the churning of the milk ocean and that Shiva, to save the cosmos from destruction, had swallowed but allowed to go no lower than his throat—which it turned black. As in the previous stanza, ridicule is turned into praise, for Shiva is shown to be the savior of the world.
iiiEnemy of passion is an epithet of Shiva. From the initial excite- ment of love-making we have moved to the inevitable quarrels between lovers. Uma is angry, sulks and refuses to grant her favors to Shiva. As a final resort he has fallen at her feet, asking her for forgiveness. The poet takes two features from this, prostrating oneself and the black throat, and transforms them into the ritual
of submission by a defeated warrior. The custom was for the warrior to tie his sword or dagger to his neck, which can be interpreted both as surrendering one’s weapons and as offering one’s life. Once again Shiva has lost his status, but unlike in the previous two stanzas, poetic conceit only adds to his humiliation: the comparison with the defeated warrior spells out what the situation implies: Shiva has become subservient to a woman and to his passions. Even the black throat does not alter this.
ivAn extraordinarily contrived stanza, that nevertheless elevates Shiva’s stature in the same situation as envisaged in the previous poem. The meaning rests on two features. The third eye on Shiva’s forehead is referred to, and it is brought into spatial and poetic proximity with the
moon, because the name of Shiva used here,
Sasimauli, means “he who carries the [crescent] moon on his head.”
Kama uses flowers for his arrows and five species, all attractive, are usually listed. But here the
glance, envisaged as a
flower,
is the ketaka,
which is thorny and generally despised. The comparison derives from the crescent moon, equated with the thorns. But “thorn” is also a technical term for a hook on an arrow which prevents it from being pulled out of the flesh, and the comparison is probably strengthened by an association of eyelashes with an arrow’s feathers at the end. We can now see the point of the poem. This sidelong glance
may not have the romantic associations of those beautiful flowers shot by Kama, via ________