How a buck/stag could have become a lion!

[mrabe at artic.edu]

Thiru Paliniappan,

Isn't it curious [Vicitracitta, ;-)] that you are asking the same question
in this thread that the Jain poet of old posed in the Shilappadirakam?  If
I may still quote on this list, a Danielou translation:]

You came wondering on a stag
that proudly bears black antlers.
You hold in your bracelet-laden hands
a sword dripping with blood
after you killed the buffalo demon. . .
Why must you stand on a fierce lion
whose eyes shoot darts of flame,
 holding in your frail hand
a discus and a conch?
[Prince Ilango Adigal, _Shilappadikaram (The Ankle Bracelet)_, trans. Alain
Danielou (New York 1965), pp. 80, 81]

My article also speculates on the denotative significance of those Ayudhas,
BTW.  It is not quite ready, together with my first attempt at a personal
Web page, but should be posted eventually at this URL:
http://www.sxu.edu [something/something...]


Until then,