Gaha Sattasai
The Gāhā Sattasaī or Gāhā Kośa (
Gaha Sattasai is one of the oldest known
Authorship and date
The collection is attributed to the king Hāla who lived in the 1st century.[1] Inside the text, many poems include names of authors, some of which are names of kings from many South Indian particularly Deccan region kingdoms from the first half of the first millennium CE.[8][9] According to Schelling, one version of the text names 278 poets.[10]
According to Ram Karan Sharma, this text is from the 1st century CE.[11][12] According to Ludwik Sternbach, the text was interpolated and revised by later scribes.[3] It is unlikely to be the work of Hala, based on style, inconsistencies between its manuscripts and because other sources state it had as many as 389 authors.[3] Sternbach places the text between 2nd and 4th-century CE.[3] Khoroche and Tieken place the text between 3rd and 4th century CE, but before 640 CE because Banabhatta cites it in his preface to the 4th-century classic Harshacharita.[13]
Manuscripts
The text exists in many versions.[8] Manuscripts have been found in many parts of India in many languages, far from Maharashtra. The existence of many major recensions, states Moriz Winternitz, suggests that the text was very popular by early medieval era in India.[14] The poems were changed over time, sometimes deleted and replaced with different poems, though every manuscript contains exactly 700 poems consistent with the meaning of the title.[8]
The first critical edition of the Sattasaī was by
The text was popular across India, and attracted at least fourteen commentaries.[3]
Contents
Although the name mentions 700 single verse poems in 7 chapters, the various available manuscripts contain a variable number of total poems. S.A. Joglekar has carefully compiled them and has identified a total of 1006 poems in a book titled Halsatvahan’s Gathasaptashati Published in 1956 by Prasad Publications, Pune. It consists of 700 single-verse poems, divided into 7 chapters of 100 verses each. All the poems are couplets, and most are in the musical arya metre.[20] Many poems of the text include names of gods and goddesses in Hinduism, for allegorical comparison of a woman's feelings.[21]
Economic Life
The folk who composed these poems lived in rural, forested and forest fringe areas. Agriculture and hunting were their chief occupations. Around 100 poems contain references to fields, crops under cultivation, farming implements and accessories such as fencing, farming operations and storing and processing of agricultural produce. Similarly around 100 poems contain references to animals hunted, hunting implements and hunting operations.
Plants and animals
While the poems are basically love poems their natural setting includes references to a number of plant and animal species. Some plant species such as Ricinus communis and Pandanus are mentioned just once. Others, for example, mango(17) and lotus (49) are mentioned in several poems. Altogether 170 poems mention plant species. Some animal species such as leopard, cat and honeybee are mentioned just once. Others, for example, cattle (16), elephant (20) and bumblebee (30) are mentioned in several poems. Altogether 163 poems mention animal species. Mango, cattle and elephant are important in day- to-day life, while lotus is attractive and bumblebees being trapped in the lotus flowers at night is a popular poetic convention. Thus, 333 out of 1006 poems refer to some plant or animal species. This reflects the fact that the common people composing these poems lived in close vicinity of nature.
Samples
Mother
with the blink of an eye
his love vanished
A trinket gets
dangled
into your world
you reach out and it's gone— Hala, tr. Schelling
Lone buck
in the clearing
Nearby doe
eyes him with such
longing
that there
in the trees the hunter
seeing his own girl
lets the bow drop— Anonymous, tr. Schelling
I have heard so much about you from others
And now at last I see you with my own eyes.
Please, my dear, say something
So that my ears, too, may drink nectar.— Unknown, tr. Peter Khoroche and Herman Tieken
Cow elephants once turned widows
When my son launched a single arrow
But his wife has now so weakened him
That he uselessly bears a burden
Of arrows on his own back
Poem 630 from Joglekar's compilation
My braided hair's not straight yet, And you again speak of leaving. - Gatha 273[22]
If one of two beings
who grew up together in joy and pain
and loved each other for a long time,
dies –
this one lives,
and the other one is dead.— Poem 142, tr. Ludwik Sternbach
References
- ^ a b c Peter Khoroche & Herman Tieken 2009, pp. 1–2.
- ^ Peter Khoroche & Herman Tieken 2009, pp. 2–3.
- ^ ISBN 978-3-447-01546-2.
- ^ Peter Khoroche & Herman Tieken 2009, p. 3.
- ^ Peter Khoroche & Herman Tieken 2009, pp. 3–5.
- JSTOR 44141958.
- OCLC 1078687920.)
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: others (link - ^ a b c Peter Khoroche & Herman Tieken 2009, pp. 8–10.
- ISBN 978-81-8328-217-8.
- ^ Schelling, Introduction
- ISBN 978-81-260-0365-5.
- ISBN 978-0-85229-760-5.
- ^ Peter Khoroche & Herman Tieken 2009, pp. 9–10.
- ISBN 978-81-208-0056-4.
- ^ Peter Khoroche & Herman Tieken 2009, p. 10.
- ^ Peter Khoroche & Herman Tieken 2009, p. 13.
- ^ Sanskrit Gatha Saptashati
- ^ "मंगला बर्वे". Maharashtra Times (in Marathi). Retrieved 29 July 2020.
- ^ "Hal Satvahanachi Gatha Saptashati : Joglekar,sadashiv Atmaram : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming". Internet Archive. Retrieved 29 July 2020.
- ^ Peter Khoroche & Herman Tieken 2009, p. 1.
- ^ Peter Khoroche & Herman Tieken 2009, pp. 175–176, 195.
- ISBN 978-0-86311-253-9.
Bibliography
- Peter Khoroche; Herman Tieken (2009). Poems on life and love in ancient India: Hāla's Sattasaī. Excelsior Editions. ISBN 978-0-7914-9392-2.
- Schelling, Andrew (2008). Dropping the Bow: Poems of Ancient India (2 ed.). Companions for the Journey Series: 15. Review
- ISBN 978-81-208-0056-4.
- T. R. S. Sharma; C. K. Seshadri; June Gaur (2000). Ancient Indian literature: an anthology, Volume 1 (reprint ed.). Sahitya Akademi. p. 689. ISBN 978-81-260-0794-3.
- Albrecht Weber, ed. (1881). Das Saptaçatakam des Hâla. in Commission bei F.A.Brockhaus.
- Joglekar, Sadashiv Atmaram (1956). Hal Satvahanachi Gatha Saptashati. (Marathi).
External links
- Sanskrit Gatha Saptashati, a Sanskrit translation of the Gaha Sattasai, with commentary
- Hala: Sattasai at GRETIL