SHILABHATTARIKA

1st May, 2023 Culture

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Context

Researchers at the Pune-based Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute (BORI), which houses South Asia’s largest collection of manuscripts and rare texts, recently embarked on a mission after which they claim to have shed new light on Shilabhattarika.

Findings

The celebrated Sanskrit poetess of ancient India has now been established as the daughter of the famed Chalukyan emperor Pulakeshin II of Badami (in modern Karnataka).
She stood out as a poetess in the male-dominated field of classical Sanskrit literature in ancient India.
The Sanskrit poet-critic Rajashekhara, who lived in the 9th-10th century CE and was the court poet of the Gurjara-Pratiharas, had praised Shilabhattarika for her elegant and beautiful compositions.
The decoding of the copper plates also marks a notable shift in the historiography of Badami Chalukyas by placing Shilabhattarika as having lived in the 7th century CE rather than the current theory which has her as the wife of the 8th Century Rashtrakuta ruler Dhruva.

Legacy

Noted Marathi poetess Shanta Shelke too has drawn inspiration from Shilabhattarika’s verses to compose one of her most iconic songs— toch chandrama nabhat(it is the same moon in the sky).

Biography

One of her poems mentions the Narmada River (Reva) and the Vindhya mountains. Therefore, as a young woman, she probably lived along the Narmada River, near the Vindhyas.
Shilabhattarika has been quoted by several classical Sanskrit literary critics, and her verses appear in most major Sanskrit anthologies.
She is known to have written at least 46 poems on topics such as "love, morality, politics, nature, beauty, the seasons, insects, anger, indignation, codes of conduct, and the characteristic features of various kinds of heroines."
However, most of her works are now lost, and only six of her short poems are extant.