Abhanga 2362
English: No need to taste — one grain reveals the rice.
The verse
नाहीं घाटावें लागत । एका सितें कळें भात ॥१॥ क्षीर निवडितें पाणी । चोंची हंसाचिये आणी ॥ध्रु.॥ आंगडें फाडुनि घोंगडें करी । अवकळा तये परी ॥२॥ तुका म्हणे कण । भुसीं निवडे कैंचा सीण ॥३॥ स्वामीचें अभंगींचें नांव काढून सालोमालो आपलें नांव घालीत त्यावर अभंग ॥ ८ ॥
Literal translation
English: No need to taste — one grain reveals the rice. ★ The swan's beak separates milk from water ★. Tearing the fine-cloth makes the blanket — in such disarray. Tuka says: grain — what exhaustion is there in separating it from chaff. ★ Prose-marginalia: removing Svāmī's [Tukārām's] name from the abhang, Sālōmālō put his own name — abhangs on him ॥8॥ ★.
What it means
★ THE SWAN-DISCERNMENT ABHANG + THE PROSE-MARGINALIA ANNOUNCING THE FAMOUS SĀLŌMĀLŌ-CLUSTER ★.
★ THE CELEBRATED SWAN-IMAGE ★: kṣīra nivaḍitē pāṇī — chōnchī hamsāchiyē āṇī — ★ the swan's beak separates milk from water ★. Kṣīra = milk. Hamsa = swan. ★ The swan's-beak separates milk-from-water (= the discerning-sage separates-truth-from-falsehood). ★ One of Tukārām's most-cited discernment-images — the hamsa (mystical-swan) symbol of-discriminative-wisdom.
The grain-test: nāhīm ghāṭāvē lāgata — ēkā sitē kaḷē bhāta — no need to taste — one grain reveals the rice. One-grain-tested reveals-the-whole-pot.
The torn-cloth: āngaḍē phāḍuni ghōngaḍē karī — avakaḷā tayē parī — tearing the fine-cloth makes the blanket — in such disarray. Tearing-fine-cloth to-make-a-blanket — that-disarray (= when imitation-without-skill mars-the-original).
The grain-chaff: Tukā mhaṇē kaṇa — bhusīm nivaḍē kainchā sīṇa — Tuka says: grain — what exhaustion is there in separating from chaff. Tuka says: separating-grain-from-chaff has-no-exhaustion.
★ THE PROSE-MARGINALIA — HISTORIC SĀLŌMĀLŌ-CLUSTER ANNOUNCEMENT ★: Svāmīchē abhangīñchē nāmva kāḍhūna Sālōmālō āpalē nāmva ghālīta tyāvara abhanga ॥ ८ ॥ — ★ removing Svāmī's [Tukārām's] name from the abhang, Sālōmālō put his own name — abhangs on him ॥8॥ ★.
★ HISTORICAL CONTEXT ★: Sālōmālō was a contemporary plagiarist who was removing-Tukārām's-mudra (his signature-line 'Tukā mhaṇē...') and inserting-his-own-name in-the-final-verse. Tukārām composed an 8-abhang anti-plagiarist polemic-cluster (2363-2370) against him. This-is-one-of-the-most-historically-significant sub-sections of-the-Gatha — direct-evidence-of intellectual-property-disputes in 17th-century-Marathi-bhakti-poetry.
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For someone today
For today: ★ swan's beak separates milk from water ★; one grain reveals the rice; grain and chaff need no exhaustion to separate; ★ the announcement of the Sālōmālō-anti-plagiarist cluster ★*.
Where this applies
- One-grain-reveals-the-rice.* Nāhīm-ghāṭāvē-ēkā-sitē-bhāta.
- Swan's-beak-separates-milk-from-water. Kṣīra-nivaḍitē-pāṇī-chōnchī-hamsāchiyē.
- Grain-and-chaff-easy-to-separate.* Kaṇa-bhusīm-nivaḍē.
- Prose-marginalia-announces-Sālōmālō-cluster. Sālōmālō-Svāmīchē-nāmva-kāḍhūna-ghālīta-tyāvara-abhanga-॥८॥.