“When devas are worshipped and satisfied, they give rain and good crops.”
Author:hari
DVG never sought recognition. When the Jnanapith Award was first instituted, Maṅkutimmana Kagga, one of his major works, came before it for consideration. When one of his friends was indignant about this work not winning the award, DVG replied in his characteristic self-effacing, humorous manner: “Why do I want a lakh of rupees? Do I not look well-fed?” He went on to make a profound observation: “The idea of competitive prizes for literature is basically absurd. My whole nature rises in revolt against it. Valmiki and Vyasa and Potana and Thyagaraja are our ideals.
The Story of Śūryavarmā
There lived a royal servant called Śūryavarmā. Once, when he came home, found that his wife was in the company of his friend. He withheld his anger thinking – What is the use of killing this animal, the disloyal friend? What will I get out of punishing this pāpī? I will acquire pāpa by killing them!
Speaking to them, he said “Don’t ever get seen by me! If I spot you again, I will kill you both!”
The two disappeared. He married another lady and lived happily ever after.
Unmattaka is redirected to give the bowl to someone worthy. While this brings in the lofty principle of charity which says to give anything only to a worthy person, from the perspective of Unmattaka what would be worthiness? Unmattaka then immediately decides that Satyasoma is the one worthy, but also calls Satyasoma as mahābrāhmaṇa which idiomatically means a vile fallen brāhmaṇa! Satyasoma again seeing the bowl literally thinks that the epithet ‘kapālin’ has come back and he is indeed worthy of that.
Sastri’s students recall that he never came late for a class nor did he ever leave early. He would start off by dictating notes, which were precise and dense. Every now and then he would stop and elaborate on a point, giving explanations and clarifications. Owing to his partial deafness, he found it a challenge to listen to questions posed by students and so it appears that he cultivated the art of anticipating the question that the student would ask and answer it even as the question was being posed!
In the next verse Vyāsa describes a defining trait of great poets. He intends this as a lodestar of sorts of his work:
इतिहासप्रदीपेन मोहावरणघातिना।
लोकगर्भगृहं कृत्स्नं यथावत् संप्रकाशितम्॥ (१.९६.१०३, Kumbhakonam edition)
The great lamp of itihāsa dispels darkness in the form of stupor, ignorance, delusion. It illuminates the inner core of the world and shows it as it is.
2. Next Gomukha started narrating the story of Kumudikā:-
V Si. and Shastry always got their writings reviewed by the other. They would exchange ideas and opinions, mainly for their own clarity. Those were the years of great joy for both. V Si, in his pen portrait of Subrahmanya Shastry writes, “Whenever I recollect the discussions on literature we both had, I feel that the company of a person like him makes life light and easy…. I had never found that kind of friendliness elsewhere”.