THE HARMONY OF VIRTUE

V. 9. Skeleton Notes on the Kumarasambhavam319invitRt" (nivartitaÕ): Deshpande singularly supposes thatthis may mean formerly, i.e., always kept away from. Such arendering if possible would be wholly out of place and meaningless.The difficulty as regards the first line is avoided bysupposing it meant that her lip was naturally too red to needartificial colouring or that her maidens did the colouringfor her. This is most jejune and artificial, nor has such adetail the slightest appropriateness in the context. As regardsthe ball, it is explained that her hand was too tenderto play with it! This is not only jejune, it is laughable. Kalidasawould never have perpetrated such an absurd conceiteven if there were no other objections; the absence of a wordindicating past time would dispose of the rendering; forinvitRt (nivartita) is the causal of v*t( (vÐt) with in (ni). Nowthe simple inv*Ò" (nivÐttaÕ) means “cessation from p[v*iÒ(pravÐtti), i.e., from any habit of mind, practice or courseof action”, “Turning away from something it had been turnedto”. invitRt (nivartita) therefore obviously means “causedto cease from, turned from”. It cannot possibly have the senseof “never busied with”; but means “ceasing to be busy with”.Kalidasa is speaking in these stanzas of Uma putting off allher former girlish habits for those appropriate to asceticism;to suppose that he brings in matter foreign to the idea inhand is to suppose that he is not Kalidasa. And to interpret“she never used to colour her lips or play at ball and shenow plucked Kusha grass and counted a rosary” introducessuch foreign matter, substitutes non-sequence for sequenceand ruins the balanced Kalidasian structure of these stanzas.Such commentary falls well under Mallinath's vigorouscensure that the muse of Kalidasa swoons to death under theweight of bad commentaries.The poet's meaning is plain. Her hand no longer as beforewas employed in colouring her lip, she had put that away fromher; neither did it play with the ball all reddened with the vermilionof her breasts; for both the vermilion was banished fromher breasts and the ball from her hand; it was only used now topluck Kusha grass and count the rosary.Stna½ragat( (stanÀÛgarÀgÀt): resolve the compound Stn(stana) + A½ragat( (aÛgarÀgÀt), the body-colour of thebreast. For the toilet of women in Kalidasa's time, see Appendix.