Gaha Sattasai - Revision history

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	{{short description\| Ancient Indian Prakrit text}}		{{short description\| Ancient Indian Prakrit text}}

	The '''Gāhā Sattasaī''' or '''Gāhā Kośa''' ({{lang-sa\|गाथासप्तशती}} '''Gāthā Saptaśatī''') is an ancient collection of [[India]]n poems in [[Maharashtri Prakrit]] language. The poems are about love ~~and love's joy~~. They are written as frank monologues usually by a married woman, or an unmarried girl.{{sfn\|Peter Khoroche\|Herman Tieken\|2009\|pp=1-2}} They often express her unrequited feelings and longings to her friend, mother or another relative, lover, husband or to herself.{{sfn\|Peter Khoroche\|Herman Tieken\|2009\|pp=1-2}} Many poems are notable for describing unmarried girls daring for secret rendezvous to meet boys in ancient India, or about marital problems with husbands who remains emotionally a stranger to his wife and bosses over her, while trying to have affairs with other women.{{sfn\|Peter Khoroche\|Herman Tieken\|2009\|pp=2-3}}		The '''Gāhā Sattasaī''' or '''Gāhā Kośa''' ({{lang-sa\|गाथासप्तशती}} '''Gāthā Saptaśatī''') is an ancient collection of [[India]]n poems in [[Maharashtri Prakrit]] language. The poems are about love. They are written as frank monologues usually by a married woman, or an unmarried girl.{{sfn\|Peter Khoroche\|Herman Tieken\|2009\|pp=1-2}} They often express her unrequited feelings and longings to her friend, mother or another relative, lover, husband or to herself.{{sfn\|Peter Khoroche\|Herman Tieken\|2009\|pp=1-2}} Many poems are notable for describing unmarried girls daring for secret rendezvous to meet boys in ancient India, or about marital problems with husbands who remains emotionally a stranger to his wife and bosses over her, while trying to have affairs with other women.{{sfn\|Peter Khoroche\|Herman Tieken\|2009\|pp=2-3}}

	''Gatha Saptasati'' is one of the oldest known [[Subhashita]]-genre text.<ref name="Sternbach1974p10"/> It deals with the emotions of love,<ref name="Sternbach1974p10">{{cite book\|author=Ludwik Sternbach\|title=Subhasita, Gnomic and Didactic Literature\|url=https://archive.org/details/subhasitagnomicd0000ster \|url-access=registration\|year=1974\|publisher=Otto Harrassowitz Verlag\|isbn=978-3-447-01546-2\|pages=[https://archive.org/details/subhasitagnomicd0000ster/page/10 10]–14 with footnotes}}</ref> and has been called as "opposite extreme" to ''[[Kamasutra]]''.{{sfn\|Peter Khoroche\|Herman Tieken\|2009\|p=3}} While ''Kamasutra'' is a theoretical work on love and sex, ''Gaha Sattasai'' is a practical compilation of examples describing "untidy reality of life" where seduction formulae don't work, love seems complicated and emotionally unfulfilling.{{sfn\|Peter Khoroche\|Herman Tieken\|2009\|pp=3-5}} It also mentioned [[Radha]] and [[Krishna]] in one of its verse as [[Ashta Nayika\|nayika]] and nayak respectively.<ref>{{Cite journal\|last=Jash\|first=Pranabananda\|date=1979\|title=RADHA-MADHAVA SUB-SECT IN EASTERN INDIA\|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44141958\|journal=Proceedings of the Indian History Congress\|volume=40\|pages=177–184\|issn=2249-1937}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book\|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1078687920\|title=Finding Radha : the quest for love\|date=2018\|others=Malashri Lal, Namita Gokhale\|isbn=978-93-5305-361-1\|location=[London]\|oclc=1078687920}}</ref>		''Gatha Saptasati'' is one of the oldest known [[Subhashita]]-genre text.<ref name="Sternbach1974p10"/> It deals with the emotions of love,<ref name="Sternbach1974p10">{{cite book\|author=Ludwik Sternbach\|title=Subhasita, Gnomic and Didactic Literature\|url=https://archive.org/details/subhasitagnomicd0000ster \|url-access=registration\|year=1974\|publisher=Otto Harrassowitz Verlag\|isbn=978-3-447-01546-2\|pages=[https://archive.org/details/subhasitagnomicd0000ster/page/10 10]–14 with footnotes}}</ref> and has been called as "opposite extreme" to ''[[Kamasutra]]''.{{sfn\|Peter Khoroche\|Herman Tieken\|2009\|p=3}} While ''Kamasutra'' is a theoretical work on love and sex, ''Gaha Sattasai'' is a practical compilation of examples describing "untidy reality of life" where seduction formulae don't work, love seems complicated and emotionally unfulfilling.{{sfn\|Peter Khoroche\|Herman Tieken\|2009\|pp=3-5}} It also mentioned [[Radha]] and [[Krishna]] in one of its verse as [[Ashta Nayika\|nayika]] and nayak respectively.<ref>{{Cite journal\|last=Jash\|first=Pranabananda\|date=1979\|title=RADHA-MADHAVA SUB-SECT IN EASTERN INDIA\|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44141958\|journal=Proceedings of the Indian History Congress\|volume=40\|pages=177–184\|issn=2249-1937}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book\|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1078687920\|title=Finding Radha : the quest for love\|date=2018\|others=Malashri Lal, Namita Gokhale\|isbn=978-93-5305-361-1\|location=[London]\|oclc=1078687920}}</ref>
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	== Authorship and date ==		== Authorship and date ==

	The collection is attributed to the king [[Hāla]] who lived in the 1st ~~century, but this attribution is most likely fictitious and the real author was someone else from a later~~ century.{{sfn\|Peter Khoroche\|Herman Tieken\|2009\|pp=1-2}} Inside the text, many poems include names of authors, some of which are names of kings from many South Indian particularly Deccan region kingdoms from the first half of the first millennium CE.{{sfn\|Peter Khoroche\|Herman Tieken\|2009\|pp=8-10}} According to Schelling, one version of the text names 278 poets~~; with half the poems being anonymous~~.<ref>Schelling, Introduction</ref>		The collection is attributed to the king [[Hāla]] who lived in the 1st century.{{sfn\|Peter Khoroche\|Herman Tieken\|2009\|pp=1-2}} Inside the text, many poems include names of authors, some of which are names of kings from many South Indian particularly Deccan region kingdoms from the first half of the first millennium CE.{{sfn\|Peter Khoroche\|Herman Tieken\|2009\|pp=8-10}} According to Schelling, one version of the text names 278 poets.<ref>Schelling, Introduction</ref>

	According to Ram Karan Sharma, this text is from the ~~5th~~ century CE.<ref>{{cite book\|author=Ram Karan Sharma\|editor=Ayyappappanikkar\|title=Medieval Indian Literature: Surveys and selections\|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=KYLpvaKJIMEC&pg=PA481 \|year=1997\| publisher=Sahitya Akademi\| isbn=978-81-260-0365-5\|page=481}}</ref><ref>{{cite book\|title=Students' Britannica India\|url=https://archive.org/details/studentsbritanni05hoib\|url-access=registration\|year=2000\|publisher=Encyclopaedia Britannica\|isbn=978-0-85229-760-5\|page=[https://archive.org/details/studentsbritanni05hoib/page/341 341]}}</ref> According to Ludwik Sternbach, the text was interpolated and revised by later scribes.<ref name="Sternbach1974p10"/> It is unlikely to be the work of Hala, based on style, inconsistencies between its manuscripts and because other sources state it had as many as 389 authors.<ref name="Sternbach1974p10"/> Sternbach places the text between 2nd and ~~6th~~-century CE.<ref name="Sternbach1974p10"/> Khoroche and Tieken place the text between 3rd and ~~7th~~ century CE, but before 640 CE because [[Bāṇabhaṭṭa\|Banabhatta]] cites it in his preface to the ~~7th~~-century classic ''[[Harshacharita]]''.{{sfn\|Peter Khoroche\|Herman Tieken\|2009\|pp=9-10}}		According to Ram Karan Sharma, this text is from the 1st century CE.<ref>{{cite book\|author=Ram Karan Sharma\|editor=Ayyappappanikkar\|title=Medieval Indian Literature: Surveys and selections\|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=KYLpvaKJIMEC&pg=PA481 \|year=1997\| publisher=Sahitya Akademi\| isbn=978-81-260-0365-5\|page=481}}</ref><ref>{{cite book\|title=Students' Britannica India\|url=https://archive.org/details/studentsbritanni05hoib\|url-access=registration\|year=2000\|publisher=Encyclopaedia Britannica\|isbn=978-0-85229-760-5\|page=[https://archive.org/details/studentsbritanni05hoib/page/341 341]}}</ref> According to Ludwik Sternbach, the text was interpolated and revised by later scribes.<ref name="Sternbach1974p10"/> It is unlikely to be the work of Hala, based on style, inconsistencies between its manuscripts and because other sources state it had as many as 389 authors.<ref name="Sternbach1974p10"/> Sternbach places the text between 2nd and 4th-century CE.<ref name="Sternbach1974p10"/> Khoroche and Tieken place the text between 3rd and 4th century CE, but before 640 CE because [[Bāṇabhaṭṭa\|Banabhatta]] cites it in his preface to the 4th-century classic ''[[Harshacharita]]''.{{sfn\|Peter Khoroche\|Herman Tieken\|2009\|pp=9-10}}

	==Manuscripts==		==Manuscripts==
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	[[Category:Hindu texts]]		[[Category:Hindu texts]]
	[[Category:Ancient Indian literature]]		[[Category:Ancient Indian literature]]
	[[Category:~~Anthologies~~]]		[[Category:Poetry anthologies]]
			[[Category:Love poems]]
			[[Category:Prakrit literature]]

>Gracious248: added short description

2021-06-21T20:05:58Z

added short description

New page

{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2017}}
{{Use Indian English|date=August 2017}}
{{short description| Ancient Indian Prakrit text}}

The '''Gāhā Sattasaī''' or '''Gāhā Kośa''' ({{lang-sa|गाथासप्तशती}} '''Gāthā Saptaśatī''') is an ancient collection of [[India]]n poems in [[Maharashtri Prakrit]] language. The poems are about love and love's joy. They are written as frank monologues usually by a married woman, or an unmarried girl.{{sfn|Peter Khoroche|Herman Tieken|2009|pp=1-2}} They often express her unrequited feelings and longings to her friend, mother or another relative, lover, husband or to herself.{{sfn|Peter Khoroche|Herman Tieken|2009|pp=1-2}} Many poems are notable for describing unmarried girls daring for secret rendezvous to meet boys in ancient India, or about marital problems with husbands who remains emotionally a stranger to his wife and bosses over her, while trying to have affairs with other women.{{sfn|Peter Khoroche|Herman Tieken|2009|pp=2-3}}

''Gatha Saptasati'' is one of the oldest known [[Subhashita]]-genre text.<ref name="Sternbach1974p10"/> It deals with the emotions of love,<ref name="Sternbach1974p10">{{cite book|author=Ludwik Sternbach|title=Subhasita, Gnomic and Didactic Literature|url=https://archive.org/details/subhasitagnomicd0000ster |url-access=registration|year=1974|publisher=Otto Harrassowitz Verlag|isbn=978-3-447-01546-2|pages=[https://archive.org/details/subhasitagnomicd0000ster/page/10 10]–14 with footnotes}}</ref> and has been called as "opposite extreme" to ''[[Kamasutra]]''.{{sfn|Peter Khoroche|Herman Tieken|2009|p=3}} While ''Kamasutra'' is a theoretical work on love and sex, ''Gaha Sattasai'' is a practical compilation of examples describing "untidy reality of life" where seduction formulae don't work, love seems complicated and emotionally unfulfilling.{{sfn|Peter Khoroche|Herman Tieken|2009|pp=3-5}} It also mentioned [[Radha]] and [[Krishna]] in one of its verse as [[Ashta Nayika|nayika]] and nayak respectively.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Jash|first=Pranabananda|date=1979|title=RADHA-MADHAVA SUB-SECT IN EASTERN INDIA|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44141958|journal=Proceedings of the Indian History Congress|volume=40|pages=177–184|issn=2249-1937}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1078687920|title=Finding Radha : the quest for love|date=2018|others=Malashri Lal, Namita Gokhale|isbn=978-93-5305-361-1|location=[London]|oclc=1078687920}}</ref>

== Authorship and date ==

The collection is attributed to the king [[Hāla]] who lived in the 1st century, but this attribution is most likely fictitious and the real author was someone else from a later century.{{sfn|Peter Khoroche|Herman Tieken|2009|pp=1-2}} Inside the text, many poems include names of authors, some of which are names of kings from many South Indian particularly Deccan region kingdoms from the first half of the first millennium CE.{{sfn|Peter Khoroche|Herman Tieken|2009|pp=8-10}} According to Schelling, one version of the text names 278 poets; with half the poems being anonymous.<ref>Schelling, Introduction</ref>

According to Ram Karan Sharma, this text is from the 5th century CE.<ref>{{cite book|author=Ram Karan Sharma|editor=Ayyappappanikkar|title=Medieval Indian Literature: Surveys and selections|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=KYLpvaKJIMEC&pg=PA481 |year=1997| publisher=Sahitya Akademi| isbn=978-81-260-0365-5|page=481}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Students' Britannica India|url=https://archive.org/details/studentsbritanni05hoib|url-access=registration|year=2000|publisher=Encyclopaedia Britannica|isbn=978-0-85229-760-5|page=[https://archive.org/details/studentsbritanni05hoib/page/341 341]}}</ref> According to Ludwik Sternbach, the text was interpolated and revised by later scribes.<ref name="Sternbach1974p10"/> It is unlikely to be the work of Hala, based on style, inconsistencies between its manuscripts and because other sources state it had as many as 389 authors.<ref name="Sternbach1974p10"/> Sternbach places the text between 2nd and 6th-century CE.<ref name="Sternbach1974p10"/> Khoroche and Tieken place the text between 3rd and 7th century CE, but before 640 CE because [[Bāṇabhaṭṭa|Banabhatta]] cites it in his preface to the 7th-century classic ''[[Harshacharita]]''.{{sfn|Peter Khoroche|Herman Tieken|2009|pp=9-10}}

==Manuscripts==
The text exists in many versions.{{sfn|Peter Khoroche|Herman Tieken|2009|pp=8-10}} Manuscripts have been found in many parts of India in many languages, far from Maharashtra. The existence of many major recensions, states [[Moriz Winternitz]], suggests that the text was very popular by early medieval era in India.<ref>{{cite book|author=Moriz Winternitz|title=History of Indian Literature |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3-XlzLL1--AC |year=1963|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |isbn=978-81-208-0056-4|pages=114–116}}</ref> The poems were changed over time, sometimes deleted and replaced with different poems, though every manuscript contains exactly 700 poems consistent with the meaning of the title.{{sfn|Peter Khoroche|Herman Tieken|2009|pp=8-10}}

The first critical edition of the ''Sattasaī'' was by [[Albrecht Weber]] in 1881. It is based on seventeen manuscripts, and contains 964 poems in total, of which 430 are common to all manuscripts.{{sfn|Peter Khoroche|Herman Tieken|2009|p=10}} Weber was also the first person to translate the poems into a European language (into German), but his translation was published in journals and not as a separate book. The only English translation to include 700 verses (1–700 of Weber's edition) is by Radhagovinda Basak in 1970.{{sfn|Peter Khoroche|Herman Tieken|2009|p=13}} There is also a Sanskrit translation of the ''Sattasaī'' with commentary, made available by the [[Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan]].<ref>[http://www.sanskrit.nic.in/DigitalBook/S/SanskritGatha.pdf Sanskrit Gatha Saptashati]</ref> One of the most important translation of this text along with an elaborate introduction has been done by Sadashiv Atmaram Joglekar<ref>{{Cite web|title=मंगला बर्वे|url=https://maharashtratimes.com/editorial/manasa/mangala-barve/articleshow/55119283.cms|access-date=2020-07-29|website=Maharashtra Times|language=mr}}</ref> in Marathi, published in 1956.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Hal Satvahanachi Gatha Saptashati : Joglekar,sadashiv Atmaram : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming|url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.310366|access-date=2020-07-29|website=Internet Archive|language=en}}</ref>

The text was popular across India, and attracted at least fourteen commentaries.<ref name="Sternbach1974p10"/>

==Contents==
It consists of 700 single-verse poems, divided into 7 chapters of 100 verses each. All the poems are couplets, and most are in the musical [[arya metre|''arya'' metre]].{{sfn|Peter Khoroche|Herman Tieken|2009|p=1}} Many poems of the text include names of gods and goddesses in [[Hinduism]], for allegorical comparison of a woman's feelings.{{sfn|Peter Khoroche|Herman Tieken|2009|pp=175–176, 195}}

==Samples==
{{quote|
<poem>
Mother
with the blink of an eye
his love vanished
A trinket gets
dangled
into your world
you reach out and it's gone
</poem>
|Hala, tr. Schelling}}

{{quote|
<poem>
Lone buck
in the clearing
Nearby doe
eyes him with such
longing
that there
in the trees the hunter
seeing his own girl
lets the bow drop
</poem>
|Anonymous, tr. Schelling}}

{{quote|
<poem>
I have heard so much about you from others
And now at last I see you with my own eyes.
Please, my dear, say something
So that my ears, too, may drink nectar.
</poem>
|Unknown, tr. Peter Khoroche and Herman Tieken}}

{{quote|
My braided hair's not straight yet, And you again speak of leaving. - Gatha 273<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Hāla|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QfljAAAAMAAJ|title=The Absent Traveller: Prākrit Love Poetry from the Gāthāsaptaśatī of Sātavāhana Hāla|last2=Hala|date=1991|publisher=Ravi Dayal|isbn=978-0-86311-253-9|language=en}}</ref>}}

{{quote|
<poem>
If one of two beings
who grew up together in joy and pain
and loved each other for a long time,
dies –
this one lives,
and the other one is dead.
</poem>
|Poem 142, tr. Ludwik Sternbach}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==
* {{cite book | author1=Peter Khoroche | author2=Herman Tieken | year=2009 | title=Poems on life and love in ancient India: Hāla's Sattasaī | publisher=Excelsior Editions | isbn=978-0-7914-9392-2 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wsizcqxoQgsC }}
* {{cite book| first=Andrew|last=Schelling|author-link=Andrew Schelling | title=Dropping the Bow: Poems of Ancient India | year=2008 | publisher=Companions for the Journey Series: 15 | edition=2}} [https://web.archive.org/web/20101127175554/http://raintaxi.com/online/2009spring/schelling.shtml Review]
* {{cite book | year=1985 | title = History of Indian literature | author1=Moriz Winternitz | author-link=Moriz Winternitz | editor1=Subhadra Jha (transl.) | publisher=Motilal Banarsidass | isbn=978-81-208-0056-4 | pages=108–116 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3-XlzLL1--AC&pg=PA108}}
* {{cite book | year=2000 | title = Ancient Indian literature: an anthology, Volume 1 | author1=T. R. S. Sharma | author2=C. K. Seshadri | author3=June Gaur | edition=reprint | publisher=Sahitya Akademi | isbn=978-81-260-0794-3 | page=689 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IRp1PKX0BXoC&q=gaha+sattasai&pg=PA689}}
* {{cite book | year=1881 | title=Das Saptaçatakam des Hâla | publisher=in Commission bei F.A.Brockhaus | url=https://archive.org/details/dassaptaatakamd00webegoog | editor1=Albrecht Weber}}
*Joglekar, Sadashiv Atmaram (1956). [[iarchive:in.ernet.dli.2015.310366|Hal Satvahanachi Gatha Saptashat]]<nowiki/>i. (Marathi).

==External links==
* [http://www.sanskrit.nic.in/DigitalBook/S/SanskritGatha.pdf Sanskrit Gatha Saptashati], a Sanskrit translation of the Gaha Sattasai, with commentary
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20101110111335/http://www.sub.uni-goettingen.de/ebene_1/fiindolo/gretil/2_prakrt/halsatsu.htm Hala: Sattasai] at [[GRETIL]]

{{Hindudharma}}

[[Category:Hindu texts]]
[[Category:Ancient Indian literature]]
[[Category:Anthologies]]