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The Hermit and The Love-Thief
Bhartrihari, a philosopher of the fifth century, is popularly thought to be a king who retired to the forest upon discovering his queens infidelity. Bilhana, a poet of the 11th century, is reputed to have been a traveling courtier who became secretly involved with a kings young daughter and who was condemned to death when the love affair was discovered. "The Hermit" and "The Love Thief" bring together the verses of these two legendary figures.
128 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 1978
3 people are currently reading
140 people want to read
About the author
Bhartrihari
75 books12 followersBhartṛhari or Bhartrihari (570?-651?), Indian poet and philosopher.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
June 29, 2014
We savored no pleasure,
so we are consumed.
We practiced no penance,
so we are afflicted.
We did not elude time,
so we are pursued.
We did not wither craving,
so we are the wizened.
Bhartrihari is not a philosopher who carefully honed every poem to support a coherent prescription for the proper life. His poems express the range of human emotions felt by an educated but vital man. They variously celebrate (quoting from the introduction):
the four traditional pursuits: dharma (righteousness, learning, and religious life), artha (material gain and political power), kama (erotic love and artistic pleasure), and moksa (the rejection of these three in order to concentrate on escaping from worldly bondage).
Bhartrihari wrote in the fifth century CE. Legend has him a king, but the translator suggests he was a courtier. In his poems he longs for an ascetic, virtuous life, but he cannot help but indulge in, and describe in beautiful verse, the pleasures of sharing wisdom and virtue in civic life, and of course the pleasures of the flesh. His three part Satakatraya presents verse first on wisdom and courtly life, then on love, and renunciation.
From the first section, Among Fools and Kings:
Men whose thoughts and words and deeds
are steeped in the nectar of merit,
who fill the world’s expanse
with a flood of benevolent acts,
build into august mountains
the granules of other men’s graces,
and spread abroad their own heart’s joy--
such saintly men are few.
From Passionate Encounters (which includes both the delights of love and warnings against it)
When she lies on your chest
amid the disarray of her own scented hair,
with eyes like slightly opened buds
and cheeks flushed pink from love’s fatigue,
the lips of a woman are honey
which favored men drink.
and from Refuge in the Forest (asceticism), the poem at the beginning of this review and:
You descend to nether worlds, you traverse the sky,
you roam the horizon
with such mobility, my mind!
Why do you never, even in error,
remember what is pure
and part of yourself,
that Brahman, through which
you would reach your final bliss?
I am quite taken with that aside, ‘even in error’. It makes you pause and reread, and rethink, and read again. The collection as a whole does the same, because what Bhartrihari praises in one poem he satirizes or condemns in the next. He is honest in portraying his higher and baser instincts, even if they are filtered through the highly refined and rule-bound form of Sanskrit poetry.
The introduction is a compact but effective primer in Sanskrit verse and the work of the two authors. Bhartrihari's work is in the fragmentary lyric style (khandakavya) as opposed to the narrative lyric style (mahakavya). Each short poem in khandakavya style is meant to stand alone as a complex artistic creation, even though it is part of a collection. Sanskrit poetry relies little on rhyme, but depends on alliteration, assonance, and consonance.
The miniature mold of each verse is expanded by poetic exploitation of the suggestive overtones (dhvani) of words and images…The notion of rasa is at the heart of Sanskrit poetry. The word is generally translated as ‘mood’ or ‘sentiment’ but it means more literally the taste or flavor of something--the rasa of a verse or dramatic scene is the essential pervading flavor of a given emotional situation.
The metrical rules use length of the syllable, like Greek and Roman poetry, rather than stress, and Bhartrihari uses many different meters.
I was less taken with the short work by Bilhana, The Love Thief, from the eleventh century CE.
The translator has created beautiful poems in English. I commend her introduction and her poetry although I cannot assess how closely to the original she hews. This is a work that will stand up to repeated reading.
so we are consumed.
We practiced no penance,
so we are afflicted.
We did not elude time,
so we are pursued.
We did not wither craving,
so we are the wizened.
Bhartrihari is not a philosopher who carefully honed every poem to support a coherent prescription for the proper life. His poems express the range of human emotions felt by an educated but vital man. They variously celebrate (quoting from the introduction):
the four traditional pursuits: dharma (righteousness, learning, and religious life), artha (material gain and political power), kama (erotic love and artistic pleasure), and moksa (the rejection of these three in order to concentrate on escaping from worldly bondage).
Bhartrihari wrote in the fifth century CE. Legend has him a king, but the translator suggests he was a courtier. In his poems he longs for an ascetic, virtuous life, but he cannot help but indulge in, and describe in beautiful verse, the pleasures of sharing wisdom and virtue in civic life, and of course the pleasures of the flesh. His three part Satakatraya presents verse first on wisdom and courtly life, then on love, and renunciation.
From the first section, Among Fools and Kings:
Men whose thoughts and words and deeds
are steeped in the nectar of merit,
who fill the world’s expanse
with a flood of benevolent acts,
build into august mountains
the granules of other men’s graces,
and spread abroad their own heart’s joy--
such saintly men are few.
From Passionate Encounters (which includes both the delights of love and warnings against it)
When she lies on your chest
amid the disarray of her own scented hair,
with eyes like slightly opened buds
and cheeks flushed pink from love’s fatigue,
the lips of a woman are honey
which favored men drink.
and from Refuge in the Forest (asceticism), the poem at the beginning of this review and:
You descend to nether worlds, you traverse the sky,
you roam the horizon
with such mobility, my mind!
Why do you never, even in error,
remember what is pure
and part of yourself,
that Brahman, through which
you would reach your final bliss?
I am quite taken with that aside, ‘even in error’. It makes you pause and reread, and rethink, and read again. The collection as a whole does the same, because what Bhartrihari praises in one poem he satirizes or condemns in the next. He is honest in portraying his higher and baser instincts, even if they are filtered through the highly refined and rule-bound form of Sanskrit poetry.
The introduction is a compact but effective primer in Sanskrit verse and the work of the two authors. Bhartrihari's work is in the fragmentary lyric style (khandakavya) as opposed to the narrative lyric style (mahakavya). Each short poem in khandakavya style is meant to stand alone as a complex artistic creation, even though it is part of a collection. Sanskrit poetry relies little on rhyme, but depends on alliteration, assonance, and consonance.
The miniature mold of each verse is expanded by poetic exploitation of the suggestive overtones (dhvani) of words and images…The notion of rasa is at the heart of Sanskrit poetry. The word is generally translated as ‘mood’ or ‘sentiment’ but it means more literally the taste or flavor of something--the rasa of a verse or dramatic scene is the essential pervading flavor of a given emotional situation.
The metrical rules use length of the syllable, like Greek and Roman poetry, rather than stress, and Bhartrihari uses many different meters.
I was less taken with the short work by Bilhana, The Love Thief, from the eleventh century CE.
The translator has created beautiful poems in English. I commend her introduction and her poetry although I cannot assess how closely to the original she hews. This is a work that will stand up to repeated reading.
Want to read
July 20, 2024Bhartrhari, the hermit late 5th CE (after 485)
Bilhana, love thief 11th CE?
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7...
Bilhana, love thief 11th CE?
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7...
October 11, 2020
Indian poetry. Love poetry and in particular 'Fantasies of a Love Thief' by Bilhana. It's something that was once given to me, handwritten, as a present. So you know, it's something with great meaning to me. I've only ever found a used copy on Amazon and there is really not a lot of chance to get this. I would imagine it would be something you'd find in a East Coast college poetry class. Think Petrarch, Leaves of Grass and such. "Even now, if I see her again, her full moon face, lush new youth, swollen breasts, passion's glow, body burned bt fire from love's arrows,- I'll quickly cool her limbs." If you find a copy treasure it.
January 16, 2023
"we would bow to the gods,
but even they submit to destiny.
We would pay destiny homage,
but it can only be grant reward
in accord with our karma.
If karma is the source of all reward,
what use are gods or destiny?
Our allegiance is to karma,
which even destiny does not control."
An odd little read, but fine ig? Although Passionate Encounters was a horrendous description of women, very much made me want to DNF
but even they submit to destiny.
We would pay destiny homage,
but it can only be grant reward
in accord with our karma.
If karma is the source of all reward,
what use are gods or destiny?
Our allegiance is to karma,
which even destiny does not control."
An odd little read, but fine ig? Although Passionate Encounters was a horrendous description of women, very much made me want to DNF
February 6, 2016
I preferred Bhartrihari's portion to Bilhana's.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews