Śatakatraya

The Śatakatraya (Sanskrit: शतकत्रय, "the three śatakas") refers to three Indian collections of Sanskrit poetry, containing a hundred verses each. The three śatakas, or "centuries", are known as the Nītiśataka, Śṛṅgāraśataka, and Vairāgyaśataka, and are attributed to Bhartṛhari.[1]

The three Śatakas

The first of these, the Nītiśataka, deals with the state of the world, and contains verses on the power of wealth, the haughtiness of kings, the futility of greed, the vicissitudes of fate, and so on. The second, the Śṛṅgāraśataka, deals with love and women, while the third, the Vairāgyaśataka contains verses on renunciation. The Sanskrit scholar Barbara Stoler Miller translated these sections as Among Fools and Kings, Passionate Encounters and Refuge in the Forest respectively.

Especially in the Vairāgyaśataka, but also in the other two, his poetry displays the depth and intensity of his renunciation as he vacillates between the pursuits of fleshly desires and those of the spirit. Thus it reveals the conflict experienced "between a profound attraction to sensual beauty and the yearning for liberation from it", showing how "most great Indian art could be at once so sensuous and so spiritual".[2]

There is great variation between versions of his Śatakas, and together the available manuscripts have over 700 verses instead of 300. D. D. Kosambi identified about 200 verses that appear in all manuscripts.[3] Despite the variation in content, there is remarkable similarity in theme; Kosambi believes that each śataka came to attract a certain type of stanza similar to the ones present in the original collection. Moreover, at least among the 200 "common" stanzas, there is a distinctive voice of irony, scepticism and discontent, making the attribution to a single author plausible.[2]

According to one legend associated with him (possibly in confusion with the legend of king Bharthari), he was a king, who once gave a magic fruit to his wife, who gave it to another man, who in turn gave it to another woman, and finally it reached the king again. Reflecting on these events, he realised the futility of love and worldly pleasures, renounced his kingdom, retired to the forest, and wrote poetry. This is connected with a famous verse that appears in the collections:

yāṃ cintayāmi satataṃ mayi sā viraktā
sāpyanyam icchati janaṃ sa jano 'nyasaktaḥ /
asmatkṛte ca pariśuṣyati kācid anyā
dhik tāṃ ca taṃ ca madanaṃ ca imāṃ ca māṃ ca //

The maid my true heart loves would not my true love be;
She seeks another man; another maid loves he;
And me another maid her own true love would see:
Oh, fie on her and him and Love and HER and me!

—Translation by Ryder

However, the verse is probably a later addition, and the many of the other verses suggest that the poet was not a king but a courtier serving a king — thus there are many verses rebuking the foolish pride of kings, and bemoaning the indignity of servitude.[2]

Editions of the Śatakatraya

Without translation

Sanskrit with translation

Translation

(without Sanskrit text)

References

  1. ↑ Bhartrihari's Satakatrayam by D D Kosambi, ISBN 81-215-1034-1, in 2001
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Miller, Foreword and Introduction
  3. ↑ Vidyākara (1968), Daniel Henry Holmes Ingalls, ed., Sanskrit poetry, from Vidyākara's Treasury, Harvard University Press, p. 39, ISBN 978-0-674-78865-7

External links

About Bhartṛhari
The poems