Kavi Bilhana was an 11th-century

Kashmiri Kashmiri may refer to: * People or things related to the Kashmir Valley or the broader region of Kashmir * Kashmiris, an ethnic group native to the Kashmir Valley * Kashmiri language, their language People with the name * Kashmiri Saikia Baruah ...

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or w ...

. He is known for his love poem, the '' Caurapañcāśikā''. According to legend, Bilhana fell in love with the daughter of King Madanabhirama, Princess Yaminipurnatilaka, and had a secretive love affair. Bilhana kavi came to rajya for to learn Chandassu . They were discovered, and Bilhana was thrown into prison. While awaiting judgement, he wrote the ''Caurapâñcâśikâ'', a fifty-

stanza In poetry, a stanza (; from Italian ''stanza'' , "room") is a group of lines within a poem, usually set off from others by a blank line or indentation. Stanzas can have regular rhyme and metrical schemes, but they are not required to have ei ...

love poem, not knowing whether he would be sent into exile or die on the gallows. It is unknown what fate Bilhana encountered. Nevertheless, his poem was transmitted orally around

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

. There are several versions, including ones from

South India South India, also known as Dakshina Bharata or Peninsular India, consists of the peninsular southern part of India. It encompasses the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana, as well as the union terr ...

which had a happy ending; the

version does not specify what the outcome was. The ''Caurapâñcâśikâ'' was first translated into a European language,

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

, in 1848. Subsequently, it was translated several other times. Notable translations are those of Sir

Edwin Arnold Sir Edwin Arnold KCIE CSI (10 June 183224 March 1904) was an English poet and journalist, who is most known for his work ''The Light of Asia''.Edward Powys Mathers (Oxford, 1919) titled ''Black Marigolds''. This latter version was quoted extensively by

John Steinbeck John Ernst Steinbeck Jr. (; February 27, 1902 – December 20, 1968) was an American writer and the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature winner "for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humor and keen social ...

in ''

Cannery Row Cannery Row is the waterfront street bordering the city of Pacific Grove, but officially in the New Monterey section of Monterey, California. It was the site of a number of now-defunct sardine canning factories. The last cannery closed in 1973 ...

''. Bilhana left his homeland in search of fame and fortune. He wandered through Mathura, Kanuj, Prayaga, Varanasi, Somnath, Kalyan and Rameswaram but luck eluded him.Sreedharan, E, "A Textbook of Historiography: 500 BC to AD 2000". New Delhi, Oreient Black Swan, 2004,p. 326

/ref> But while trekking back through Kalyan,

Western Chalukya Empire The Western Chalukya Empire ruled most of the Deccan Plateau, western Deccan, South India, between the 10th and 12th centuries. This Kannada people, Kannadiga dynasty is sometimes called the ''Kalyani Chalukya'' after its regal capital at Kalya ...

King

Vikramaditya VI Vikramaditya VI (r. 1076 – 1126 CE) became the Western Chalukya King after deposing his elder brother Someshvara II, a political move he made by gaining the support of Chalukya vassals during the Chola invasion of Chalukya territory.Sen ...

appointed him as Vidyapathi. Bilhana rewarded his patron by composing in his honor an epic ''Vikramankadevacharita''. Bilhana is from the period of time when

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural diffusion ...

continued to be the language of literature, and is a very important poet of Kashmir from the Medieval period of Indian literature.

References

External links

Black Marigolds, at sacred-texts.comThe Caurapâñcâśikâ, at The Internet ArchiveThe Caurapâñcâśikâ (The Love-Thief)
Poesy rendering into English 2013 Kashmiri people Kashmiri writers Kashmiri literature Hindu poets Kashmiri poets History of Kashmir 11th-century Indian poets Indian male poets {{India-poet-stub

See also

References

Further reading

External links