Thursday, 8 August 2013

Kalidasa's Sanskrit Verses

This is one of my favorite poems by Kalidasa, the renowed Sanskrit poet.

The story goes that Kalidasa was once asked to compose a poem ending with the aksharamaala (Devanagiri alphabets) - क ख ग घ (Ka, Kha, Ga, Gha). The clever poet instantly quipped:

का तुम बाले - काञ्चनमाला 
कस्या: पुत्री - कनकल ताया |
किन्ते हस्ते - तालीपत्रं 
का वा रेखा - क ख ग घ ||

The rough translation is as follows:

Who are you, child - Kanchanamala
Whose child are you - Kankala is my mother
What is in your hand - Thaleepatram  (writing leaf)
What are you writing - Ka, Kha, Ga, Gha



Will post more verses as I find them....














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Varsha

6 comments:

  1. Just a small observation if you will.
    The phrase
    कनकल ताया
    should be कनक लताया - meaning Kanaka Lata's (daughter)

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  2. It is not thum, but thvam in Sanskrit meaning "you".

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    Replies
    1. booo boring

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    2. If you hear the head and tail of the story maybe it will be interesting. About how kalidasa was challenged amongst all poets in the kingdom to make a poem with Ka kha ga.. the king would give 1000 gold coins to anyone who passes the test. So Kalidasa as the name suggests ..( by the way another story on how he got it)..prayed to Devi Kali for Intelligence. And she came to him as a small girl named kanchanamaala … then the rest is in the poem itself and goddess disappeared after making sure he got the IQ triggered.

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