Post 3/4
3. Moving on to the above-mentioned para then. Aatish wrote:
Taseer seems to wrongly be implying Kalidasa invented the name Aparna for Parvati with the line "a name Kalidaasa had himself given Paravati [sic]". (Did he confuse her name "Paravata Vardhini" with her name "Paarvati"?)
Yet the translation in the para itself has Kalidaasa saying "Because [...] those who know the past call her Aparna". Which clearly implies in Kalidaasa's own words that was her name - one of her names - at least since the original event which he is merely *re*treading. (Actually, it is her name all along, from the beginning). As is well-known: Kalidaasa is just recounting in his own chosen poetic-prose style the pre-existing Pauranic account on Shiva, Parvati and the birth of Murugan in his work Kumara Sambhavam. Just as he was recounting the [R^ig?] Vedic account of King Vikrama and Apsara Urvashi in another work, and in yet another work he used an existing Hindu tradition associated with Rama/the Itihaasa on Rama, to cover Rama's ancestors and lineage, and in another he again stuck to an age-old pre-existing Hindu tradition concerning Shakuntala and the birth of Bharata.
As explained, Parvati's name of Aparna was already well-known to earlier Hindus and present in earlier Hindu religious works (as Kalidaasa himself seems to imply in the above translation), but Kalidaasa never gave it her. And that is why Aparna is repeated throughout several ancient Sahasranaamas to Amman taken from various Puranas. (And so Adi Shankara too I think repeated Aparna's name twice in his 20-verse AL.)
BTW, Aparna is a personal name of Hers, and She *answers* to it. <- But I suppose Aatish wouldn't know that. This is not his mother's Sikhism or his dad's islam after all. This is his deep ancestors' *Hindu* religion. But he's always welcome to revert to it Fully and Properly to find out the truth of what I just said about her answering to it.
Also let's be very clear. Kalidaasa was not and never shall be "Indian/subcontinental" tradition or 'civilisation' or 'culture' or whatever excuse is used by people to try and make an equal or any claim on his stuff.
He and his is HindOO onlee. Ever. What he wrote is Not secular. It is in fact sacred Hindoo. There are things he says - words he writes - that are practically mantras (which do not belong to him, but from the Persons he derives them from) and which are not "literature", no matter how much outside dabblers in Skt may wish this were some "general lit" instead, so they could imagine themselves to have a share in it. [I moreover think Kalidaasa's Shyamala Dandakam betrays that he is an SV practitioner, because he certainly says all the same things any L-U knows. But then, of course he would know all this.] IIRC even the opening invocation to each of the four Hindu narratives that Kalidaasa re-told is specifically to Shiva and Parvati, his Divine parents, and are correctly considered dhyAna shlokas by all Hindoo experts (i.e. Hindoos who know the Gods).
Aatish Taseer cannot pretend that naming subcontinental kids "Aparna" - like he seems to darkly threaten he may do with his own offspring, in saying he prefers this name to Kaireen or Alaaya (which both sound islamic to me :eek
- he can't pretend naming his kid Aparna is some secular act just because of his hobby to read Sanskrit language "literature". His attempt to recommend it to non-Hindu others is also equally meaningless.
As stated, there is nothing secular about Kalidaasa and there is even less that is secular about Aparna which name AKA which person far predates Kalidaasa. And IIRC her other name in the LS is, after all, the one that destroys the Paashandas.
In any case, she isn't remotely 'secular' and she does not belong to "Indians" but to ethnic Hindoos alone. But like I said, Aatish Taseer is welcome to revert back to Her religion at any time he pleases. Then he is free to name his daughter Aparna if he ever wishes.
So annoying that people pretend to "discover" the name Aparna, especially when a lot of living ethnic Hindoos bear this name, for all the right=only reasons. A.o.t. new-agey/reconstructionists "I've discovered Skt"/"I'm digging IE"/"I want to be an Oryan" reasons. People who are into oryanism can always give reconstructed PIE names. Now there's an idea.
3. Moving on to the above-mentioned para then. Aatish wrote:
Quote:Some might turn their nose up at a name like Aparna, say, preferring a Kaireen or an Alaaya, but not me. Not when it was clear that parna was ââ¬Ëleafââ¬â¢, cognate with the English ââ¬Ëfernââ¬â¢, and aparna, which meant ââ¬Ëleaflessââ¬â¢, was a name Kalidasa had himself given Paravati: ââ¬ËBecause she rejected, gracious in speech though she was, even the high level of asceticism that is living only on leaves falling from trees of their own accord, those who know the past call her Aparna, the Leafless Lady.ââ¬â¢
Taseer seems to wrongly be implying Kalidasa invented the name Aparna for Parvati with the line "a name Kalidaasa had himself given Paravati [sic]". (Did he confuse her name "Paravata Vardhini" with her name "Paarvati"?)
Yet the translation in the para itself has Kalidaasa saying "Because [...] those who know the past call her Aparna". Which clearly implies in Kalidaasa's own words that was her name - one of her names - at least since the original event which he is merely *re*treading. (Actually, it is her name all along, from the beginning). As is well-known: Kalidaasa is just recounting in his own chosen poetic-prose style the pre-existing Pauranic account on Shiva, Parvati and the birth of Murugan in his work Kumara Sambhavam. Just as he was recounting the [R^ig?] Vedic account of King Vikrama and Apsara Urvashi in another work, and in yet another work he used an existing Hindu tradition associated with Rama/the Itihaasa on Rama, to cover Rama's ancestors and lineage, and in another he again stuck to an age-old pre-existing Hindu tradition concerning Shakuntala and the birth of Bharata.
As explained, Parvati's name of Aparna was already well-known to earlier Hindus and present in earlier Hindu religious works (as Kalidaasa himself seems to imply in the above translation), but Kalidaasa never gave it her. And that is why Aparna is repeated throughout several ancient Sahasranaamas to Amman taken from various Puranas. (And so Adi Shankara too I think repeated Aparna's name twice in his 20-verse AL.)
BTW, Aparna is a personal name of Hers, and She *answers* to it. <- But I suppose Aatish wouldn't know that. This is not his mother's Sikhism or his dad's islam after all. This is his deep ancestors' *Hindu* religion. But he's always welcome to revert to it Fully and Properly to find out the truth of what I just said about her answering to it.
Also let's be very clear. Kalidaasa was not and never shall be "Indian/subcontinental" tradition or 'civilisation' or 'culture' or whatever excuse is used by people to try and make an equal or any claim on his stuff.
He and his is HindOO onlee. Ever. What he wrote is Not secular. It is in fact sacred Hindoo. There are things he says - words he writes - that are practically mantras (which do not belong to him, but from the Persons he derives them from) and which are not "literature", no matter how much outside dabblers in Skt may wish this were some "general lit" instead, so they could imagine themselves to have a share in it. [I moreover think Kalidaasa's Shyamala Dandakam betrays that he is an SV practitioner, because he certainly says all the same things any L-U knows. But then, of course he would know all this.] IIRC even the opening invocation to each of the four Hindu narratives that Kalidaasa re-told is specifically to Shiva and Parvati, his Divine parents, and are correctly considered dhyAna shlokas by all Hindoo experts (i.e. Hindoos who know the Gods).
Aatish Taseer cannot pretend that naming subcontinental kids "Aparna" - like he seems to darkly threaten he may do with his own offspring, in saying he prefers this name to Kaireen or Alaaya (which both sound islamic to me :eek
- he can't pretend naming his kid Aparna is some secular act just because of his hobby to read Sanskrit language "literature". His attempt to recommend it to non-Hindu others is also equally meaningless.As stated, there is nothing secular about Kalidaasa and there is even less that is secular about Aparna which name AKA which person far predates Kalidaasa. And IIRC her other name in the LS is, after all, the one that destroys the Paashandas.
In any case, she isn't remotely 'secular' and she does not belong to "Indians" but to ethnic Hindoos alone. But like I said, Aatish Taseer is welcome to revert back to Her religion at any time he pleases. Then he is free to name his daughter Aparna if he ever wishes.
So annoying that people pretend to "discover" the name Aparna, especially when a lot of living ethnic Hindoos bear this name, for all the right=only reasons. A.o.t. new-agey/reconstructionists "I've discovered Skt"/"I'm digging IE"/"I want to be an Oryan" reasons. People who are into oryanism can always give reconstructed PIE names. Now there's an idea.