Bhavakadevi

Bhavakadevi (IAST: Bhāvaka-devī; fl. 12th century or earlier), also known as Bhavadevi, was a Sanskrit poet from present-day India. Her verses are included in early medieval Sanskrit anthologies, including Vidyakara's Subhashita-ratna-kosha,[1], Sadukti-karnamrita, and Kavindra-vachana-samuchchaya .[2]

Example verses

In the following verse, Bhavakadevi praises a woman's breasts using a political and military image (translation appears in Octavio Paz's In Light of India):[3]

Her breasts are two brother kings, equal in nobility,
looking out from the same heights, side by side,
sovereigns of the vast provinces they have won
in frontier battles, with a defiant hardness.

— Bhavakadevi

Alternative translation by Daniel H. H. Ingalls:[4]

Her breasts are brother kings, equal in nobility,
reared together till they have reached the same altitude of fame;
and from their border warfare these monarchs of vast provinces
have gained a cursed hardness.

— Bhavakadevi

Another verse expresses the feelings of a woman who becomes disillusioned with her lover after marrying him (translation by Daniel H. H. Ingalls):[5][6]

At first our bodies knew a perfect oneness,
but then grew two:
the lover, you,
and I, unhappy I, the loved

Now you are husband, I the wife.
What else should come of this my life,
a tree too hard to break,
if not such bitter fruit?

— Bhavakadevi

Alternative translation by R. Parthasarathy:[7]

How our bodies were one before!
Then they grew apart: you the lover,
And I, wretched one, the loved.

Now, you are the husband, I the wife.
A broken pledge is all that I'm left with -
A bitter fruit hard to swallow.

— Bhavakadevi

References
  1. Daniel H. H. Ingalls 1965, p. 13.
  2. Raj Pruthi et al 1999, p. 168.
  3. Octavio Paz 1998, p. 151.
  4. Daniel H. H. Ingalls 1965, p. 172.
  5. Eunice De Souza 1997, p. 2.
  6. Daniel H. H. Ingalls 1965, p. 13,219.
  7. TRS Sharma 2000, p. 492.

Bibliography
  • Daniel H. H. Ingalls, ed. (1965). An anthology of Sanskrit court poetry: Vidyākara's Subhāṣiaratnakoṣa. Harvard Oriental Series. Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674039506.
  • Eunice De Souza (1997). Nine Indian Women Poets: An Anthology. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-564077-9.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Octavio Paz (1998). In Light of India. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 0-15-600578-6.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Raj Pruthi; Rameshwari Devi; Romila Pruthi, eds. (1999). Encyclopaedia of Status and Empowerment of Women in India. Mangal Deep. ISBN 978-81-7594-040-6.
  • TRS Sharma, ed. (2000). Ancient Indian Literature: An Anthology. 2. Sahitya Akademi. ISBN 978-81-260-0794-3.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)


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