Gorakṣaśataka 89–94: What Sustains a Conception of the Body?

The two surviving pādas form a metrically fitting Anuṣṭubh half-verse. Their number does not require supplementation to identify the metre. A further line that previously stood here in the manuscript is commented out in the working text and partly incorporated into 91. I retain the active extent; the arrangement across the verse boundaries and the nominative interpretation remain provisional.

ātivāhika here denotes the subtle body, literally one that carries across. With Mallinson (2012, p. 271), I interpret madātmakam as having the nature of “I”; mad- is the first-person pronoun, not a personal name. The two nominatives in the second half-verse are connected as quoted conceptions to iti and matī in 92. This sentence construction is provisional and is not secured by changing the Sanskrit.

I read iti as referring back to the conceptions named in 91, and tam as their reference to the body. The rope-and-snake image illustrates a deceptive conception. sasvarūpā and matī cannot be securely construed together in the transmitted wording; the translated verbs supply the chosen interpretation. The ending is also elliptical. I understand kāleneti as the quoted explanation “conditioned by time” for a state that has arisen. kāleneti is already Mallinson’s conjecture against kālenāty. His printed translation (2012, p. 271) supports the connection between conceptions, doubt and time, without providing a secure Sanskrit sentence.

I join mṛgatṛṣṇā ambuvad into mṛgatṛṣṇāmbuvad. This editorial sandhi conjecture relative to Mallinson’s working text contracts ā + a to ā, giving the first line sixteen syllables instead of seventeen. The second pāda, mṛgatṛṣṇāmbuvad dṛḍhaḥ, has the pattern LLGGLGLG and the regular even Anuṣṭubh cadence. The change appears in IAST and Velthuis. No asterisk is used because no syllable is added. No divergent Gorakṣaśataka reading is claimed as witness evidence for this change.

mṛgatṛṣṇā, literally “thirst of a wild animal”, denotes a mirage. Following Mallinson (2012, p. 271), I connect the words as the image of apparently firm water in a mirage. The nominative form mṛgatṛṣṇā and the references in the second half-verse remain unusual; “in a” and the pronoun referring to the body are translation supplements. I choose the body of 89–91 as the referent. The metrical sandhi conjecture does not settle these syntactic questions.

A hare’s horn is an image of something that can be named without existing. I relate tasya to the body considered previously and understand viśvaṃbharādi as its names, beginning with “world-bearer”. Mallinson (2012, p. 271) more freely connects the expression to earth and other constituents. I retain the recognisable formation of a name in the working text; its precise philosophical referent remains open.