7.5. Summary of the Kuṭṭanīmatam

The Kuṭṭanīmatam (Kuṭṭanīmata) is an erotic comic poem written by the well-known Kashmirian poet Dāmodaragupta. The poet is silent regarding his biographical data. In the conclusion of the work, it is mentioned that he is the minister of the king Jayāpīḍa.^[1] The king Jayāpīḍa’s reigned Kashmir from 779 to 813 A.D.^[2] Therefore, it can be said that Damodaragupta wrote Kuṭṭanīmatam during Jayāpīḍa’s reign. Until 1883 A.D., the work was familiar only through some references quoted in the Kāvyprakāśa, Alaṃkārasrvasva etc. Later on Dr. Peterson discovers a copper plate of it. The work is also known as Śambhalīmatam.

The word Kuṭṭanī and Śambhalī is equivalent.^[3] But, the work becomes popular with the name Kuṭṭanī. European scholars often remark the work as pornographical one.^[4]

In the work, the plot is laid in Kusumapura and Vārāṇasī. In the original story, an old bawd Vikrālā counsels a young harlot named Mālatī how to trap a lover, especially Cintāmaṇi, the son of a Bhaṭṭa (an official). While counseling Mālatī, Vikrālā also illustrates other interesting and cunning love stories of other harlots like Hāralatā and Sudarśana, Mañjarī and Samarabhaṭṭa etc. The play reports varied cunning ways of a harlot to bring into their clutches the careless and feeble minded youngsters and lead them to destroy. Vikrālā teaches all kinds of tricks to Mālatī, the young harlot.

The work Kuṭṭanīmatam is not fully satirical but there are plenty of satirical elements. The Kuṭṭanīmatam of Dāmodaragupta is a unique poem wherein erotic, comic, satiric and didactic elements are present. In the poem, Damodaragupta depicts various characters with satirical humour. In the work, the author portrays licentious people. Through the character Vikrālā, the crookedness, trickeries and wickedness of the people of his time are revealed. The work contains mild banter and polite ridicule.

Vikrālā advises Mālatī to send a messanger to Cintāmaṇi to express her love for him along with her state of mind. The messenger speaks the following lines where satirical element is observed.

The verse is as follows–

cāṭukramamanurāgaṃ praṇayaruṣaṃ virahajanita śokārtiṃ /
prakaṭayati vāraramaṇī naṭīve śikṣābhiyogena //^[5]

In the above mentioned verse satirical element is observed when the harlot is compared with a Naṭī or a dancer. In the verse it is said that, like a dancer, a harlot is also shows false love, hatred and sorrows born of separation.

Satirical element is also observed when the harlot is also compared with a yogīn in the following verse–

pravayasi yauvanaśālini hīnakule satkulaprasūte ca /
rogavati dṛḍhaśarīre samacittā yoginaśca gaṇikāśca //⁶⁷

In the verse, it is said that both the yogīn and the harlot keep the same attitude towards the old and young one, low-born and high born and the patient and the healthy one.

The ways of the harlot is also satirically depicted in the following verse-

yāni haranti manāṃsi smitajalpitavīkṣitāni raktānāṃ /
tānyeva viraktānāṃ pratibhānti vivartitānīva //^[7]

The gestures like smile, talk and glances of a harlot attract the mind of a person whom she loves. On the contrary, these gestures are changed for those who are opposite to it. A harlot applies these gestures whenever her lover is wealthy and when he becomes penniless these gestures take the opposite form. A harlot’s changing attitude is satirized here.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

iti śrīkāśmīramahāmaṇḍalamahīmaṇḍanarājajayāpīḍamantripravaradāmodaragu-ptakaviviracitaṃ kuṭṭanīmataṃ/
Kuṭṭanīmatam

[2]:

Rājataraṅgiṇī IV. 496, P. 166

[3]:

‘kuṭṭanī śaṃbhalī same’–Amarkośa, ‘śaṃbhalī ganīkānāmupadeśadāyinī kuṭṭanī iti/
Vidyalamkar, Atridev, Kuṭṭanīmatam, f.n.1, P. 2

[4]:

Sternbach, Ludwik, Subhāṣita, Gnomic and Didactic Literature, P. 80

[5]:

Kuṭṭanīmatam, 92

[6]:

ibid., 93

[7]:

ibid.628