Day 20: Mattavilasa blogging

Okay, the Mattavilasa. Lorenzen translates it as 'Drunken Games'. Some context. It's a Sanskrit comedy written slightly after 600 AD, by an artsy king of an upstart dynasty, the Pallavas. It's a religious farce. India is far from timeless: in this period, Buddhism was still big and active on the subcontinent. The religious scene was varied but moderate: Boethius and Plotinus wouldn't have looked out of place here, next to the sky-clad Jains. The full food prohibitions were still developing, and caste had yet to ramify to its full complexity.

On the other hand... there was the sect known as the Kapalikas. That root kapala? Means 'skull'. You know the cognates. They were, hm, transgressive. In imitation of Shiva, who after accidentally on purpose decapitating Brahma, went around begging using Brahma's skull as a bowl -- Brahma had spares -- so too the Kapalikas went around using human skulls as begging bowls. Where did they get them? Cremation grounds! (One hoped.)

They were also believed to break the five basic prohibitions of renunciates: liquor, meat, fish, parched grain, and getting it on. Often.

So the stereotype was of creepy horny drunk carnivorous beggars covered in human ash, accompanied by hott chick acolytes, carrying around someone's skull, asking you for money.

I think they used to squat in Tompkins Square Park.

The plot of the Mattavilasa is simple. Manson and his Suicide Girl accomplice are drunk again. They decide to go to a liquor store. They need some cash, but their begging skull is missing. They see a Buddhist monk with a bowl. They accost the monk. The Suicide Girl is ogled. The monk calls for help, and another holy man arrives. The Suicide Girl is ogled. It's not their skull. They don't care. The Suicide Girl is ogled. Enter a madman with the skull. (A dog had taken it.) "Look, over there!" Manson recovers the skull. Everyone is happy, religious harmony reigns, and Manson and the Suicide Girl stagger off into the sunset.

Here's a bit that gives you some of the flavor:

DEVASOMA THE SUICIDE GIRL: Is it proper to speak in this way? The Jain saints describe the [non-Nikki Sixx -- CY] path to salvation in quite another way.

MANSON THE KAPALIKA: Dear, their views are completely mistaken.

The Jains argue that each effect
Resembles the cause from which it came
But against this they also expect
That the bliss of our eternal salvation
Comes from penance and its pain.
The fools defeat this curious claim
With their own logical argumentation.

DEVASOMA: May their sins be ended.

MANSON: May their sins be ended. There is no point even to revile these sinners. They torment living beings by making them remain celibate, tear out their hair, refuse to bathe, eat only at certain hours, and wear dirty clothes. Even mentioning them makes me now want to wash out my mouth with liquor.

DEVASOMA: Then let's go off to another liquor shop.

MANSON: My love, let's do it.

It's not the most anachronistic ancient play I've read. That would be Herodas's dialogue where two women talk about the best sex toy shop in town, where the items for sale are handcrafted from the finest Corinthian leather. About 270 BC.

Comments

[Andrew Lambdin-Abraham]

Is it possible to be anachronistic and ancient?

That said, where did you get the translation you used? It reminds me of my favorite translator of Aristophanes, Plautus, etc, Douglass Parker

[Bernard Guerrero]

I seem to recall that Steve-O and Chris Pontius did a segment with some members of the Aghori sect a couple of years ago. Tompkins Square Park sounds about right....

[Carlos]

Bernard, this one?

http://www.stuffmagazine.com/articles/index.aspx?id=1276

Yeah, except they're a little more down-market. "I wished that Glenn Danzig could have been there." Jeez, I have Danzig on _tape_. Time to get the Geritol.

AL-A, it's David Lorenzen's translation from Tantra in Practice, edited by David Gordon White, part of the Princeton Readings in Religion series.

[Bernard Guerrero]

Tape? Clearly you didn't read Noel's recent side-note on the rapid depreciation of tech capital. Didn't you move pretty recently?

Granted, I just shipped a perfectly servicable but antiquated 19" TV halfway across the country. Couldn't bear to chuck something that still worked....

[The New York City High School Math Teacher]

Bernard:

It's easier to cue tape or LP; the physical objectness of the tape or the LP (or wax cylinder) might be the repository of sentiment; if it can render a web page and generate a PDF, why upgrade? C'est utile.

See, this is one of my problem with the transition from NTSC to ATSC, and the corresponding promulgation of the HD standards - it's pushing a technical and infrastructural trend which means that people will need to consume more merely to retain the same hedonic value. Is HD that valuable? Is the narrowed spectrum use that valuable? Why are we subsidizing television manufacturers?

Similarly, a push is on to digitize radio, which means never, ever, ever again catching skips of WCCO or RCI-Winnipeg in upstate NY. Every radio built between 1920 and 2007 loses all value. Gotta buy a little computer to listen to broadcasts, which means more battery usage, which means radios get chunkier. I suppose we're supposed to listen to podcasts and Itunes playlists and Imus anyway.

Further, what do encryption standards mean for open broadcasts and free speech?

Ugh. I always knew the FM transmitter on Elk Point Road. I knew how to splice 1/4" magtape. I knew the wiring behind the board. When I ran EBS tests, you can be damn sure Conelrad was emblazoned on the tone generator rack unit. And you could hear Jeff on your fillings if you were standing in the right place. Digital.

My tape deck is broken, too....

[Doug M.]

Followed that link... I had not encounted Ian Gittins before. Let's see:

"Crüe drummer Tommy Lee was my first point of call for vintage tales of narcotic heroism, and he did not disappoint.

"'I was a party animal back then, sure, but Sixx was out there,' Lee reflected, from the rare personal vantage point of the moral high ground."

...

"Now sober for many years, Sixx was determined that his drug-fuelled transgressions should be painted in the most candid and harshest light. Luckily, his family, friends and ex-lovers were happy to oblige."

Okay, that's amusing stuff. I guess rock journalism is something the Guardian does well.

Doug M.

[Andrew]

Did you know this is now the 8th link on Google for "Mattavilasa"?