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The Absent Traveller

The Absent Traveller

Prakrit Love Poetry From The Gathasaptasati Of Satavahana Hala

Arvind Krishna Mehrotra
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The Gathasaptasati is perhaps the oldest extant anthology of poetry from South Asia, containing our very earliest examples of secular verse. Reputed to have been compiled by the Satavahana king Hala in the second century CE, it is a celebrated collection of 700 verses in Maharashtri Prakrit, composed in the compact, distilled gatha form. The anthology has attracted several learned commentaries and now, through Arvind Krishna Mehrotra’s acclaimed translation of 207 verses from the anthology, readers of English at last have access to its poems. The speakers are mostly women and, whether young or old, married or single, they touch on the subject of sexuality with frankness, sensitivity and, every once in a while, humour, which never ceases to surprise.

The Absent Traveler includes an elegant and stimulating translator’s note and an afterword by Martha Ann Selby that provides an admirable introduction to Prakrit literature in general and the Gathasaptasati in particular.

Imprint: India Penguin Classics

Published: Feb/2008

ISBN: 9780143100805

Length : 120 Pages

MRP : ₹175.00

The Absent Traveller

Prakrit Love Poetry From The Gathasaptasati Of Satavahana Hala

Arvind Krishna Mehrotra

The Gathasaptasati is perhaps the oldest extant anthology of poetry from South Asia, containing our very earliest examples of secular verse. Reputed to have been compiled by the Satavahana king Hala in the second century CE, it is a celebrated collection of 700 verses in Maharashtri Prakrit, composed in the compact, distilled gatha form. The anthology has attracted several learned commentaries and now, through Arvind Krishna Mehrotra’s acclaimed translation of 207 verses from the anthology, readers of English at last have access to its poems. The speakers are mostly women and, whether young or old, married or single, they touch on the subject of sexuality with frankness, sensitivity and, every once in a while, humour, which never ceases to surprise.

The Absent Traveler includes an elegant and stimulating translator’s note and an afterword by Martha Ann Selby that provides an admirable introduction to Prakrit literature in general and the Gathasaptasati in particular.

Buying Options
Paperback / Hardback
Ebooks

Arvind Krishna Mehrotra

Arvind Krishna Mehrotra was born in Lahore in 1947, he is the author of four books of poems, the most recent of which is The Transfiguring Places (1998), and one of translation, The Absent Traveller: Prakrit Love Poetry from the Gathasaptasathi (1991). His edited books include The Oxford India Anthology of Twelve Modern Indian Poets (1992) and An Illustrated History of Indian Literature in English (2003). He lives is Allahabad and Dehra Dun._x000D_

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