Kumārasambhava 1.1
अस्त्युत्तरस्यां दिशि देवतात्मा
हिमालयो नाम नगाधिराजः।
पूर्वापरौ तोयनिधी वगाह्य
स्थितः पृथिव्या इव मानदण्डः॥
asty uttarasyāṃ diśi devatātmā
himālayo nāma nagādhirājaḥ
pūrvāparau toyanidhī vagāhya
sthitaḥ pṛthivyā iva mānadaṇḍaḥ
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In the north stands Himālaya, king of mountains and a god in his own person, reaching down into the eastern and western seas — as though the earth were being measured by a single rod.
How the sense would be said plainly today.
Metre
Upajāti
— — ⏑ — — ⏑ ⏑ — ⏑ — —
Eleven syllables. Upajāti mixes two related patterns (Indravajrā and Upendravajrā) line by line, giving a stately, slightly irregular tread — well suited to the opening of an epic.
— is a long beat, ⏑ a short one.
Why this verse matters
- The image
- The famous last image: a mountain range as a mānadaṇḍa, the surveyor's rod laid across the earth. It makes Himālaya not just large but a unit of measurement for largeness.
- The craft
- The verse begins with 'asti' — 'there is' — the oldest way to open a story in Sanskrit. Then the scale grows line by line: direction, divinity, name, rank, the two oceans, the whole earth.
- The moment
- The first verse of the epic. Before any character, before any desire, there is this landscape.
A short practice
What does मानदण्डः compare Himālaya to?