Rāmakṛṣṇavilomakāvyaṃ (रामकृष्णविलोमाकाव्यं) is a short

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...

poem in 36 verses in the genre of ''vilomakāvya'' composed by Sūryadasa (born 1508), also known as Sūrya Daivajña or Sūrya Paṇḑita, from Pārthapura. A ''vilomakāvya'' (called "bi-directional poetry" in English) is a poem composed in such a way that the ''

śloka Shloka or śloka ( , from the root , Macdonell, Arthur A., ''A Sanskrit Grammar for Students'', Appendix II, p. 232 (Oxford University Press, 3rd edition, 1927).) in a broader sense, according to Monier-Williams's dictionary, is "any verse or stan ...

''-s or stanzas of the poem can be read in both directions, that is from left to right which the normal mode of reading the poem, and also in the opposite direction, that is, from right to left. Readings in both directions produce meaningful texts and these meanings create a continuous narration. In the case of ''Rāmakṛṣṇavilomakāvyaṃ'', the reading in the left to right direction narrates the story of

Rāma Rama (; , , ) is a major deity in Hinduism. He is worshipped as the seventh and one of the most popular avatars of Vishnu. In Rama-centric Hindu traditions, he is considered the Supreme Being. Also considered as the ideal man (''maryāda'' ...

in Rāmāyaṇa and the reading in the opposite direction narrates the story of Kṛṣṇa in

Mahābhārata The ''Mahābhārata'' ( ; , , ) is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India revered as Smriti texts in Hinduism, the other being the '' Rāmāyaṇa''. It narrates the events and aftermath of the Kurukshetra War, a war of succe ...

. A Hindi translation of the work with detailed commentary is available, but no English translation has yet been published (). While reading a stanza in a ''vilomakāvya'', the relevant units are the syllables and not individual phonemes. The verses can be of two types: in the first type, called ''viṣamākṣara'', the verse sounds different when read in the two directions, and in the second type, called ''samākṣara'' or ''tulyākṣara'',the verse sounds the same when read either way. There are both types of verses in ''Rāmakṛṣṇavilomakāvyaṃ''. The first verse in ''Rāmakṛṣṇavilomakāvyaṃ'' reproduced below is an example of ''viṣamākṣara'' verse: Verse 31 in ''Rāmakṛṣṇavilomakāvyaṃ'' reproduced below is an example for ''samākṣara'' verse:

Other ''vilomakāvya''-s

According to

Christopher Minkowski Christopher Zand Minkowski (; born 13 May 1953) is an American academic, who was Boden Professor of Sanskrit at the University of Oxford from 2005 to 2023. Education and early career Minkowski was educated at Gilman School before studying English ...

Boden Professor of Sanskrit The position of Boden Professor of Sanskrit at the University of Oxford was established in 1832 with money bequeathed to the university by Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Boden, a retired soldier in the service of the East India Company. He wished th ...

at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

from 2005 to 2023, ''Rāmakṛṣṇavilomakāvyaṃ'' is the first ''vilomakāvya'' ever composed and its author Sūryadasa is the inventor of the genre. Great effort has to be expended in creating a ''vilomakāvya''. Sūryadasa himself has recorded as much in the concluding stanza of the poem an English translation of which reads like this: :"The sage made the Godavari flow east from the Brahma (Sahyadri) mountains to the ocean; but is even he able to make the river flow backward to its mountain source? Cognoscenti should appreciate the huge effort that the author of this ''viloma'' work has made, and should recognize that this, the very limit of poetic skill in ''citrakāvya'', has been marked by the one called Daivajña Sūrya." The following are the identified ''vilomakāvya''-s: # ''Śabdārthacintāmaṇi'' by Cidambara Kavi (c. 1600) # '' Yādavarāghavīya'' by Venkatādhvarin (c. 1650) # ''Nalaharścandrīya'' (unknown authorship and date)

Full text of the work

* For full text with Hindi translation and commentary by Dr. Shri Kameshwar Nath Mishra: *For Sanskrit text with commentary by the author:

References

{{Sanskrit language topics Indian literature

Literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...

History of literature in India

Other ''vilomakāvya''-s

Full text of the work

See also

References