Three Satires: 54 (Clay Sanskrit Library) - Hardcover

Kantha, Nila; Kshemendra; Bhallata

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0814788149 ISBN 13: 9780814788141

Publisher: Clay Sanskrit, 2005

Synopsis

The Dark Age Ridiculed, by Níla·kantha, Beguiling Artistry, by Ksheméndra, The Hundred Allegories, by Bhállata

Written over a period of nearly a thousand years, these works show three very different approaches to satire. Níla·kantha gets straight to the point: swindlers prey on stupidity.

The artistry that beguiles Ksheméndra is as varied as human nature and just as fallible. We are off to a gentle start Sanctimonious really no more than a warm-up among vices―but soon graduate to Greed and Lust. From there it's downhill all the way, as unfaithfulness leads on to fraud, and drunkenness to depravity; deception and quackery bring up the rear. What's this at the very end? Virtue? A late arrival, pale and unconvincing.

This volume presents three Indian satirists with three different strategies: in the ninth century C.E., Bhállata sought vengeance on his boorish new king by producing vicious sarcastic verse, “The Hundred Allegories;” in the eleventh century, Ksheméndra presents himself as a social reformer out to shame the complacent into compliance with Vedic morality; and in the seventeenth century little can redeem the fallen characters Níla·kantha portrays, so his duty is simply to warn about the corruption of every social type.

Co-published by New York University Press and the JJC Foundation

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About this title

Product Description:

Written over a period of eight hundred years, these works represent alternative approaches to satire. Bhallata sought vengeance on his boorish new king by producing vicious sarcastic verse, \\\"The Hundred Allegories.\\\" The disgruntled ninth-century CE court poet speaks of a setting sun, his former king and patron Avanti-varman, being replaced by a flickering firefly, the new king Shankara-varman, who did not continue his predecessor\\\'s patronage. The artistry that captivates the Kashmirian Kshemendra in the eleventh century in \\\"The Grace of Guile\\\" is as varied as human nature and just as fallible. He presents himself as a social reformer out to shame the complacent into compliance with Vedic morality. In the seventeenth century CE, Nila-kantha gets straight to the point in his \\\"Mockery of the Kali Era\\\": little can redeem the fallen characters he portrays, so his duty is simply to warn about the corruption of academics, sorcerers, astrologers, physicians, poets, relatives, and others.

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About this edition

• Publisher: Clay Sanskrit
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0814788149
• ISBN 13: 9780814788141
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 403