

On Tue, 7 Jul 2020 at 01:14, abhay singh <abhay...@gmail.com> wrote:

 “... how common is the butter fly motif in Sanskrit Literature."

[उ॒ज्ज्व॒लः]

प्र॒णमा॑मि।

 

Contrary to expectation, “butterfly” is not based — at least directly –– on any objective reality. I heard it about three  decades ago from a good authority (Prof. George Cardona) that it is just a changed form of “flutter-by”).

प्र॒त्यगे॒वास्त्य॒स्यस॒त्यतः॑ -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly#Etymology

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/flutterby#Etymology 

[Abhay Singh]

Thank you so much for your kind response. नितरां कार्तज्ञ्यमभिव्यनज्मि भवद्भ्यः 🙏

[Rajagopalan Soundararajan]

Ancient Tamil literature refers to butterfly and uses a Sanskrit word 'इन्द्रगोप:'. Looking up the dictionary, the meaning is found to be 'firefly' not butterfly. Tamil commentaries give the meaning as butterfly, though.

FYI

Soundararajan 

[Roland Steiner]

> Ancient Tamil literature refers to butterfly and uses a Sanskrit word
> 'इन्द्रगोप:'. Looking up the dictionary, the meaning is found to be
> 'firefly' not butterfly. Tamil commentaries give the meaning as butterfly,
> though.

Patrick Olivelle remarks to the meaning of indragopa in the Arthaśāstra: "precise zoological species unclear; refers to the tiny bright-red velvet mites (Thrombidiiae) that appear in large numbers early in the rainy season. K[auṭilya’s] A[rthaśāstra] 14.1.10. [earlier translations of firefly and cochineal inaccurate (so Lienhard).]" (King, Governance, and Law in Ancient India. Kauṭilya’s Arthaśāstra. A New Annotated Translation by P. Olivelle. Oxford 2013. 2013: p. 443)

With best regards,
Roland Steiner

[shankara]

Namaste,

The word, Indragopa occurs in 41st nama of Lalita Sahasranama, इन्द्रगोपपरिक्षिप्तस्मरतूणाभजङ्घिका, where it is translated as 'glow-worm' by most of the English translators, while Bhaskararaya describes it as a red-coloured insect that is seen in rainy season - इन्द्रगोपाः प्रावृषेण्या आरक्ततमाः कृमिविशेषाः.

regards
shankara

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[Radhakrishna Warrier]

In Malayalam indragōpam is ladybug, I think.  Indugōpam is firefly.

In this song, the poet says "you are the firefly that invites smiles" (Mandasmitaṅṅaḷ māṭiviḷikkum indugōpam nī  മന്ദസ്മിതങ്ങൾ മാടി വിളിക്കും ഇന്ദുഗോപം നീ)  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yNHnl8qCfE

Regards,

Radhakrishna Warrier

Mandasameeranil Ozhuki Mandasameeranil Ozhuki Old Malayalam Film Song By KK Digital Studio Film: Chattakkari www.youtube.com

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From: bvpar...@googlegroups.com <bvpar...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Rajagopalan Soundararajan <rsou...@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, July 7, 2020 4:26 AM
To: भारतीयविद्वत्परिषत् <bvpar...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: {भारतीयविद्वत्परिषत्} Re: Butterfly motif in Sanskrit Literature

 

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[Dr. Rama kant Shukla]

indragopa is called in hindi

 beer bahootee

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Dr. Rama Kant Shukla
Padmashree Awardee

Recipient  of Certificate of Honor from  President of India 

Editor-in-Chief Arvacheena Sanskritam (Quarterly Journal of DevaVani Parishad, Delhi)
R-6, Vani Vihar
New Delhi 110059.

Mob: +91 95605 32392
Ph: 011 28561846

[Gauri Mahulikar]

Hari Om!

Indragopa is a red-backed insect that is seen before the rainy season.

As far as butterfly in Sanskrit literature is concerned, I know Manish Walvekar from Amrita University, Bengaluru, who is working on this 

Recently he had a Facebook live talk on this research (in Marathi)

He could be reached at 97574 05466

warm regards

Prof. Gauri Mahulikar

Dean of Faculty, Chinmaya University

Veliyanad, Ernakulam, 682313

Former Prof & Head, Sanskrit Dept

Mumbai University

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[G S S Murthy]

From Ritusamhara of Kalidasa:

"विभाति शुलेतररत्नभूषिता वराङ्गनेव क्षितिरिन्द्रगोपकैः ॥ २-५ ॥

इन्द्रगोपैः=कृमिविशेषैः

Thanks and regards,

Murthy

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[Nagaraj Paturi]

Velvet Mite

firefly 

dragon fly 

grasshopper

In Telugu, grasshopper is called gollabhaama , Telugu for गोपी .  

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Nagaraj Paturi

 

Hyderabad, Telangana, INDIA.

Director,  Inter-Gurukula-University Centre , Indic Academy

BoS, MIT School of Vedic Sciences, Pune, Maharashtra

BoS, Chinmaya Vishwavidyapeeth, Veliyanad, Kerala

BoS Veda Vijnana Gurukula, Bengaluru.

Member, Advisory Council, Veda Vijnana Shodha Samsthanam, Bengaluru

Former Senior Professor of Cultural Studies, 

FLAME School of Communication and FLAME School of  Liberal Education, 

Hyderabad, Telangana, INDIA.

 

 

 

[Harunaga Isaacson]

Returning to the earlier topic: G.S.S. Murty had written

• "There does not seem to be a word denoting a "butterfly". चित्रशलभ" "चित्रपतङ्ग" seem to be coined words. 

As far as I can see this is indeed the case of चित्रशलभ; but the word चित्रपतङ्ग has

a few attestations in ancient authors. The earliest one which I can spot right now

is the famous Buddhist philosopher Dharmakīrti. See this verse of the pratyakṣa section of

his Pramāṇavārttika:

This is from the edition by Rāhula Sāṅkṛtyāyana with the commentary of Manorathanandin;

note that Manorathanandin mentions nīla and pīta as among the colours

of the citrapataṅga. I don't know how certain it is, but it certainly seems

plausible that citrapataṅga here does refer to what is called in 

English a butterfly. 

[G S S Murthy]

Real research by Prof, Isaacson. It is possible that it refers to the butterfly. It could also refer to some chameleonic insect, if indeed there is. What causes me anguish is that an ubiquitous insect goes virtually unobserved by the poets. Were they poring over writings of previous poets and forgot to raise their head?

Thanks and regards,

Murthy 

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[K S Kannan]

We have a reference to the moths (?) in

मटची-हतेषु कुरुषु

in the Upanishad.

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Dr. K.S.Kannan  D.Litt.

​Sant Rajinder Singh Ji Maharaj Chair Professor, IIT-Madras.

Senior Fellow, ICSSR, New Delhi.

Academic Director, Swadeshi Indology.

Member, Academic Council, Veda Vijnana Shodha Samsthana.

Nominated Member, IIAS, Shimla.

Former Professor, CAHC, Jain University, Bangalore.

Former Director, Karnataka Samskrit University, Bangalore.

Former Head, Dept. of Sanskrit, The National Colleges, Bangalore.

[Ashok Aklujkar]

My thanks to Prof. Isaacson. I now consider it quite likely that citra-pataṅga stands for ‘butterfly’. Pataṅga does commonly refer to (fast flying) creatures (going round and round) in Sanskrit, Hindi, Urdu. etc. Citra could easily have been added to pataṅga to capture its distinctive feature.

a.a.

On 19-Jul-2020, at 12:46 PM, Harunaga Isaacson <harunaga...@gmail.com> wrote:

.. G.S.Sier . Murty had written

• "There does not seem to be a word denoting a "butterfly". चित्रशलभ" "चित्रपतङ्ग" seem to be coined words. 

As far as I can see this is indeed the case of चित्रशलभ; but the word चित्रपतङ्ग has

a few attestations in ancient authors. The earliest one which I can spot right now

is the famous Buddhist philosopher Dharmakīrti. See this verse of the pratyakṣa section of

his Pramāṇavārttika:

<Pramaanavaarttika_Manorathanandin_ed_Saankrtyaayana_p_178_vs_pratyaksa_200.jpg>

This is from the edition by Rāhula Sāṅkṛtyāyana with the commentary of Manorathanandin;

note that Manorathanandin mentions nīla and pīta as among the colours

of the citrapataṅga. I don't know how certain it is, but it certainly seems

plausible that citrapataṅga here does refer to what is called in 

English a butterfly. 

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<Pramaanavaarttika_Manorathanandin_ed_Saankrtyaayana_p_178_vs_pratyaksa_200.jpg>

[K S Kannan]

Another ref. for चित्रपतङ्ग

अनर्थास्थिरधीचित्रसन्ततेः तत्त्वं वेद बहिर्न इत्येतद् व्यतिरेकमुखेन
व्याख्यातुकाम आह--चित्र इत्यादि । चित्रपतङ्गस्य निर्भासः तदाकारं ज्ञानम् आदिर्यस्य चित्रा
स्तरणादिनिर्भासस्य प्रत्यक्षेतरादिनिर्भासस्य वा स तथोक्तः, तत्र नैकाकयोगक्षेमत्वं 5813योगः
उत्पादः क्षेमः उत्पन्नस्य संरक्षणम् अनुभवन्5814 यस्य, अस्थिरज्ञानपक्षे संरक्षणस्याभावात् ।
अथवा क्षेमो विनाशः, तत्र तच्छब्दस्य सङ्केतात् द्विष्टे5815भ्रद्रिकाशब्दवत्, एकम् अभिन्नं योग
क्षेमं यस्य तस्य भावः तत्त्वं प्रतिभासस्य चित्रपतङ्गबुद्धेः स्वभावभेदं न निराकरोति । कुतः ?
इत्यत्राह--सन्तानैकत्वप्रसङ्गात् इति । सन्तानानाम् एकत्वम् अभेदः तस्य प्रसङ्गात् । यदा हि
एकं ज्ञानमुत्पद्यते वेद्यते वा तदा सन्तानान्तरज्ञानान्यपि; अन्यथैकज्ञानसन्तानमात्रं जगत्,
तथा च सति सुगतज्ञानसन्तानान्त पर-5816मिति यदुक्तं केनचित् ३२३ क --स्व
संवेदनमेव एकं प्रत्यक्षं प्रमाणम् नापरम्, प्रपञ्चस्तु विनेयजनानुरोधात् इत्यादि; तत्सर्वं
प्लवते; विनेयजनाभावात् । तस्माद् एकज्ञानोदयकाले अन्यज्ञानोदयोऽभ्युपगन्तव्य इति सन्ताना
नाम् एकयोगक्षेमत्वं स्वभावभेदं निराकुर्यादिति पुनरपि नानन्तरदोषः5817परिहारः । न चैवम्,
अतः 5818तत् स्वभावभेदनिराकरणे अकिञ्चित्करपि5819ति मन्यते ।

- from Siddhi-vinishcaya

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