Rustic Love Expressions of Maharashtra

Author(s): Nalini Joshi
Publisher: Nalini Joshi

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The Rustic Love-expressions of Maharashtra
(An Article written for the magazine ""Heritage India")
Dr. Nalini Joshi Professor, Jain Chair, University of Pune Pune 411007 Date: 24/03/2012
Every Sanskritist and particularly Prakritist in the world, knows the uniqueness of the anthology "Gaathaa-sapta-shatee'. At the very outset one may think about it as a religious work but it is not so. In this article, an attempt has been made to highlight the soul of Gaathaa-saptashatee, in which the poetic love-expressions of contemporary Maharashtra are documented. This collection of 700 verses (gaathaas) belongs to 1st century A.D.
"Haala Satavaahana', the 17th ruler of the Saatavaahana dynasty, is the compiler of this work. It is noted down in the third verse of this text that, ""Out of ten millions of verses adorned with ornaments (or rhetorical figures of speech), seven hundred only have been collected (or compiled) by Kavivastala (lit. compassionate toward the poets) Haala".
Many mythological accounts of the king Haala, Saalaahana or Saatavaahana are found in the legendary-history-books written in Sanskrit. Modern historians have written a lot about the history of Saatavaahana dynasty. Ancient Pratishsthaana (Paithana) was the capital of Saatavaahanas. Haala, the present compiler was a great lover of Prakrit, particularly Mahaaraashtree Prakrit. He appealed and encouraged his subjects to write their poetries in their colloquial language. The appeal of the king was extremely welcomed and literary hundreds of poets and poetesses showered king Haala with their muktakas (gaathaas, two-liners) in torrents. Per poetry, he offered one golden coin.
After going through the whole collection carefully, he selected 700 best verses and divided them into 7 parts - each called "shataka'. Thus Gaathaa-sapta-shatee manifests the poetic competence and intellectual abilities of the common people of Maharashtra. The expanse of Saatavaahana kingdom was a large one. So this unique anthology acquired tremendous popularity. It is a grand package of poetry and wisdom, a rich-socio-cultural data and the aspirations of common people, mainly belonging to rural areas. No wonder that this anthology is enumerated among the world-classics. In true sense, it is the Gangotri of the vast and rich Lokasaahitya in Marathi.
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