In the original story of Sakuntala, as told in the Mahabhratha, there is no ring. Sakuntala appears in Dushmanta's court with their son and requests Dushmanta to declare him the heir to his throne, as he had promised her, before their gandharva vivāham. Though Dushmanta very much remembers their encounter (and thus recognises legitimacy of the claim), he still pretends not to remember and asks her provocative, insulting questions in his court. But he is ' being cruel only to be kind '. For, this sets the dramatic stage for a fine articulation of her case by Sakuntala, which ends in the divine voice from the sky, declaring her to be true and for Dushmanta to accept her and their son. And then, Dushmanta tells his courtiers that he always knew but his word would have been insufficient proof to the court. We are of course, more aware of the storyline of KāLidāsa's play abhijñānasākuntalam, where the poet made significant departures. The elevation of the 'word/memory
For no logical reason I remember
ReplyDelete"துப்பார்க்குத் துப்பாய துப்பாக்கித் துப்பார்க்குத் துப்பாய தூஉம் மழை"
But then that gets the crown for being simpler :(
"mái mài mâi mâi mãi?"
ReplyDeleteThis is a grammatically correct sentence in the Thai language, and it translates to, "New wood doesn't burn, does it?"
SP, that's sure an honorable mention. Though in comparison VaLLuvar's is a quaint little tongue twister submitting to the suffix tweak demands any language place on its words. Buffalo remain un-buffaloed.
ReplyDelete//"mái mài mâi mâi mãi?//
ReplyDeleteHa !
Quite Western of us to ignore the accents and circumflexes. Imagine writing them in any Indian script makes it a quaint 'sounds like'.
Also shows that one learns different things about Thai culture when one tours under parental supervision.
ha! idhellam jujoobee - enga Advanced Algebra prof in Chennai, she sets teh gold standard - infact, if prodded, this was the episode I was threatening to post as 'interesting anecdote' from college life that you asked :-) - my primary entertainment in college used to be attending her class and catching any pearls dropped by her in terms of faux-paus. Here's a sentence, where the word 'know' stands for any phoentic variation, (i.e) the sentence makes perfect sense if I replace appropriate knows by appropriate 'no's with appropriate punctuation. Idhai kandupidingada paarkalam!
ReplyDelete"I know you know know know know know"
(This was an effort to encourage an embarassed myself to answer a question she suddenly posed in the class - myself being her pet student who somehow had incited belief in her that I could solve Fermat's last theorem - and here I was blinking like Pandiarajan to a question on mundane basics. So thats the clue you get. )
Possibility1: I know you know, no "no no"
ReplyDeletei.e. I know (that) you know, (so) no "no no" (business)
Possibility2: I know you know, no "no know"
i.e. I know (that) you know, (so) no "no know" (I don't know business)
Both miss a the last "no". Which I guess will the very Indian question tag "no ?". Used even perplexingly in combinations like "You agee with me, right ?" indianized to "Yes, no ?"
Possibility 3
I know.
You know, no ? (you know, don't you)
no "no no/know" (none of this I don't know business)
I know this comes really late. But I've meaning to say for sometime that this is a really nice blog! :)
ReplyDeleteAnd I really enjoyed reading the link in this post.
P.S: Even my best friend who is far more capable than me when it comes to critiquing and appreciating the written word likes this blog. And I think she's mentioned it too.
hmmmmmmm buffalo buffalo buffalo........ no no no..... but yes yes yes.......
ReplyDeleteRarely does one get to say both thanks and welcome in the same sentence.
ReplyDeleteThanks and Welcome Padma :-)
Welcome hendy, but I must say the comment missed my head by a clear couple of feet.