{{short description| Ancient Indian Prakrit text}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2017}} {{Use Indian English|date=August 2017}}
The '''Gāhā Sattasaī''' or '''Gāhā Kośa''' ({{langx|sa|गाथा सप्तशती|Gāthā Saptaśatī}}) is an ancient collection of love poems in the Maharashtri Prakrit language. 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}}
''Gaha Sattasai'' 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 the "opposite extreme" of ''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 do not 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 nayika and nayak respectively.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Jash|first=Pranabananda|title=Radha-Madhava Sub-Sect in Eastern India |date=1979|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44141958|journal=Proceedings of the Indian History Congress|volume=40|pages=177–184|jstor=44141958 |issn=2249-1937}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|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.{{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}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=Varadpande |first=M. L. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FX2btUszr6cC&dq=Garga+samhita&pg=PT53 |title=Love in Ancient India |date=2011-02-02 |publisher=SCB Distributors |isbn=978-81-8328-217-8 |language=en}}</ref> 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 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 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== Although the name mentions 700 single verse poems in 7 chapters, the various available manuscripts contain a variable number of total poems. S.A. Joglekar has carefully compiled them and has identified a total of 1006 poems in a book titled Halsatvahan’s Gathasaptashati Published in 1956 by Prasad Publications, Pune'''.''' 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.{{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}}
=== Economic Life === The folk who composed these poems lived in rural, forested and forest fringe areas. Agriculture and hunting were their chief occupations. Around 100 poems contain references to fields, crops under cultivation, farming implements and accessories such as fencing, farming operations and storing and processing of agricultural produce. Similarly around 100 poems contain references to animals hunted, hunting implements and hunting operations.
=== Plants and animals === While the poems are basically love poems their natural setting includes references to a number of plant and animal species. Some plant species such as ''Ricinus communis'' and ''Pandanus'' are mentioned just once. Others, for example, mango(17) and lotus (49) are mentioned in several poems. Altogether 170 poems mention plant species. Some animal species such as leopard, cat and honeybee are mentioned just once. Others, for example, cattle (16), elephant (20) and bumblebee (30) are mentioned in several poems. Altogether 163 poems mention animal species. Mango, cattle and elephant are important in day- to-day life, while lotus is attractive and bumblebees being trapped in the lotus flowers at night is a popular poetic convention. Thus, 333 out of 1006 poems refer to some plant or animal species. This reflects the fact that the common people composing these poems lived in close vicinity of nature.
==Samples== {{blockquote| <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}}
{{blockquote| <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}}
{{blockquote| <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}}Cow elephants once turned widows
When my son launched a single arrow
But his wife has now so weakened him
That he uselessly bears a burden
Of arrows on his own back
Poem 630 from Joglekar's compilation{{blockquote| 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>}} {{blockquote| <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). 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
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Category:Hindu texts Category:Ancient Indian literature Category:Poetry anthologies Category:Love poems Category:Prakrit literature