A Treasury of Sanskrit Poetry A Treasury of Sanskrit Poetry I n English Translation Compiled by A.N.D Haksar INDIAN COUNCIL FOR CULTURAL RELATIONS NEW DELHI All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic mechanical photocopying r e c o rdin g or otherwise, without the prior written p er mi s si o n of the publisher and the c o py ri ght holder 2004 Impression First Published in India in 2002 A Treasury of Sanskrit Poetry © 2002 [eCR (Indian Council for Cultural Relations), New Delhi Published by : SHIPRA PUBLICATIONS liS-A Vikas Marg, Shakarpur, Delhi-I [0092 (India) Ph : 91- [ 1-22458662, 22500954 Fax: 91-11-22458662 Email: info@shiprapublications.com www.shiprapublications.com Laser Typeset by ' Manas Enterprises Delhi-I [0032 Printed at : Chaudhary Offset, Delhi-II005[ PM.S For Nikhil Narayml Axel Dhrup and Freya Nandini Karolina to rcmilld them oJ t he ir of a part cultural h er itag e Foreword With a continuing tradition of at least three millennia, the vast literature of Sanskrit forms an important part of India's cultural heritage Translations from Sanskrit classics like Shakuntala have figured among the earliest publi c at i ons of the Indian Council for Cultural Relati on s Some years ago the Council brought out Glimpses (!lSanskril Literalure, a broad informative survey of this m agn ifi cent literature by respected scholars, attuned to general interest both in India and abroad Included in it was a sampling of tran s l ations from celebrated Sanskrit works which could g iv e readers a flavour of the language ' s literary genius The appreci ative response to that publication, in India as well as outside , encouraged the Counc il to follow up with the present volume This is a c omprehensive anthology of Sanskrit poetry in the best English translation available The first ever of its kind, it br ings togethe r excerpts from a full r ange of original works translated by a galaxy of distinguished sch olars and writers Indian and foreign, incl udi ng famous names such as Sri Aurobindo and Swami Vivekananda, and Nobel Prize Poets Octavio Paz and William Butler Y cats Drawing from sacred and secular, classic and folk literature, this collection features a w ide variety of poetry in translation It has been c om piled by former Indian Ambassador A.N.D Haksar, himself a well known translator from Sanskrit into English, who had also edited the earlier volume for the Council Exp ress ing dee p grat itude for his efforts, the Counci l h as gre at ple asu re in placing its fruit before the public whose comments are welcome as always M.K Lokesh Acting Director Genera l Acknowledgements The compiler and the publisher gratefully acknowledge permission from the following to reprint excerpts from works in copyright: Sahitya Akademi New Delhi for excerpts from Chandra Raj an The Complete Works ofKalidasa Vol I, and V Raghavan "Kalividambana", Indian L it erature June 1970; Bennet Coleman Co Ltd., New Delhi and Prof P Lal, Kolkata, for P Lal, "The Messenger", Femina Bombay issue, 8-12 January 1985; Bennet Coleman & Co Ltd., for excerpts from Pritish Nandy, "Amazing Amaru", October 1990 and "Beguiling Bilhana", 14 November 1990, reproduced by arrangement with The Illustrated Weekly of India; Advaita Ashrama, Kolkata, for of God and Other Poems 1977; Sanskrit Love Poetry 1977, Columbia excerpts from Swami Vivekananda, In Search Mr J.M Masson for excerpts from University Press, New York copyright © by W.S Merwin and J.M Masson; Motilal Banarasidass Publishers, Delhi for excerpts of translations by Barbara Stoler Miller and David Gitomer in Barbara Stoler Miller ed Theatre of Memory: The Plays ofKalidasa 1999 reprint, first published 1984 by Columbia University Press; Vedanta Press, Hollywood, California, for excerpts from "The Shattering of Illusion" in ,%ankara 's Crest-Jewel qf Discrimination by Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood, 1947; Y.K Publishers, Agra, for verses from The Indian Poetic Tradition by S.H Vatsyayan, V.N Misra and Leonard Nathan, 1993; Cassel & Co London for verses from "Pushan" by Romesh Outt and "Black Marigolds" by E Powys Mathers in An Anthology of World Poetry ed Mark Van Doren 1929; Chowkhamba Sanskrit Series, Varanasi, for excerpts from Nvmns of the Ri� Veda (1889) tr R.T.H Griffith (reprint 1963) and Hymns of the Samaveda tr R.T.H Griffith (1893); Mr Jean Le Mee for excerpts from his Hymnsfi'om the Rig Veda Jonathan Cape Ltd., London, 1973; Rupa & Co., New Delhi for excerpts from A.L Basham, The Wonder That Was India 1959, (Evergreen Encyclopedia, Vol E-148), Grove Press Inc., New York; Oxford University Press, New Delhi, for permission to reproduce excerpts from The Thirteen Principal Upanishad� ed R.E Hume, and from Vinay Dharwadkar ed The Col/ected Essays ofA.K Ramanujan (1999); Motilal Banarsidass, New Delhi for all of the following: excerpts from The Buddha Charita or Acts of the Buddha ed E.H Johnston (Lahore 1936), reprinted 1972, copyright © by Motilal Banarsidass; verses from Gita�ovjnda qfJayadeva tr Barbara Stoler Miller, 1984 (copyright © by Columbia University Press, 1977, Love Songs of the Dark Lord); Acknowledgements ix ... Valmiki and Vyasa are celebrated as the authors respectively o f the epics Ramayana and Mahabharala Draupad i was a Panchala princess She was humiliated by Duhsasan, as recounted in 23 Bhima,... vengeance at the time, captured the Kaurava prince during the Mahabharata war Rahu is a legendary planet which causes eclipses of the sun and the moon The sons of Dasaratha are Rama and Lakshman... o n g years in California and tran s lated several Sanskrit texts Raghavan, V Was Professor of Sanskrit, an em inent S a ns k rit i st U niv e rs ity of Madras, and Rajan, Chandra Taught Engl