Posted on: 19 September 2010

Digital Book :
The Satakas of BHARTRIHARI.
Translated into English from the original Sanskrit
By Rev. B. Hale Wortham
Published by Trubner & Co., London - 1886

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On Bhartṛhari
By Greg Bailey

I was first introduced to Bhartṛhari about twenty-eight years ago when I saw a few specimen translations in A. L. Basham’s The Wonder That Was India. I subsequently forgot about them completely, even though they struck me on the emotional level when I first read them. My response was similar to my reaction upon first hearing some of Philip Glass’ music in the mid seventies, forgetting about it for another twenty years before rediscovering it in the mid nineties and listening to everything of his work I could find.

It was in the early eighties that I rediscovered Bhartṛhari, primarily through reading Stoler-Miller’s translation. She seemed to have successfully created poetry in translation. Initial impressions were fundamental. Even in her rather free translations I could glimpse Bhartṛhari’s luxuriance of imagery, a strong rhetorical resonance, evidence of deep learning in Hindu and Buddhist culture and a magnificent facility in the manipulation of language. But there was always something else, and it still remains enigmatic, even after twenty years of careful work on the poems.

Of the few early great Sanskrit poets, Bhartṛhari is the only one who succeeds in weaving a constant sense of scepticism throughout his poetry. When reading the poems with students I was always questioned here about his and my own scepticism. I resolved that Bhartṛhari was not a cynic, but a man who felt alienated from all important institutions in society, knowing all the while that he was in some sense dependent upon them. As such, this aspect of the message of his poetry is very modern, enabling the meaning of the poems to cross the centuries and to continue to be read as more than just magnificent exemplars of the manipulation of language in a manner that became increasingly conventionalised sometime after the appearance of the Nāṭyaśāstra in the 6th CE. Thus the poems evoke as much response on the emotional and cultural level now as they must have done when they were first recited in a courtly environment. And this response can be gleaned even through the unfavourable medium of translation, a medium inevitably compromising the aesthetic value of the appreciation.

Apart from the punch these poems have always delivered to me, I have never ceased to be astonished by the poet’s massive knowledge of ancient Indian culture and his mastery in the use of the linguistic sign. Intertextual references abound everywhere in the poems. The syntax of the poems and the vocabulary employed serve just as powerful creators of meaning in his poems as do the punch lines normally contained in the final pāda of each poem. I have tried to expose some of his poetical techniques in some of the critical articles I have published on his poetry and whilst this kind of analysis helps refine knowledge of his poetic strategies, it can never replace a reading of the poetry for enjoyment and for the perception of how one man – we can never know his exact identity – struggled with the institutional contradictions of his day and of his own incapacity to accept any life-style unequivocally.

The levels of interpretation in Bharṭrhari’s poetry are many, the philological problems in demonstrating provenance incalculable. Bhartṛhari the man remains as much a mystery as he ever was, yet out of this mystery flows a set of reactions to human existence that are as fresh as the day they must have been composed. This by itself makes the poems compulsory reading in any era.

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Read Book Online : http://www.archive.org/stream/satakasofbhartri00bharuoft#page/n5/mode/2up

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The Wiki : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhartrihari

Aaaah! my favorite ShatakakAra is here at last...! Nice to see an English translation.

Amazing book for quite an unexpected reason. Of the 188 pages in this book, over a 100 pages are a catalog of extant publications on oriental topics! The Shatakas are only 80 odd pages!! Publisher's stated reason? To increase the thickness of the book so that it can sit on the shelf with others of comparable size!! But the real fun is the catalogue and a challenge to RBSI. Obviously, the catalog lists books published before 1880 and has hundreds of entries!!!

Thank you for one more of your unique observations, Shekar. : )

@RBSI: You are welcome. It is a pity that E.B. Cowell, the Professor of Sanskrit at Cambridge and translator of the Shatakas did not translate the Sringar Shataka! His excuse was that it was "untranslatable'! Perhaps the English gentleman blushed and felt embarrassed at the prospect. (Was he a bachelor?)!

What a beautiful English translation of Bhartrhari's two important shatakas! How I wish I had this book way back in 1972-73 encountering Sanskrit for the first time as my Second Language in my Intermediate class! Well, we had only the Niti-shataka in our syllabus. It is so even today. The vairagya shataka is an excellent retelling of the Vedanta Philosophy. It would help one to have the Sanskrit poems alongside. But then, having been used to the original I am able to recite from memory or if needed point to the original Sanskrit poem from the text that I have with me. I have all the 3 shatakas compiled with Sanskrit and Hindi commentaries, with the translator having given a very apt poetic redering Hindi too in addition. It is sad that the translator who is perhaps from the Clergy hence has skipped the shR^i~NgAra shatakam, which as he avers is a collection of amorous poems. True. One of the best commentaries was from one Ramacahandra yogi. Again this great personage being an ascetic has skipped the shR^ingAra-shatakam. But this copy that I had obtained from the house of a relative of mine is so old that it is falling to pieces. I would want to make a manuscript of this so that may be it can be republished. I see that this is not available in print, now. A very suitable candidate for the RBSI. I am a fan of Bhartrhari. I can say this unashamedly. There is one poem that descibes the poet's view of Karma. That is a lovely one. There is a legend that is associated with this poet who is as given in the preface-- that he was the elder brother of King Vikramaditya. It so happened that the father of King Bhartrhari was a Brahmin and a great astrologer. He had suddenly discovered the combination of the planets were such that they occasioned the birth of a very great Intellectual. He wanted to get to his wife, but since a river that was in the way being in spate prevented him from reaching his wife, he had to "marry" a shudra woman and impregnate her. Here, as per Manu dharma shastra he needed to marry a kShatriya and a vaishya woman too, before he wedded the shudra woman. The offspring born of the brahmin wife was Vararuchi, the great astrologer of the King Vikrama's Court. The King Vikramaditya was the Kshatriya offspring, Bhatti the Prime Minister of King Vikrama was born of the Viashya woman,and Bhartrhari of the Shudra woman. Bhartrhari was by far the wisest of all the four and the eldest too! The father later- when all his sons had grown up begged Bhartrhari not to beget children, for that would, as per shastra not allow him to ascend to higher worlds. Bhartrhari promised to remain-not a celebate- but unmarried as per rites. As a return gift the father bade his kshatriya son to instal Bhartrhari on the throne and reign only if and after Bhartrhari had relinquished his kingship. Also being the eldest son he(Bhartrhari) inherited the Kingdom. He ruled very wisely, and is said to have composed the nItishataka as the distilled wisdom of his life as a King. A very keen observer of people that he was, his nItishataka id certainly the Crest Jewel of subhAShita literature in Sanskrit. Now King Bhartrhari had a paramour to whom he was very devoted. His amoral experience with this and other harem experiences had resulted in what is known as the shR^i~NgAra shatakam. As thisgs passed one day, a great muni came to Bhartrhari's court and gave him a special Mango as prasad, saying that that would grant eternal youth to him as the muni knew such an illustious monarch as Bhartrhari need be secured for the country. The King as he deeply loved his paramour, gave it to her hoping to 'preserve eternally' her beauty and youth. This paramour had another secret love-interest the keeper of the stables! She gave the muni's prasada to him. That reckless fellow threw that on Horse dung. The king came over to inspect the stable in the passing noticed that instead of unbearable stench of decaying horse dung he could smell a heaenly fragrance! The king took the fruit thrown out of the dung and after making enquiries, of how all this came to pass, was so much disillusioned with life that he gave up his kingship by making the Kingdom over to Vikramaditya and moved to the woods to mediate on the Supreme Being. His vairagya shatakam so beautifully come out as the antithesis of his amoral poem that one wonders at the rich compass of his experience of life. It is not an exaggeration to say that if one studied the three books closely one could not only attain the ends of life like Dharma and Artha(from nItishatakam) but Kama(shR^i~NgAra shatakam) and then naturally, seamlessly move into the fouth stage of life and get qualified to attain mokSha the fourth aim of life as per the Vedic Principles of living. I shall continue this if friends are interested. Sorry for the long engagement. I cannot but help waxing eloquent on Bhartrhari!

Please go on Mahadeva Sarma.....delightful to read.

In the Vairagya Shataka, there is verse which roughly goes as below: "I love not my wife but someone else. But she loves yet someone else. And alas, that someone else loves my wife." And, then he concludes women are not trustworthy! (Mahadeva Sarma: Please excuse my irreverence. But the story gels with what you have narrated. I did enjoy what I read from the translation and also I found the Sanskrit quite amenable - not very tough to decipher. I would love to read the Natya Shashtra.

Thank you very much, Subbaiah, for asking me to go on...Thus if one studies Bhartrhari's life together with his three principal works, anyone ineterested in living life as per Vedic dicta can find a a complete set of manuals for life. The author of this English translation of nItishatakam, identifies Bhartrhari the author of the nIti and other shatakas with Bhartrhari the author of vAkyapadIya- a seminal work on Grammar and Philology that could be placed in the same class as the Patanjali's Mahbhashyam the most authoritative work on Panini's System of Grammar. In VakyapadIyam Part-I, Bhartrhari establishes a Philosophy of Grammar in lines of Vedanta. Perhaps the similarity of Bhartrhari's Philosophy of Grammar with Vedanta makes one identify the nItishataka's author with the author of vAkyapadiyam! We learn they must be two dofferent personalities, and who lived in different times. The Bhartrhari of vAkyapadIyam is a great learned scholar, and different from the royal Bhartrhari-nItishataka author. As for greatness both are distinguished people. The Bhartrihari of vAkyapadIyam is pedantic and has conceptualized some abstruse religio-linguistic ideas weaved into a grandiose design of an original work on Grammar and Semantics in such a manner that he has at the same time given a methodology for understanding and interpreting words and sentences of works like Vedas and the Vedangas and also intertwined them with a Philosophical structure for the understanding of Vedanta. Contrast this with the simple and straight forward work of Bhartrhari the author of niti and other shatakas. The other Bhartrhari in contrast had to write his own commentary on at least his first two volumes. The third volume's commentary and why, an integrated commentary called "ambakartrI" was recently made by Pandit Raghunatha Sharma who was incidentally awarded President Gold medal. Shri RS claims that he was able to turn out such a great work-true it is unique in style and language- because of the blessing obtained by his having attained spiritual ascendance due to the repetition of the Chintamani mantra.... like the other greatest poet of Sanskrit literarture called Shri Harsha(different from the King Harshavardhana of the house of Sthaeshwar...

You say so much in a single breath. Though lucid, I had to read it three times to break into the principal and subordinate clauses! Please follow through iin smaller sentences for swalpakshari people like me! RBSI: Please put out Vakyapadiyam Now.

@Shekhar Sathe:But VakyapadIyam is not a rare book though may be a couple of decades back it would have qualified! There is the full three volume edition of it from Sampoornanand Sankrita Vishwavidyalaya. The text and the commentary are both very rich in meaning and deal in the same breath with God and the Words and Sentences used to describe Him. The newly edited commentary by Pandit Raghunatha Sharma is also a Classic. The subject is abstract. if you are interested to know I can just take one or two shlokas as translate the author-Bhartrhari's commentary on it as also the equally scholarly ambAkartrI!

@Mahadeva Sarma: Please do so for a sample. In the mean time I will procure a copy.

@Shekhar: Just wait till I give you a few random samples. It is in three volumes and can be understood by someone who is comfortable with Sanskrit Language at Post Graduate level. In fact the whole book and its subject are not as appealing as the shataka-triad of the other Bhartrhari. So, that is the caveat emptor of sorts!

Just a sample, Mahadeva.

@Mahadeva Sarma--- Im grateful for this very fine exposition by you --and Im reading it -even though my knowledge of Sanskrit is rusty--having studied it 50 yrs ago---Im very curious--as to where the link with the Natya Shastra comes in----as it was part of our curriculum when I did my Masters in History of Art-- as Bhartrhari was never discussed--or referred to class

@Kanu: The mistake is mine. While reading about the love quadrangle in Bhartrihari's Shataka, I was thinking about the natyashastra but what I meant to write was Vakyapadiyam.

@Shekhar---Thanks---I didnt mean to dispute ---just curios --and thought--'did my professor miss this out --or what"

@Kanu.I was also surprised a bit about Shekhar's quoting Natya Shastra interest, while talking of Bhartrhari. But then I thought that he might like to read about it anyway. For completeness of informations' sake I would like to write here that the treatise on Natya Shaastra is written by Bharata Miuni. It is to be noted here that of all the dance forms of India - we must admit that we almost have one dance form for each state, well I said almost, not exactly that way- the Bharata Natyam of Tamil Nadu is faithful to Bharata in its entirety. Others have improvised on Bharata's directives. That said, I would like to write an introductory passage on vAkyapadIyam. Vakyapadiyam is essentially a treatise, a monograph to be precise, by the commentator of vakyapadiyam's own admission, on Sanskrit Grammar. It purports to discuss syntax essentially. As an adjunct the techniques of word formation, as also of the semantics are discussed. This then is taken as the end of all study of Grammar(called vyAkaraNa in Sanskrit) The Vakyapadiya book is divided into three parts; Part I is called Brahma Kandam which develops a Philosophy of Grammar on lines of Vedanta. Part-II is called the vAkya kAnDam. Here syntax and hence Semantics are discussed. Part-III is the pada kANDam, that discusses words and word formation in Sanskrit. Now it must be borne in mind that unlike in other languages, in Sanskrit, Grammar ia Science in itself. It is possible for a person to exclusively devote himself to the study of Grammar right through his Post Graduation to Ph.D and what is called as Doctor Letters/Science level as the way the subject is constructed in Sanskrit,Linguistics, Philology and Epistemology are also rolled into it. It is my very humble hope that I scale some of these heights though much is left to God's dispensations and Man's machinations. While studying Sanskrit subjects one must also bear in mind that the ultimate end of all Sanskrit subject study is by default taken as THE VEDAS. So, the Volume I of VP(vAkyapadIyam) is titled the brahma kANDam. It opens with the concept of sphoTa- something akin to the Big Bang whence all Creation is supposed to have begun. This sphoTa is what is referred to as shabda brahman whose manifest form are The VEDAS! While discussing the further breakdown of the structure Bhartrhari chooses to place the discussion onvAkya i.e sentence and sentential structure as the subject of the Second Volume- taking a top down approach here, because THE VEDAS have come as pre-arranged sentences to the RiShis' trance-stated minds. Bhartrhari's reasoning is that it is only sentences that carry meaning. Therefore, only as an adjunct he enters into the discussion of the structure of words. Again in Sanskrit- everything is synthetic - i.e constructed from what could be called the equivalent of atoms or particles- from dhAtu upwards by attaching prefixes and suffixes to form words and then word assempled into sentences and so on. I think this would suffice here.I have promised to give a sample kArikA as it is called in literature, of VP,for Shekhar's perusal just to give him an idea of how abstruse this subject becomes in Sanskrit. In all other languages Grammar does have a part to play, or I must say is learnt on the fly esp in modern curricula. The one kArika would need space of a big essay, so I choose the Note- as the medium. I have hence decided to make one and publish and tag interested members of RBSI. I request Shekhar to accept this proposal.

Thanks and that is perfectly fine Mahadeva. If you wish to take the note form, why restrict to a single kArikA? Let the thoughts flow into words, words into sentences and then let the sentences lead to more thoughts!