Vasant poetry session! In this special gathering we will read our favorite spring poems. The texts will be made available on the blog over the weekend and distributed when we meet on Monday.

Vasanta ragini. Deccani muraqqaʿ (18th AD). Walters Ms. W.669, Album of Indian miniatures and Persian calligraphy

A poem by Hafiz translated by Ayelet: https://uchicago.box.com/s/quj8a1kiuxrrt4bwnnislcykstx3cqvc

A few verses from Munir Lahuri‘s Mazhar-i gul (a mathnawi in which the poet describes the natural beauty of Bengal) translated by Thibaut: https://uchicago.box.com/s/980c8w5a57oyg6pcezq7t6nprqye4cao 

This week Nikhil will read Telugu compositions from Carnatic music by Tyagaraja and Annamayya. You will find the texts and translations on this link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1oqFvVoxr-Ye2O2HuCM0bx1IhCUaTx25dB4DMNDjbpB4/edit

This week begins with a sākhi (essentially a didactic dohā or couplet) by the poet-saint Sundardas (1596-1689) of the Dadu Panth religious tradition of Rajasthan. Sundardas is known for bringing a highly literary and scholastic style to the so-called nirguṇ (‘without-qualities’) tradition of bhakti in north India. This nirguṇ tradition of thought (developed among several religious communities of the period) espouses a belief in an ineffable Divine that lies beyond everyday sensory experience; the tradition correspondingly criticizes saguṇ (‘with-qualities’) conceptions of God, including those that imagine God in anthropomorphic forms. This often includes critiques of image-worship and temple-based ritual, and the social structures that are implicated within them. Continue reading →