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.’