Sanskrit literature started to flourish during what is called the classical period, say 3rd century CE onwards. We had great playwrights like Shudraka, Bhasa, Ashvaghosa and Kalidasa. There was a famous text known as natya shastra (2nd century CE), a treatise on stagecraft. There were collections of popular tales, like Panchatantra and Hitopadesha. There was poetry by Kalidasa, Bharavi, Maghaa and Sriharsha. There were authors like Banabhatta, Vatsyayana and Bhartihari. The list goes on and on. Volumes have been written on this amazing corpus. How can I hope to give you a flavor in the course of a brief talk? You should read it for yourself. But let me give you a few more examples.



शुष्कं काष्ठं तिष्ठति अग्रे। “A dry piece of wood is in front.” I have just mentioned the great poet Banabhatta. One of his sons, Bhushanabhatta, was also a great poet. There is a story that Banabhatta wished to decide which of his sons was better, as a poet. The sentence above is what the first son produced. When it came to Bhushanabhatta’s turn, he produced नीरसः तरूवरः पुरतः भाति. The words have exactly the same meaning. Unlike शुष्कं, which only means “dry”, नीरसः means “without juice”. काष्ठं means “wood”, while तरूवरः means “great tree”. More than the meaning, the sound has got completely transformed. शुष्कं काष्ठं तिष्ठति अग्रे। नीरसतरूवरः पुरतः भाति. One is poetry, the other is not.

There is a story that once, King Bhoja and Kalidasa had a disagreement and Kalidasa left Dhara and went to live somewhere else. While he was there, a message was brought to him that King Bhoja had died. Kalidasa was distraught and composed the following shloka. Though they had quarreled, Kalidasa still retained a lot of affection for King Bhoja. अद्य धारा निराधारा निरालम्बा सरस्वती। पण्डिताः खण्डिताः सर्वे भोजराजे दिवं गते॥ “Today, Dhara is without a foundation. The goddess Sarasvati is without support. All the learned men are disappointed or abandoned. King Bhoja has gone to heaven.” A beautiful shloka, but there was a problem.



King Bhoja hadn’t actually died, that was wrong information. When Kalidasa realized that he had been misled, he rejoiced. As for the shloka, did it have to be abandoned? Not quite. Kalidasa changed it to the following. अद्य धारा सदाधारा सदालम्बा सरस्वती। पण्डिताः मण्डिताः सर्वे भोजराजे भुवं गते॥ A little bit of tweaking and the entire meaning changes. “With King Bhoja having gone to earth, Dhara always has a support and the goddess Sarasvati always has a support. All the learned men are adorned.” You will say that it needed a Kalidasa to do this. That’s undoubtedly true. But you also needed the Sanskrit language to do this. There are very few languages in the world where you could have done this. That’s the beauty of Sanskrit.

Since Kalidasa is one of my favourite Sanskrit poets, I can go on and on about him. I have already mentioned मेघदूतम्. This means “cloud-messenger”. It is impossible to capture the beauty in any English translation. There is nothing in the story. In fact, it is amazing that a poet should have composed a poem with no story-line, so to speak. Kubera is the lord of riches and the lord of the yakshas and he lives in Alakapuri, on Mount Kailasha.



One of these yakshas has been negligent in his duties and Kubera banishes him from Alakapuri for one year. He is banished to some place in the central parts of India. There, he pines for his beloved wife, who is in Alakapuri. It is the monsoon season and the yaksha decides to send a message to his beloved. He uses the cloud as a messenger.



The Purvamegha part of the poem is about the cloud’s journey to Alakapuri and has 66 shlokas. The Uttaramegha part of the poem is about the cloud’s return from Alakapuri and has 55 shlokas. The beauty of the poem is in the description of nature. What is the Sanskrit for a mushroom? There are several and one is शिलिन्ध्र​. Have you heard of any poet in the world bringing something like a mushroom into poetry? I haven’t. Here is the first part of shloka 11. कर्तुं यच्च प्रभवति महीमुच्छिलीन्ध्रामवन्ध्यां. “You are capable of making that ground fertile and make mushrooms sprout from it.”



Let us move on to shloka 18. छन्नोपान्तः परिणतफलद्य्योतिभिः काननाम्रैस्त्वय्यारूढे शिखरमचल: स्निग्धवेणीसवर्णे। नूनं यास्यत्यमरमिथूनप्रेक्षणीयामवस्थां मध्ये श्यामः स्तन इव भुवः शेषविस्तारपाण्डुः ॥ “You have climbed up the peak of the mountain and the extremities are full of ripe mangos in the orchards and their complexion is affecting the hue. As you have climbed up the mountain, because of your complexion, it looks as if a lady’s braided hair is lying atop the slope. From above, a couple of immortals will certainly think that this is a sight worth looking at. It is like a breast of the earth, dark in the centre and pale at the ends.” What is left implicit is that this is the image of a pregnant lady’s breast.



This is the monsoon and soon, the earth will also begin to yield crops. Meghadutam is nothing but stuff like this. How can this be translated? Don’t even bother to read a translation. Read the Sanskrit. Meghadutam represents the young Kalidasa at work, with poetry churned out of nowhere, that is, out of a cloud. His more mature works came later.

I am going to move on to Magha. He was from 7th century ACE, in what was then Gujarat, and is now Rajasthan. Magha (Maagha) may have written several works, but the only one that has survived is Shishupala Vadha. Most people know the story of Krishna beheading Shishupala and this mahakavya (great epic) is about that incident. About Magha it has been said, उपमा कालिदासस्य भारवेरर्थगौरवं| दण्डिन: पदलालित्यं माघे सन्ति त्रयो गुणाः|| We have four Sanskrit poets mentioned in that couplet – Kalidasa, Bharavi, Dandin and Magha. “Kalidasa’s similes (metaphors), the deep purport of Bharavi’s words, the beauty of Dandin’s words – all three qualities are to be found in Magha.”

Shishupala Vadha has 20 sargas. Indeed, it is a mahakavya and many connoisseurs of Sanskrit poetry have raved about Magha. The ingenuity reaches a crescendo in the 19th sarga. Sanskrit poetry had a concept of चित्रकाव्य. चित्र has many meanings – picture, wonderful, excellent. So these are wonderful decorative compositions. For example, how about composing a shloka with the first pada (quatrain) entirely in ज, the second pada entirely in त, the third pada entirely in भ and the fourth pada entirely in र? Magha came up with जजौजोजाजिजिज्जाजी तं ततोऽतितताततुत्। भाभोऽभीभाभिभूभाभू- रारारिररिरीररः॥ Believe it or not, this means “Then the warrior, winner of war, with his heroic valour, the subduer of the extremely arrogant beings, he who has the brilliance of stars, he who has the brilliance of the vanquisher of fearless elephants, the enemy seated on a chariot, began to fight.”



Here is another example, composed only with भ and र. भूरिभिर्भारिभिर्भीराभूभारैरभिरेभिरे। भेरीरेभिभिरभ्राभैरभीरुभिरिभैरिभाः॥ This means, “The fearless elephant, who was like a burden to the earth because of its weight, whose sound was like a kettle-drum, and who was like a dark cloud, attacked the enemy elephant.” As a third example, composed only with द, दाददो दुद्ददुद्दादी दाददो दूददीददोः। दुद्दादं दददे दुद्दे दादाददददोऽददः॥ The meaning is, “Sri Krishna, the giver of every boon, the scourge of the evil-minded, the purifier, the one whose arms can annihilate the wicked who cause suffering to others, shot his pain-causing arrow at the enemy.” Magha also specialized in palindromes. Here is one. वारणागगभीरा सा साराभीगगणारवा। कारितारिवधा सेना नासेधा वारितारिका॥ The translation is, “It is very difficult to face this army which is endowed with elephants as big as mountains. This is a very great army and the shouting of frightened people is heard. It has slain its enemies.”

Notice that each line is a palindrome, read right to left. Magha was partly trying to rival Bharavi. Bharavi wrote a mahakavya titled Kiratarjuniya and that was replete with palindromes too. This work was about the duel between Arjuna and Shiva, the latter in the garb of a hunter. Ignoring the Bharavi palindromes, here is another remarkable example from Bharavi. विकाशमीयुर्जगतीशमार्गणा विकाशमीयुर्जगतीशमार्गणाः। विकाशमीयुर्जगतीशमार्गणा विकाशमीयुर्जगतीशमार्गणाः॥ The words only seem to repeat themselves.



However, the meaning is quite different. “The arrows (mārgaṇāḥ), of the king (jagatīśa) Arjuna spread out (vikāśam īyuḥ). The arrows (mārgaṇāḥ), of the lord of the earth (jagatīśa), Lord Śiva, spread out (vikāśam īyuḥ). The Gaṇas (gaṇāḥ) who are the slayers of demons (jagatīśamār) rejoiced (vikāśam īyuḥ). The seekers (mārgaṇāḥ) of Lord Śiva (jagatīśa), i.e. the deities and sages, reached (īyuḥ) the sky (vikāśam) (to watch the battle).”

One last example and I am done. Bhaskaracharya was a famous Indian mathematician and astronomer (1114-1185 CE). He is also known as Bhaskara-II. Leelavati is both the name of a text (actually part of a text) that he wrote and Leelavati is also believed to have been the name of his daughter. Many of the problems are addressed to Leelavati and Leelavati also seems to have composed some of them. इन्द्र: वायुर्यमश्चैव नैरृतो मध्यमस्तथा । ईशानश्च कुबेरश्च अग्निर्वरुण एव च ॥ The one given above is one such, composed by Leelavati. Why was this important enough to be written down in the form of a shloka?



It is just the names of various gods. Actually, not just any gods. This gives the names of lokapalas. Lokapalas are protectors or guardians of the world. There are 10 directions. If you leave out above and below, there are 8. These are north, north-east, east, south-east, south, south-west, west and north-west. North, south, east and west have specific Sanskrit names as directions. Vayu is the guardian of the north-west, Kubera of the north, Ishana of the north-east, Indra of the east, Agni of the south-east, Yama of the south, Nairrita of the south-west and Varuna of the west.