Bihari Lal
Bihari Lal Chaube | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1595 Gwalior,Madhya Pradesh,India |
| Died | 1663 Vrindavan,Uttar Pradesh,India |
| Occupation | Poet |
| Period | Riti Kaal |
| Literary movement | Ritikaal |
Bihari Lal ChaubeorBihārī(1595–1663)[1]was aHindipoet, who is famous for writing theSatasaī(Seven Hundred Verses) inBrajbhasha,a collection of approximately seven hundreddistichs,which is perhaps the most celebratedHindiwork of poeticart,as distinguished fromnarrativeand simpler styles.[2]Today it is considered the most well known book of the Ritikavya Kaal or 'Riti Kaal'(an era in which poets wrote poems for kings)[3]ofHindi literature.[4]
The language is the form of Hindi calledBrajbhasha,spoken in the country aboutMathura,where the poet lived. The couplets are inspired by theKrishnaside ofVishnu-worship, and the majority of them take the shape of amorous utterances ofRadha,the chief of theGopisor cowherd maidens ofBraj,and her divine lover, the son ofVasudeva.Each couplet is independent and complete in itself. The distichs, in their collected form, are arranged, not in any sequence of narrative or dialogue, but according to the technical classification of the sentiments which they convey as set forth in the treatises onIndianrhetoric.[2]
Biography
[edit]Early life and education
[edit]
Bihari was born inGwaliorin 1595, and spent his boyhood inOrchhain theBundelkhandregion, where his father, Keshav Rai lived. After marriage he settled with in-law's inMathura.His father was Keshav Rai.[2]
Early in his life, he studied ancient Sanskrit texts. In Orchha state, he met the famous poet keshavdas from whom he took lessons in poetry. Later, when he had shifted to Mathura, he got an opportunity to present his in court of visiting Mughal EmperorShah Jahan,who immediately got impressed by his work and invited him to stay in Agra.
Once at Agra, he learntPersian languageand came into contact withRahim,another famous poet. It was also at Agra that RajaJai Singh I(ruled. 1611–1667), ofAmber,near Jaipur, happened to hear him, and invited him over to Jaipur, and it was here that he composed his greatest work,Satasai.[1]After the death of his wife Bihari followed the path ofBhakti&Vairagya.He left the court & went toVrindavan,where he died in the year 1663.
Significance of Bihari's work
[edit]One of the famousDohas(couplet) written by Bihārī is:
Satsaiya ke dohre jyun navak ke teer |
The couplets of (Bihari's) Satsai are like the arrows of a hunter, |
Though Bihari 'Satasai' is only known work of Bihari, an estimation in which the work is held may be measured by the number of commentators who have devoted themselves to its elucidation, of whom DrG. A. Griersonmentions seventeen. The collection has also twice been translated intoSanskrit.
The best-known commentary is that ofLallu Lal,entitled theLala-chandrika.The author was employed byDr. John Gilchristin theCollege of Fort William,where he finished his commentary in 1818. A critical edition of it has been published byDr G. A. Grierson(Calcutta, Government of India Press, 1896).
Bibliography
[edit]- The Satasaī(English Translation),Penguin Books,1992.ISBN0-14-044576-5.
- Bihari Satsai. (Hindi and English Translation) Dr. Shyamsunder Dube, Publications Division.[1]
- The Veiled moon; English translations of Bihari satsai, Amar Nath Jha; Girijā Kumāra Māthura. New Delhi,Indian Council for Cultural Relations,1973.[2]
Further reading
[edit]- Bihari Satsai: Aalochana evam Vyakhaya (Hindi), Nemichand Jain. Delhi, 2009.[3]
- Humour in the Satsai of Biharilal, Snell, Rupert (1999). In: Of Clowns and Gods Brahmans and Babus: Humour in South Asian Literatures. Manohar (Delhi), pp. 63–79.[4]
- Kangra Paintings of the Bihari Sat Sai by M. S. Randhawa. Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 90, No. 4 (Oct. - Dec., 1970), pp. 591–592.[5]
References
[edit]- ^abKangra Paintings of the Bihari Sat SaiNational Museum, New Delhi, 1966.
- ^abcOne or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain:Lyall, Charles James(1911). "Bihārī-Lāl".InChisholm, Hugh(ed.).Encyclopædia Britannica.Vol. 3 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 927.
- ^RitiKavya Kaal
- ^Google notebookHindi literature.
