Essay name: Shringara-manjari Katha (translation and notes)
Author: Kumari Kalpalata K. Munshi
An English translation of the Shringara-manjari Katha by Bhojadeva. This detailed study includes four sections including an introduction the Sanskrit text, an English translation, notes, index of rare words and an index of maxims.
Page 246 of: Shringara-manjari Katha (translation and notes)
246 (of 314)
External source: Shodhganga (Repository of Indian theses)
Download the PDF file of the original publication
TRANSLATION 37 When addressed thus, she (VIá¹¢AMASILA) said, "Child, now
hear how by discernment, hidden treasure can be found out and
how a man of HaridrÄ rÄga can be won overâ€�.
THUS ENDS THE THIRD TALE OF MĀDHAVA IN THE ŚṚ�-
GARAMANJARĪKATHA COMPOSED BY MAHÄ€RÄ€JÃDHIRÄ€JA-
±Ê´¡¸é´¡²Ñ·¡Åš³Õ´¡¸é´¡-Åš¸éεþ±á°¿´³´¡¶Ù·¡³Õ´¡.
(THE FOURTH TALE OF SŪRADHARMAN)
Here on the banks of the Ganges, is a town of the brÄhma-
nas called HastigrÄma. There lived a brÄhmaṇa called SŪRA-
DHARMAN. He was extremely poor as were also his father and
grandfather. He did not obtain sufficient food... (31) and he be-
came a young man by the time his father died. He saw the wealth of
the other persons of the town and felt miserable, and wondered by
what means he would obtain such wealth. 'Riches help to gain more
riches, but I have nothing. I would serve a king, but I do not know
how. Now what should I do? Be it so, I shall worship the Lord
of the Sea'.
Resolving thus, wandering he came to the shores and saw the
sea. (The sea) which was embracing as it were his beloved, the
Glory of the sky with plump breasts, by waves scraping the sky,
surpassing the mountains by their heights, adorned with various
precious jewels and whitened by balls of foam as white as sandal-
paste; whose water was drunk by the submarine-fire which assumed
many bodies, being unable to drink it all with one, under the guise
of the flashing creepers of corals.
To such a god of the sea he started paying homage. Every
morning wearing a short leather petticoat and taking a staff in his
hands he would go and offer a handful of flowers to the sea, and
bowing down he would move forward and backward with the tide
and the ebb. Spending the whole day thus, in the evening after
paying his salutations to the sea he would return. He spent many
years thus, sustaining himself on alms.
Now once, taking pity on him, the sea, assuming the form of
a small boy said to him: "Oh! BrÄhmaṇa, why do you trouble your-
self day and night by coming and going?" Being thus spoken to,
he said: (32) “Young man, why do you worry about it? Go your
own way�. But when the boy persistently asked him he said: “I am
much afflicted by poverty which has come down to me from gene-
rations together with my family traditions. Therefore I am wor-
shipping the sea". Seeing his firm resolve, the boy said: "I am the
