Essay name: Purana Bulletin
Author:
Affiliation: University of Kerala / Faculty of Oriental Studies
The "Purana Bulletin" is an academic journal published in India. The journal focuses on the study of Puranas, which are a genre of ancient Indian literature encompassing mythological stories, traditions, and philosophical teachings. They represent Hindu scriptures in Sanskrit and cover a wide range of subjects.
Purana, Volume 9, Part 1 (1967)
136 (of 228)
External source: Shodhganga (Repository of Indian theses)
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128
啶啶班ぞ啶｀ぎ啷� - [pur膩峁嘺m - ] 笔鲍搁膧狈础
[Vol. IX., No. 1
India a barber has to deal with nailcutting no less than with
hair-cutting and actually one of the synonyms for "barber" is
Nakhakutta ("nail-cutter"). In "Nakhavan", therefore, we are
invited, as it were, to read the barber-idea. But it is apparently
fused with another notion. The word signifies 'one who has nails"
and with "Nakhakutta" in our mind we may interpret "having"
in a double sense so that the name would imply "one who at the
same time possesses nails to cut with and has nails in his posses-
sion by cutting them"-that is to say, a nail-cutter who wounds
and tears his customer; or, if we wish to reflect in brief the pun
which appears to be in the Sanskrit van in this context, we may
say "a barbed barber". Such a lesha or double entendre, accom-
panied by the adjective dvitiyo, "second", is just what would be
appropriate in the case of Chandr膩m艣a if he were Xandrames,
since Xandrames, according to Curtius, "took after his father",
the barber who, as we are told, had killed his royal patron and,
patron's children too.
But it is not only because Xandrames was like his father in
character and manner that Chandr膩msa is affined to him: it is also
by Xandrames's being the very next in number to his father in
this respect that the N膩ga king's affinity can be affirmed. Dvitiyo,
"second", is a most pertinent expression. Both Xandrames and
Chandr膩msa, unlike Dhana-Nanda of our historians, come imme-
diately after their fathers: they are both "second" in the family
and not ninth. The rank common to them drives their equation
home with a definitive accuracy.
In the variant Nakhapana-jah, which Pargiter renders by
"Nakhap膩na's offspring", we have the same suggestion of immediate
succession. And, by exposing the absurdity of relating Chandr膩峁兣沘
to the 艢aka Nahap膩na as son to father, it clinches our interpreta-
tion. The barber-idea is even more evident here for, one of the
meanings of pana is "protection" and Nakhapana would connote
"Nail-protection". But to get the full appositeness out of this word
we must glance at the grammatical side of it. Pana has the
1. M. Monier-Williams, Sanskrit-English Dictionary, p. 524,
2. Ibid., p. 613.
