«   |   »

kaliyuga at a traffic signal

by Sarvesh K Tiwari

update: translation added below

brAhmaNa

दस्यु-प्रपीडिता राजन् काका इव द्विजोत्तमाः
कुराजभिश्च सततं करभार-प्रपीडिताः
धैर्यं त्यक्त्वा महीपाल दारुणे युगसंक्षये
विकर्माणि करिष्यन्ति शूद्राणां परिचारकाः

dasyu-prapIDitA rAjan kAkA iva dvijottamAH
kurAjabhishcha satataM karabhAra-prapIDitAH
dhairyaM tyaktvA mahIpAla dAruNe yugasaMkShaye
vikarmANi kariShyanti shUdrANAM parichArakAH
(bhArata, araNya parvan, 188.61-62)

{O King, the brAhmaNa-s harrassed by the barbarians and (contempted against like) the crows,
Suppressed to no end by bad governments and tortured with burdening taxes,
Shall in that terrible yuga of Destruction finally abandon all their patience, O Monarch,
to take up various occupations unworthy of them and become the servants of the shUdra-s.}

Posted on September 1, 2009 at 9:48 am in Art & Sculpture, Life, Scripture   |  RSS feed |   Reply   |   Trackback URL

Tags:

12 Comments to “kaliyuga at a traffic signal”

    
  1. raman
    September 2, 2009 at 10:35 am

    even without the sloka, the picture was very self-explanatory.

  2. AG
    September 3, 2009 at 12:06 pm

    Can you pls also translate?
    I can understand why you say kailyug but would like to understand the sloka!

  3. AG
    September 3, 2009 at 12:07 pm

    Also, you may want ot juse shuddh hindi in your reply/comments area

    change: javab to pratyuttar
    jaroori to avashya

  4. Sarvesh K Tiwari
    September 5, 2009 at 6:18 am

    English translation added.

    I have no control over the labels provided by wordPress.com. I agree javAb and zarUrI should have been pratyuttara and anivArya.

    thanks for comment.

  5. raman
    September 5, 2009 at 12:15 pm

    we had a another sample of this sloka recently:
    In nepal Maoists (babarians) thashed, disrobed, & humiliated two priests –Girish Bhatt and Raghavendra Bhatt — from India at pasupatinath. The priests were badly injured in the attack.

  6. Kaffir
    September 8, 2009 at 1:57 am

    श्लोक को देवनागरी में भी लिखें तो पढने में आसानी होगी.

  7. Sarvesh K Tiwari
    September 8, 2009 at 3:47 pm

    yes, but unfortunately I do not know of a good devanAgarI transliterator that works on Linux, and I have moved from Windows to Linux (Ubuntu). typing and transliterating on a separate website and then copying-pasting back is a hassle.

  8. veda
    September 8, 2009 at 3:54 pm

    when dharma is belittled and adharma rules the land, all these events become common. This should be a lesson to those who feel ashamed of following their own dharma/profession and crave for para dharma. ‘brahmananam anekatvam’ is true and there is no unity. Hence the suffering.

  9. Harshit
    November 8, 2009 at 2:35 pm

    sarvesh,

    i don’t quite understand any special significance of this picture. It does show the downward spiral of the brahmanns compared to their exalted status in past. The backwards in India have progressed a lot over the past few centuries. sometimes at the expense of the higher castes. But surely, you don’t mean to suggest that so called ‘menial jobs like ‘rickshaw driving’ should only be reserved for the low castes or that correlating caste to occupation should be given any special significance in today’s india. Do you?

  10. Harshit
    November 8, 2009 at 2:38 pm

    and btw, is the above picture from bengal, by any chance?
    just curious. The make of the rickshaw and maa kaali image at the back does look very bengali.

  11. Sarvesh K Tiwari
    November 16, 2009 at 4:18 am

    Harshit, the picture is indeed from bengal.

  12. Deepak
    February 15, 2011 at 10:56 pm

    @kaffir

    दस्यु-प्रपीडिता राजन् काका इव द्विजोत्तमाः
    कुराजभिश्च सततं करभार-प्रपीडिताः
    धैर्यं त्यक्त्वा महीपाल दारुणे युगसंक्षये
    विकर्माणि करिष्यन्ति शूद्राणां परिचारकाः

    

Leave a comment