सर्वाङ्गकुड्यसङ्घातघनरोमयवाङ्कुरम् । संशून्यपेटविवरं नेष्टं देहगृहं मम ॥ २८ ॥
sarvāṅgakuḍyasaṅghātaghanarōmayavāṅkuram | saṁśūnyapēṭavivaraṁ nēṣṭaṁ dēhagṛhaṁ mama || 28 ||
Translation
Its walls, all the limbs, sprouting with the barley-shoots of thick body hair, the hollow of its belly an empty chest: the house of the body is not wanted by me.
Word by word
- sarva
- all
- aṅga
- the limbs
- kuḍya
- its walls
- saṅghāta
- the mass
- ghana
- thick
- rōma
- of body hair
- yava
- with the barley
- aṅkuram
- sprouting shoots
- saṁśūnya
- empty
- pēṭa
- a chest
- vivaraṁ
- the hollow of its belly
- na
- not
- iṣṭaṁ
- wanted
- dēha
- of the body
- gṛhaṁ
- the house
- mama
- by me
Meaning
In an old mud house, barley may sprout from the walls where grain fell into the clay. The body's walls are its limbs, and the hair is that sprouting barley; and its belly is an empty box (peṭa). The image is homely and faintly comic. It deflates the body's grandeur by describing it as a peasant's cottage. The reader may smile, and in smiling loosen a little of their seriousness about the body.