Asita Giri Smam syat

[ar...@ohstpy.mps.ohio-state.edu]

Couple of years ago, I happened to read few essays on religion
written by the Nobel Physicist Abdus Salam. They are published in a
book form titled "Ideals and Realities-selected essays of Abdus
Salam". In those essays Dr. Salam has quoted a verse from Quran
couple of times. I have copied the verse from the above mentioned
book below:

"Though all the trees on earth were Pens
And the sea was Ink
Seven seas, after, to replenish it,
Yet would the words of the Lord be never spent
The Lord is Mighty and All Wise." (31-27)

Ideals and Realities
(2nd. edition - page 213)

I remembered a poem that I had learned couple of decades ago.

The verse in Sanskrit goes as below:

Asita Giri Samam Syat
Kajjalam Sindhu Patre
Sura taru Bara Sakha
Lekhani Patra Murbi
Likhati Yadi Grihitwa
Sarada Sarva Kalam
Tadwapi tava Gudanam
Yisa Param Na yati

(Please excuse me for mistakes in writing the Sanskrit words.
Being away for about a decade from the Hindu Nation (Nepal),
I may have forgotten quite a bit of Sanskrit.)

For readers who understand Nepali the Nepalese translation
of the Sanskrit verse is as below:

Asita Giri Masi hos
Sagarai hos Maseni
Amara taru kalam hos
Patra hos yo dharitri
Bilaya nagari tammai
Sarada nitya lekhun
Tara pani guna jammai
Lekhidainan hajurka

The translation is not mine. But right now I do not remember
the name of the translator. The translator may be Soma Nath Sigdel
or some one with similar name.

The english translation will be something like

Even if the mountains are Ink
Even if the Ocean be inkpot
Even if earth be paper
Even if the deity of learning write all the time
Oh God you can not be described completely.

This translation is mine as will probably be self evident
because of the quality.

The two verses looked very similar to me. Hindus have Goddess of
learning (Sarada). Mention to Sarada is not present in Quran.
For many years I wondered whether it is a rare coincidence that
these two verses could have been written down by two different
people at two different times independently.

I tried to find out the root of the Sanskrit version. One of my
friend who is more knowledgable than me in such matters was kind
enough to tell me some details about the poem.

The sanskrit version is ascribed to someone called Puspa Danta
and is supposedly pretty ancient. It is said that Sankara himself has
written commentary about this verse.

The story is that Pushpa Danta , who was a Gandharva, was a
devotee of Lord Siva. Siva is supposed to like Kamal Pushpa.
So Pusha Danta who had supposedly the power to be invisible
used to pick up some Kamal Pushpa from the garden of a king
and offer them to Siva in a shrine devoted to Lord Siva.

It so turned out that the King was also a devotee of Siva.
He also wanted to offer the Kamal Pushpa to Lord Siva. But he was
not able to catch the thief. One day he had an idea. Some of the
flowers that had already been offered to Siva were put around the
tree having those prized flowers. Pushpa Danta was unaware of this
and as usual went to pick up the Kamal Pushpa. As soon as his foot
touched some of the Nirmalya (already offered flowers) his power to
be invisible vanished and thus he was caught red handed.

It was in this moment of dispair he praised Lord Siva

Asita Giri Samam Syat
Kajjalam Sindhu Patre
Sura taru Bara Sakha
Lekhani Patra Murbi
Likhati Yadi Grihitwa
Sarada Sarva Kalam
Tadwapi tava Gudanam
Yisa Param Na yati

In fact the Siva Stotra by Puspa Danta is much long and the above
mentioned verse is one of them.

This is more or less all I know about this verse. If some one
can shed more light about either the Quranic version or the
Sanskrit version, I would really appreciate.

Mukunda