Sunday, May 01, 2005

Kalidasa: ka kha ga gha

Once the King asked Kalidasa to make a poem in Sanskrit with the alphabet ka, kha, ga, and gha inside it. Those who have had Sanskrit lessons could guess how hard it is to make such poem. However, Kalidasa quickly improvised a timeless piece; he made a poetic conversation between a man and a small girl:

kiM tav baalaa
vidyunmaalaa^
kasyaaH putrii
kanakalataayaaH
haste kiM tav
taaliipatraM
kaa vaa rekhaa
ka kha ga gha

The translation follows:

Who are you girl?
[My name is] Vidyunmaalaa*
Whose daughter?
[Daughter] of Kanaklataa&
What is in your hands?
A Palm leaf
What are those marks/lines?
[The alphabets] ka kha ga gha.$

^ Some people argue the name as kaa~mchanamaalaa, meaning a gold necklace.
* Vidyunmaalaa means a garland of lightening, a beautiful name. Incidentally, there is a chhanda by this name.
& Kanakalataa is the name of a flower; it literally means golden creeper.
$ Finally note that Sanskrit does not have any punctuation marks. It is a punctuation free and permutation invariant language.

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