वासवदत्ता (महाकवि सुबन्धु - श्लेष-प्रधान शास्त्रीय गद्यकाव्य सान्वय सटीक)

66 VĀSAVADATTĀ [78] ‘The shoots of evil vices are born without seed and grow without a stock, and hard they are to uproot; if a particle of iniquity enters into the heart of the wicked, it is a terrible thing. But into the heart of the good it enters not; and if at any time it does enter, [79] it is like quicksilver, unstable for an instant; the virtuous, even as deer, are obedient to the voice of one¹ who knows their pleasure; persons like thee easily capture the heart of a friend² as do the wagtails of the autumn-tide; and the wise³ give no unseemly counsel, while the friendship of the foolish is thrown on the side of profit. [80] And likewise,⁴ when milk, fancying⁵ that “water is as milk because of its sweetness, cool- ness, purity, and healing of distress,” enters into friendship (with water), destruction is wrought by water itself, when it reflects that “ruin has come in times gone by through the decoction of me myself, increased by union with that (milk).”⁶ This conduct is, therefore, extraordinary; follow the course, my friend,⁷ which is customary among the upright; [81] the noble themselves go utterly astray by mistaking their direction.’⁸ When he (Makaranda) had said this,⁹ and more to the same effect, Kandarpakētu, dominated by the wounds of many¹⁰ arrows ¹ Tel. ed., ‘take refuge with one’; Srirangam text, ‘the virtuous are not, like deer, obedient to a petty pleasure.’ ² Tel. ed., ‘persons like thee take away pleasure, as do the wagtails’; Srirangam text, ‘persons like thee obtain the weal of a host of friends.’ ³ Tel. ed., ‘the friendly-minded.’ ⁴ Tel. ed. omits ‘and likewise.’ ⁵ Tel. ed. and Srirangam text add ‘from the identity of sound.’ ⁶ Tel. ed., ‘by water, thinking that “ruin has come upon me aforetime in the decoction of milk, which had gained increase from union with myself”’; similarly the Srirangam text. The close union of mingled water and milk becomes, in Sanskrit literature, a type of the truest and most altruistic friendship (cf. Böhtlingk, Indische Sprüche, 2 ed., Nos. 2024, 2026, St. Petersburg, 1870–1873). The passage may, perhaps, be partially elucidated by a stanza from Bhartṛhari (ib. No. 2026), thus rendered by Tawney (Two Centuries of Bhartrihari, pp. 30–31, Calcutta, 1877): ‘Milk to the water with it mixed its native virtues gave, Which, pitying sore its tortured friend, rushed on a flaming grave; The milk, unwilling to be left, must share its fellow's fate,— True friendship envy cannot reach, nor fiery pains abate’! ⁷ Tel. ed. and Srirangam text omit ‘my friend.’ ⁸ Tel. ed. and Srirangam text, ‘the good, though going astray by mistaking their direction, again regain the right path.’ ⁹ Tel. ed. and Srirangam text, ‘his dear friend, Makaranda, having said,’ etc. ¹⁰ Tel. ed. and Srirangam text omit ‘many.’