Stories Behind Verses is a remarkable collection of over a hundred anecdotes, each of which captures a story behind the composition of a Sanskrit verse. Collected over several years from various sources with tireless effort by Satavadhani Dr. R Ganesh, these stories took the shape of the Kannada book Kavitegondu Kathe. When this was published in 1996, it was the first of its kind. It gained wide popularity among the critics and the laity not only for its riveting episodes but also for its mellifluous writing,
This book is an English adaptation of Kavitegondu Kathe by Arjun Bharadwaj and Shashi Kiran B N, who have captured the original in both letter and spirit. Witty, romantic, melancholic, provocative, poignant, and profound by turns, Stories Behind Verses will tug at your tendermost strings of feelings and stir your emotions.
Satavadhaní R GANESH (b. 1962, Bangalore) is one of India's fore-most Sanskrit poets and scholars. He writes and lectures extensively on various subjects pertaining to India and Indian cultural heritage. He is a master of the ancient art of avadhana, where he faces a group of eight (astavadhana) or hundred (śatavadhana) questioners and in response to their many queries, composes extempore poems set to meter; solves poetic challenges; solves a magic square; keeps track of the count of a randomly rung bell; etc. Ganesh performs avadha-na in Sanskrit, Telugu, and Kannada (he is credited with reviving the art of avadhana in Kannada and has performed over a thousand avadhanas.) He is fluent in several languages including Sanskrit, Pali, Prakrit, Latin, Greek, Italian, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Hindi, and Marathi. He is well-versed in the Vedas, Upanisads, the later smrti texts, other systems of learning in the Indian spiritual and cultural canon like the Vedangas, the various classical texts on the arts like the Natyaśastra, and literature in classical Sanskrit.
Ganesh holds a bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering and a master's degree in Metallurgy as well as in Sanskrit. Hampi University awarded him a D. Litt. for his thesis, ""The Art of Avadhana in Kannada' (which has also come out in English as ""The Art and Science of Avadhanam in Sanskrit'). Tumkur University awarded him an honorary doctorate (D. Litt.) He is recipient of several awards and recognitions including the Badarayana-Vyasa Puraskar from the President of India for his contribution to the Sanskrit language.
Who doesn't love anecdotes? When the punch at the end of the anecdote is in the form of a lovely Sanskrit poem composed extempore, it is a veritable treat for the connoisseur. Due to their very nature, such anecdotes are mostly remem-bered and passed on verbally from generation to generation, no doubt enlivening many gatherings and parties.
In this digital age, we are lucky to have many of them captured in documents and books. One such book is in Kannada, and several Kannadigas, including me, have spent many pleasurable hours reading the book, Kavitègöndu Kathe (roughly translates to 'A Story for a Verse') written by Śatāvadhānī Dr. R. Ganesh. It has the original Sanskrit verse, the meaning of the verse, and the anecdote in Kannada.
I have always felt that such a book deserves a wider audience. There are many rasikas in India and in other parts of the world who have already discovered the unparalleled joy that Sanskrit poetry can give both masters and students of the language. Many of them have been excluded from this cup of joy due to their unfamiliarity with Kannada.
Now my young friends, Sri. Arjun Bharadwaj and Sri. Shashi Kiran B N, have filled that lacuna. They call this work an adaptation from the Kannada original rather than calling it a translation, which is as it should be. They have captured the essence of the work in English while remaining faithful to the original. They have added explanatory material where necessary and some more material fitting in with this format.
For many years I have harboured a feeling, like many of my friends do, that the younger generation of today, while being smarter and better educated, is missing out on some beautiful things in life, particularly an exposure to Sanskrit literature, which can give them a lifetime of happiness and joy. I feared that continuity between generations would finally be broken in the matter of handing down the best of our literary tradition. I am happy to say that my fears were unfounded.
Poetry is the portrayal of the beautiful through the medium of language. It is an artistic expression of emotions. Pure poetry, as rasikas see it, finds its finest expression in muktakas self-contained, independent verses that do not need any additional explanation. Contextual clarity, however, has much to add to the beauty of verses. As a famous saying goes, ""When uttered at the right moment, even unembellished words acquire appeal."" Divorced from proper context, the all-round beauty of poetry, genre notwithstanding, is lost on the readers. Connoisseurs of poetry must have sufficient samskara ('training,' 'refinement') in order to appreciate its nuances. At times, the poet guides the readers through this process of re-finement by providing the necessary background to the poem. But this sort of explanation from the poet's part is a rarity. It is seldom seen in muktakas. Commentaries that provide such much-needed explanations are a welcome addition to muk-takas. Stories Behind Verses' is a humble attempt at stitching together stories that provide suitable contexts and help in the appreciation of verses.
It is commonly accepted that Indians do not document history as meticulously as Westerners. Unlike in India, the factual details of the lives of eminent individuals-artists, scientists, statesmen, etc. are well-preserved in the West. However, this does not translate into saying that Indians do not have a high sense of history. Our conception of it is quite different: for us, the lessons taught by history are more important than mere dry facts. Values embodied by historical figures mean a great deal more to us than the figures themselves who are bound by space and time.
The intrinsic merit of a poem excites our interest to no end, but the period, province, background and suchlike details of the poet matter little to us. We go about the job differently. Scores of poems known as cățupadyas are composed around the lives of poets, scholars, and artistes. They serve as guide-books, helping us learn about their tastes and idiosyncrasies, such as their approach to knowledge, confidence, intellectual arrogance, modesty, and economic status. Many such verses are documentations of important events in the lives of those poets. There are also verses that dish out cooked-up stories structured around the character of a famous poet. We also have verses which, in the pretext of painting the life of an artist, present moral values. Narrated as stories and possessing tremendous vitality, the values that these verses enshrine are never merely didactic. Sanskrit literature is replete with câțupadyas. Interestingly, most of them are not found in books. Forming the hallmark of a continuously creative tradition, these verses are preserved in the oral tradition and are handed down from generation to generation.
The significance of the emotional value embodied by these verses is remarkable. It is far greater than the physical details they convey. A poet may not have lived in the same way as told in the verses, there may also exist factual differences or inconsistencies with regard to date and time; whatever be the case, these verses are definitely pointers to the per-sonalities of poets. More importantly, the joy we derive out of reading these verses can never be denied.
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