Where is the Romaraji?

[Full title: Review Article / Where is the Romaraji? / Sreeramula Rajeswara Sarma]

This volume (bound together with vol. IX: Rules and Remedies in Classical Indian Law, ed. Julia Leslie) contains six of the articles presented in the Workshop No. 19 during the Seventh World Sanskrit Conference at Leiden in 1987. Written by well known authorities, these papers offer fascinating glimpses of inter-relationships between the medical literatures of India, Sri Lanka and Tibet. Three of the contributions are devoted to Indian medical literature. P. V. Sharma, who is currently editing Niscalakara's Ratnaprabha commentary on Cakrapanidatta's Cikitsasangraha, offers much new information on this commentary (pp. 107-112). In 'Astangasamgraha, Kalpasthana I: Translation and Notes' (pp. 113-137), Kenneth G. Zysk provides a preliminary translation with annotations on the basis of all the available editions and parallel versions; the translations of the remaining chapters of the Kalpasthana of this text are, incidentally, appearing in regular succession on the pages of this journal. G. Jan Meulenbeld argues that blood occupied a more prominent position in the nosological theory prior to the tridosavada (pp. 91-106). Jinadasa Liyanaratane surveys 'Sinhalese Medical Manuscripts in Paris' (pp. 73-90) as part of a research project on the history of medical literature in Sri Lanka. Of the six manuscripts discussed here, three are related to northern Indian classical Ayurveda and the other three contain both Ayurveda and Siddha elements; the latter probably composed by Tamils settled in Sri Lanka. Indian classical medicine did not know pulse reading (Nadipariksa), but this is said to be one of the pillars of Tibetan medicine. The standard Tibetan treatise entitled Rgyud bzi or 'Four Tantras' deals with this subject in the first chapter of the last book. In 'Some Remarks on Sphygmology' (pp. 66-72), R.E. Emmerick discusses A Review of: Medical Literature From India, Sri Lanka and Tibet. Edited by G. Jan Meulenbeld. E.J. Brill: Leiden/New York/Kobenhavn/Koln 1991. (Panels of the VIIth World Sanskrit Conference, Kern Institute, Leiden: August 23-29, 1987, Vol. VIII.) ISBN 90-04-09522-5. 137 pp. Hfl. 120.00.

the problems in translating some of these verses. The first paper, by Rahul Peter Das, entiltled 'The romaraji- in Indian Kavya and Ayurvedic Literature', is also the longest: it occupies nearly half of this volume (pp. 1-65). If the review concentrates on this paper for a detailed discussion, this is not to minimise the importance of other contributions. Das's paper spans two disciplines and raises an important issue about the conventions in Sanskrit poetry which deserves to be widely noticed. One of the several signs of puberty in both boys and girls is that a thin line of hair grows from the pubic region towards the navel. In the case of men it even extends upwards beyond the navel and appears prominently in hirsute men. But not so in women. There it stops at the navel, and even if it extends above this, it is so faint that it is rarely visible. Nor is the line ever invested with any special significance in practical life. But in Sanskrit poetry, attention is paid to this line of hair on the female body, which is called romaraji. On examining a number of Sanskrit Kavyas, Das found that a majority of them place this line of hair above the navel. In this highly thought-provoking paper, Das first draws our attention to the dichotomy between the reality (below the navel) and the poetic convention (above the navel), and then tries to understand why Sanskrit poetry locates it at the wrong place. For this purpose, Das has collected from various anthologies some sixty-two passages that describe the romaraji (pp.10 f.) and analysed some of these in great detail. In order to find a rationale for the anomaly in the poetic convention, Das drew into consideration a formidable array of texts on Ayurveda, Samudrikasastra, Silpasastra, lexicography, Buddhist and Jaina hagiographies and so on. This material shows that the romaraji we are here concerned with first appears in the descriptions of the Mahapurusa, i.e. ideal male, in Jaina texts. In these descriptions the romaraji is said to have a certain ideal form and is placed below the navel. Later on the romaraji is gradually transferred to the description of females. 000 The medical texts also speak of the romaraji primarily in connection with the male body as the line of hair below the navel (p.34), but 'whether they presuppose such a growth on the female body too is a matter of speculation' (p.40). These texts, however, mention the romaraji on the female body as one of the several signs of pregnancy. But here too problems occur. Some texts, like Astangahrdaya, Sarirasthana

S.R. Sarma, Where is the Romaraji? 209 1.51, enumerate romarajyah prakasanam¹ 'the romaraji becoming very distinct' as one of the signs of pregnancy. As against this, some texts speak of romarajyudgama '[sudden] growth of the romaraji. Das rightly observes that if this is something newly produced by pregnancy, it cannot be the line of hair we have been talking of so far. What is meant is possibly the linea nigra, a dark pigmentation said to occur in the case of pregnancy (§§ 71 f.). But none of these texts offers any justification for the romaraji running from the navel up to the breasts and the author is forced to conclude that this is 'a particularly glaring example of how a poetic tradition divorced from reality may not only develop, but also be transmitted blindly over the centuries' (p.52). Das must be congratulated for this pioneering study. But I feel that there is still more to be extracted from the Kavya passages cited by him. This will not ultimately alter his deductions on the romaraji in different literary genres in general, but it will help us gain a better focus on the poetic conventions. The problem I would particularly like to tackle here is that of descriptions of the romaraji situated below the navel in Kavya literature. According to Das, only Kalidasa describes such a romaraji. In my opinion, however, at least two other of the poets cited by Das, as well as another poet he has not cited, do so too. At the outset, Das states (p.9) that he has collected most of the Kavya passages from anthologies. I am quite aware of the difficulty of searching through the haystack of Sanskrit poetry for the needle of the romaraji. However, anthologies arrange the verses topic-wise but torn from the context. And this had the unfortunate effect of making Das in most, though not all, cases neglect the common convention in Sanskrit poetry of describing the female body in a linear sequence from the feet up to the hair (padadikesantavarnana) or in the reverse order (kesadipadanta). In his study of Jaina texts, however, Das has taken the 1 On Raghuvamsa 3.2, Mallinatha cites a similar stanza from Vahata: sarirasadadigarbhalaksane vahatah. ksamata garima kukser murccha chardir arocakam jrmbha prasekah sadanam romarajyah prakasanam. 2 In his Alankarasekhara (ed. Anantarama Sastri Vetal, Benares 1927), Kesava Misra on p.60 quotes an anonymous authority to the effect that humans should be described from the head downwards and gods from the feet upwards (manava maulito varnya devas caranatah punah), but this rule is observed only in its breach. Thus in the

sequence of description into account (pp.46 f.) While celebrating the female body, poets take a slow excursion, as it were, over its whole length, stopping at each station to admire the sights. Whether ascending or descending, the poets rarely deviate from the sequence. In such linear descriptions, the romaraji is one of the stations which the poet utilises for the employment of his wit and poetic flourish. We do not know precisely when this convention started, but soon it seems to have become almost the only mode of describing a woman.3 Handbooks on poetry supplied the stock phrases to be used and lesser poets completed the obligatory strivarnana in a mechanical fashion. The convention reached its culmination in the Hindi poetry of the Riti-school (between approximately A.D. 1643 and 1857), where a new genre developed under the designation Nakh-sikh. A parallel style in Urdu is called Sar-a-pa. These poems just consist of some witty or clever sayings on each of the successive stations without any connecting link. S It should also be stressed that the poets usually describe the romaraji only as one of the several steps in the linear description, but never the romaraji alone. Therefore, if one is looking in a Kavya for a statement about the absolute or relative location of the romaraji, one must read the entire linear description, and not just the verses on the romaraji; verses culled from anthologies, bereft of the context, may not Saundaryalahari, attributed to the great Sankara, the goddess is described from the head downwards (vv.1-47), whereas Bilhana employs the reverse order for the heroine in his Vikramankadevacarita (8.6 ff.). 3 At the VIIIth World Sanskrit Conference held in Vienna in 1991, this reviewer had occasion to hear a highly interesting paper by Alois Wurm on the physical description of a beautiful woman: 'Sundarinakhasikhavarnana - A Sanskrit Literary Motif. Preliminaries to a Typological Demarcation in a Universal Perspective' 4 Cf. Iqbal Ahmad (ed), Mirza abdurrah'man 'premi' kit nakh-sikh, Bombay 1972. In the introduction, pp.4 f., the editor mentions that Balabhadra (V.S. 1630), his brother Kesava (V.S. 1657), and a host of others composed texts all called Nakh-Sikh. Kesava provides for 39 "stops" while Laksminarayan "Safiq" Awrangabadi in his Taswir-e-ganan (composed in 1774) employs a Sar-a-pa with as many as 169 headings. 5 Except for one Parvatiya Visvesvara who wrote a hundred verses exclusively on this line under the title Romavalisataka, but he is an eighteenth century writer obviously working under the influence of the Riti-school. Das (p.9) announces a forthcoming German translation of this work.

S.R. Sarma, Where is the Romaraji? always answer "geographical" queries. 211 Thus, in order fully to understand the poetic conventions regarding the romaraji, one must: (i) study it as part of a linear description of the entire body, and not as an isolated description, (ii) pay attention to the sequential context, and (iii) read the Kavyas chronologically. Of the sixty-two Kavya passages studied, Das found only one that favours the romaraji below the navel. This is also the oldest available text. The verse in question is Kalidasa's Kumarasambhava 1.31 (Das, § 25, pp.12 f.). Because of the overwhelming number of passages holding the contrary view, Das, though he finally does take this verse to refer to the romaraji below the navel (pp.22 f.;40), is very cautious in accepting what I consider to be an unambiguous statement about the location of the romaraji. I construe the verse as follows: tasyah tanvi navaromarajih nivim atikramya natanabhirandhram pravista 'Her thin and new[ly sprouted] romaraji, having crossed the knot of the nether garment, entered the opening of the deep navel.' What Kalidasa means is this. The lower part of the romaraji is not visible because it is covered by the garment. It becomes visible only after it crosses the nivi. The poet then continues to say that the romaraji 'shone like the lustre of the dark gem in the middle of the hip girdle.' Where is this girdle? As is evident from Indian sculpture, women tied the nether garment well below the navel, and to keep it in position wore a girdle just on the upper fringe of the garment. Thus the mekhala is always below the navel. Consequently the romaraji, when it is said to emerge from below the garment and the girdle and enter the navel, lies unquestionably below the navel. The context also shows that Kalidasa is describing each station in a regular sequence in the following ascending order (1.33-48): toe-nails, feet; gait, anklets; calves; thighs; girdle; romaraji reaching up to the navel; waist, three folds; breasts; arms; throat; face; lips; voice; eyes; eye-brows; hair. Das too has drawn attention to these facts, but in a manner far more cautious than necessary. Similarly, the anonymous verse 15 (Das, § 28, pp.15 f.) locates the romaraji below the navel in a successive enumeration of thighs, hips, romaraji, navel, waist, breasts, and face. Here too Das is extremely cautious (also on p.22), but I think there can be no doubt in this regard. It is a pity we do not know the source of this verse, because, as we shall see later (see n.16), its chronology is of crucial importance in the discussion. Subandhu is perhaps the next poet to mention the romaraji in the

6 course of a linear description in his Vasavadatta. In the text as it is current today, there are three passages where the romaraji is described and these create complications. The first passage reads romarajilatalavalavalayena ... mekhaladamna... parikalitajaghanasthala (pp.40 f.). Here Vasavadatta's hip-region (jaghanasthala) is said to be encircled by a girdle (mekhaladaman'). The poet uses a number of images to describe the girdle, one of which is romarajilatalavalavalayena. That is to say, if the romaraji is imagined to be a creeper (lata), the girdle then becomes its alavalavalaya, the circular trench or basin which is dug around the root of a plant and which is filled with water. Thus the romaraji is identified/compared with the lata and the mekhaladaman with the alavalavalaya. To use the terminology of Alankarasastra, the romaraji and the mekhaladaman are upameyas (subjects of comparison) and the lata and the alavalavalaya are upamanas (objects of comparison). Therefore, what the poet intends to say is this: just as a creeper rises from the round trench and goes upwards, so does the romaraji rise from the girdle and go upwards [towards the navel]. Das avers (n.75 on p.55) that 'The alavala- "basin of water round the root of a plant" of the romaraji- mentioned here is in all probability the navel' (cf. n.8). Syntax does not support this probability for romarajilatalavalavalayena and the seven other expressions, all in the instrumental, are connected with the immediately following mekhaladamna, also in the instrumental. In Subandhu's second passage (romavalilataphalabhutabhyam payodharabhyam, p.43) the romaraji is a creeper and the breasts are the fruit. This would mean that the romaraji is above the navel and reaches up to the breasts.8 In the third passage (haralataromarajivyajagangayamunasangamaEd. with the Prabodhini Sanskrit and Hindi commentaries by Sankaradeva Sastri, Varanasi 1954. The text is heavily inflated and needs a proper critical edition. 7 mekhaladaman (PW, s.v. daman), kanciguna, etc. are common expressions for a string-girdle, or girdle made of a single strand in contradistinction to broader girdles or those made of multiple strands. For the former, cf. Ramayana (critical edition) 2.72.6: lipta candanasarena rajavastrani bibhrati mekhaladamabhis citrai rajjubaddheva vanari. For the latter, cf. Kumarasambhava 1.37 etc. 8 Combining the imagery in these two passages, the author of the Lalitasahasranamastotra (ed. Vasant Anant Gadgil, Punyapattana 1977, p.7) wrote at a later period: nabhyalavalaromalilataphalakucadvayi. Here navel and alavala are equated.

S.R. Sarma, Where is the Romaraji? 213 prayagatatabhyam... payodharabhyam, pp.43-45) the romaraji goes even higher and passes through the narrow channel between the breasts. Here the dark romaraji is the river Yamuna, the white pearl necklace the Ganga, and the breasts the two steep banks at Prayaga where these two rivers meet. As Das pertinently observes elsewhere in connection with Kalidasa (p.17), Subandhu could not have written all the three passages, placing the romaraji sometimes below and sometimes above the navel. Either the first one is genuine and the next two interpolations, or the other way round. We are faced with a similar problem also with the other great prose writer Bana. He seems to be the only poet who mentions the romaraji in connection with a masculine body. Describing the onset of puberty in prince Candrapida in his Kadambari,' the poet remarks that his romaraji ascended high along with his valour (pratapena saharuroha romarajih, pp. 266 f.), without however specifying where this romaraji grew. Elsewhere in the same work (p.478), he describes, among others, the navel, romaraji, girdle, and so on of Pundarika in a descending order, implying clearly that the romaraji is below the navel. The same location is suggested in connection with a female as well in the next passage, where a tribal girl is described in the following words literally borrowed from Subandhu's first passage cited above: romarajilatalavalakena rasanadamna parikalitajaghanasthalam (p. 38). A fourth mention of the romaraji occurs in connection with the heroine Kadambari (p.615), and this contradicts the previous statements. Here in an ascending enumeration the description of the romaraji is placed between those of the navel and the breasts, implying that it lies between these, though the description itself does not make a statement about the location (tribhuvanavijayaprasastivarnavalim iva likhitam manmathena romarajimanjarim bibhranam). If this phrase were shifted and placed before the description of the navel, the contradiction would disappear. There is one more poet who places the romaraji correctly below the navel, namely Bilhana. In the Vikramankadevacarita, he describes Candralekha in an ascending order in some eighty verses (8.6-86). Verses 17-23 are devoted to nitamba/sroni/jaghana. These are followed by wv.24-28 on the romaraji. Thereafter the navel is described in 29-33, 9 Ed. with the commentary of Bhanucandra and Siddhacandra and Hariscandra Vidyalankara's Hindi translation by Mohanadeva Panta, reprint Dilli 1976.

then the three folds, breasts and so on. This sequence shows that Bilhana locates the romaraji below the navel. It is not necessary that each stanza on the romaraji should invariably supply the anatomicalgeographical coordinates, but many of these, in fact, do. Das does not consider the description of the romaraji in the context of the whole passage (8.6-86), nor does he read the verses on the romaraji (8.24-28, 31) in their proper sequence (cf. p.209 above). Consequently he finds most of these verses problematic. Nevertheless, he concludes 'that the problematic verses ... too fit into the patterns of other verses of Bilhana discussed and thus into that of the majority of other verses' (§ 38, p.21), i.e. that Bilhana's verses locate the romaraji above the navel like the majority of the verses considered in Das's study. This conclusion goes against the sequence of description which I mentioned just above. Therefore, it is necessary to discuss these verses successively in somewhat greater detail and see what the poet states or implies about the position of the romaraji. Verse 24 (Das, § 33, p.20): The romaraji enters the navel, as if it were a streak of darkness running away from the lustre of the gems on the girdle and trying to hide in the deep cavern of the navel. This is a clear statement that the romaraji runs from the girdle to the navel. Das wonders from which side the line enters the navel.10 But if the romaraji runs away from the lustre, then it must be from below because the girdle is worn below the navel. There cannot be a more explicit statement in poetry. Moreover, note also the echo of Kumarasambhava 1.38 here: Ku 1.38: tasyah pravista natanabhirandhram... tanvi navaromarajih. VC 8.24: nabhirandhram pravistasyah syamala romavallari. Verse 25 (Das, §32, pp.19 f.): For a correct appreciation of this verse, it is necessary to know that it echoes Kumarasambhava 1.24:11 Ku 1.24: vidurabhumir navameghasabdad udbhinnaya ratnasalakayeva. VC 8.25: bhati romavali tasyah payodharabharonnatau 10 P.20: 'One could say... that the romaraji- flees, so to say, away from the vicinity of the jewel. However, it may also be that it is on the other side of the navel, in which case it would, so to say, hide in this after descending from above and refrain from advancing further on its course.' 11 Sures Chandra Banerji and Amal Kumar Gupta ignore this fact and make a mess of their translation in Bilhana's Vikramankadeva Caritam. Glimpses of the History of the Calukyas of Kalyana. First English Rendering. Calcutta 1965, p.128.

S.R. Sarma, Where is the Romaraji? jata ratnasalakeva sronivaiduryabhumitah. 215 Kalidasa gives expression here to an old belief: when new water-bearing clouds come thundering, columns of beryl stone sprout from the earth. Bilhana plays on the theme through the double meaning of the word payodhara. Therefore, I shall modify Das's translation as follows: 'Her romavali shines like a jewel-rod, produced from the vaidurya-ground of the hips, with the increase of the heavy clouds/breasts.' Here also the implication is that the romaraji rises upwards from the pelvic region (sroni).12 Verse 26 (Das, § 31, pp.17 f.): In this verse the poet sees a parallel between the navel and the romaraji on the one hand, and the golden bracelet (usual meaning of kataka) and the lac oozing from it on the other hand. I cannot visualise why the lac should be oozing from a golden bracelet, but if it does, then it goes downwards, and this is implied by the word dhara. 13 Verse 27 (Das, § 37, p.21): Another parallelism between the ensemble of the navel and the romaraji on the one hand, and a ring and a chain on the other, the latter to tie the elephant which is/belongs to Kama (smaradantinah). A chain normally hangs downwards.14 12 Assuming that the jewel-rod is meant for the in my opinion impossible purpose of elevating/buttressing/raising the breasts (unnatau does not generate such a meaning), Das concludes 'that at its upper end the romaraji- extends up to the breasts'. But here Bilhana is just playing upon a variation of Kalidasa's original theme. There are two parallel images. The first is of the linear romaraji that sprung up from the pelvic region as soon as the breasts rose/grew, both breasts and the romaraji being signs of puberty. The second image is that of longish crystals of beryl sprouting from the earth as soon as clouds rise in the sky. Neither do the beryl crystals reach up to the clouds nor the romaraji up to the breasts. 13 Das wishes to locate the kataka also on the woman's body and therefore tries various permutations with the different meanings of kataka. But the poet says clearly that the kataka belongs to Kandarpa or Kama, and this in my opinion precludes its being on the woman's body too. As an ornament, the word can mean (usually) a bracelet or (very rarely) a girdle. In either case, the lac flowing from it will flow downwards. And with this is compared the romaraji attached to the navel. 14 Again Das indulges in what to me is over-interpretation. Though there is no mention of breasts in the verse, he refers vaguely to other verses with clearer statements and insists that the elephant implies breasts ('actually, the breasts are elephant's frontal lobes'), and that therefore the romaraji connects the navel and breasts. In this verse, as in others, two parallel images are presented. One is the subject of comparison (upa-

Verse 28 (Das, § 34, p.20): The romaraji enters the navel to see how deep it is. There is no explicit statement about the location of the romaraji, but Das thinks that 'since however a sounding line would fall downwards, the implication ....seems to be that the romaraji is above the navel'. Perhaps. But note his comment on the following verse. 15 Verse 29 (Das, § 37, p.21): As I have said earlier, the romaraji is described in wv.24-28. After this, the navel is described in wv.29-31. Verse 29 states that the navel looks like a pit produced in the ground by the tip of the bow, when Kama used it as a climbing pole to reach up to the breasts. In this bow, Das wishes to see the romaraji stretching from the navel to the breasts. I do not, because (i) the verse makes sense without this identification, (ii) this identification goes against the statement of all the other verses, and (iii) when Kama has climbed up, he must have taken away the bow, so that all one can see is just the pit. Verse 31 (Das, § 35, p.20): As in 26 and 27, here is a parallelism between the navel-romaraji combination and the ink-pot (actually a clump of dried ink) and the stream of ink, which naturally flows downwards. Das acknowledges this, but also adds (p.21): 'However, it may well be that the simile here is not meant so literally, in which case what would matter is merely that the flow is away from the navel, i.e. the romaraji- could be taken to be above this.' Sure, but does that supersede the possibility that the romaraji is below, which is the normal meya) and also the topic under discussion (prastuta), and the other is the object of comparison (upamana) and extraneous to the discussion (aprastuta). The various elements of these two images should be independent of one another in order to produce a clear parallelism, whether this is presented in the form of upama, rupaka or any other figure of speech based on comparison. Therefore, in the present verse, the elephant which belongs to or is identical with Kama need not, and must not, be sought in the limbs of the woman who is being described. Pertinent is just the fact that the navel and the romaraji together resemble a ring and a chain. Since a chain normally hangs downwards from the ring, the implication is that the romaraji is below the navel. Das thinks of some other possibilities too, but in that case even more possibilities present themselves. Thus, if hold the other end of the chain and drop it from a very great height, you will see for some minutes the heavier ring below the chain. Again, if you clasp the ring around the elephant's foot and fasten the other end of the chain to a post, both the ring and the chain will lie in a horizontal plane. But poetry should not be subjected to this kind of analysis. you 15 'It may however be that the picture is not to be taken so literally, i.e. that what is significant here is the mere fact that the line enters the opening.'

direction of flow? S.R. Sarma, Where is the Romaraji? 217 Thus in each of these verses (with the possible exception of 28) Bilhana makes a clear enough statement that the romaraji lies below the navel. But there is no denying the fact that there exists a large body of examples where the romaraji is clearly above the navel and is reaching up to the breasts. This shows that at some point of time there occurred a shift in the position of the romaraji, not in the female anatomy, but in poetic imagination. Once the romaraji had gone above the navel, it was firmly made to remain there by the subsequent poets. Perhaps a chronological study of Sanskrit literary works might reveal when this shift took place. 16 At least one Sanskrit writer appears to be aware that the romaraji is wrongly located. In the sixteenth century, Kesava Misra states that the romaraji and the trivali in women are artificial poetic conventions (kavisampradaya or kavisamaya) of the kind where things that do not exist are mentioned. This does not, of course, mean that these two do not exist at all: only that they do not exist in the manner described in conventional poetry.17 At the same time, adds Kesava, it is highly desirable to follow these conventions (kavisampradayasya sarvapeksabhyarhitattvam). Therefore, he teaches how to describe the female body in a descending linear sequence, where he places the romaraji between the breasts and the navel.18 However, the romaraji above the navel cannot be put in the same 16 As we have seen, Kalidasa, the anonymous author of verse 15, Subandhu (if the second and third passages are interpolations), and Bana depict the romaraji below the navel. On the other hand, Magha (Sisupalavadha 9.22) and Sriharsa (Naisadhiyacarita 7.83-87) see it above the navel. Thus two seventh century writers Bana and Magha have contradictory views on the location of the romaraji. Does this warrant the conclusion that the shift began to occur in the seventh century and that poets like Bilhana (in the eleventh) still adhered to the older tradition? 17 Alankarasekhara, p.59: vastugatya yan na bhavati tad api kavibhir nibadhyate. yatha.... 18 kesarasokayoh satstrigandusat padaghatatah masantare 'pi puspani romalis trivalih striyam. Kesava enumerates the stock phrases to describe the romaraji thus (ibid., p.48): rekhakaralisusyama romalis tena tadrsaih saivaladhumabhrngalilatadyair upamiyate.

class of poetic conventions as lotuses in flowing waters and the like. Lotus flowers in flowing waters, even if they cannot grow there in reality, would add to the beauty of the waters. The notion of Asoka trees blooming when kicked by pretty women, though quite impossible, has some charm of its own. But a dark line of hair reaching up to the breasts or even passing through the cleavage, should it occur in reality, would indeed be revolting to Indian sensibilities. That such a poetic convention persisted all the same, that too without any religious or ideological compulsions, is an enigma. Prof. Rahul Peter Das deserves all credit for drawing our attention to this enigma. This long critique is, in fact, meant to be a tribute to his stimulating article. One looks forward with eager anticipation to his German translation on this "hair-raising" theme.19 Editors' Note On the romaraji- see now also: RAHUL PETER DAS, "The romarajiin Indian Kavya and Ayurvedic Literature Paralipomena", Festschrift Klaus Bruhn zur Vollendung des 65. Lebensjahres dargebracht von Schulern, Freunden und Kollegen[,] herausgegeben von Nalini Balbir und Joachim K. Bautze. Reinbek 1994, pp.267-294. On p.292 of the article mentioned please insert the following: BRONKHORST JOHANNES BRONKHORST: "Studies on Bhartrhari, 5: Bhartrhari and Vaisesika." Asiatische Studien / Etudes Asiatiques 47.1993, pp.75-94. 19 Cf. n.5 above.