नभोनदी Nabhonadī

the Milky Way · — · —

milky wayidentification likelyattestations 2

Attestations

Classical kāvya · c. 7th century CE

nabhonadīvyatikaradhautamūrtibhirviyadgatairanadhigatāni lebhire / calaccamūturagakhurāhatotpatanmahīrajaḥsnapanasukhāni diggajaiḥ // mspv_17.64 //

IAST from GRETIL (Sansknet e-text, converted from two competing Devanagari encodings, so word boundaries are largely unmarked).

Literal rendering: 'The elephants of the quarters, moving through the sky with their bodies washed by contact with the Sky-River, obtained pleasures of bathing they had never known - in the earth-dust flung up by the beating hooves of the moving army's horses.' — Literal rendering by the compiler

'Sky-river' - a ninth name for the celestial stream, not in the database. Here the elephants of the quarters are 'viyad-gataiḥ', MOVING THROUGH THE SKY, and their bodies are 'washed by contact with the Nabhonadi'; they envy the earthly dust-bath kicked up by the marching army. The referent is unambiguously in the sky. Same caveat as Vyomaganga: celestial-river names are identified with the Milky Way by Indian convention rather than by an explicit description of a band of light.

Śiśupālavadha 17.64 · text · translation

Classical kāvya · c. 6th century CE

ākīrṇā mukhanalinair vilāsinīnām udbhūtasphuṭaviśadātapatraphenā / sā tūryadhvanitagabhīram āpatantī bhūbhartuḥ śirasi nabhonadīva reje // BhKir_7.18

IAST from GRETIL.

Literal rendering: 'Strewn with the lotus-faces of lovely women, foaming with the white parasols risen clear above it, descending with a deep roar of trumpets, it shone like the Sky-River falling on the head of the lord of the earth.' — Literal rendering by the compiler

Second, and probably earlier, attestation of Nabhonadi. Indra's army pouring down onto the peak of Mount Indrakila 'shone like the Sky-River falling on the head of the lord of the earth' - the Ganga descending from heaven onto Siva's head, i.e. the celestial river seen as falling out of the sky. Bharavi antedates Magha by roughly a century.

Kirātārjunīya 7.18 · text · translation

नभोनदी Nabhonadī

Attestations

See also