The Conquest of Madhurā

Gaṅgādevī
The Conquest of Madhurā / by Gaṅgādevī. Transl. by Shankar Rajaraman and Venetia Kotamraju. - Bangalore : Rasāla, 2013. - XV, 118 S. - (Rasāla ; 2)
Einheitssachtitel: Madhurāvijaya <Sanskrit, engl.>
ISBN 978-81-9241122-4 (Druck-Ausg.)
Rs. 250,00
£ 7,50
ISBN 978-81-924112-3-1 (eBook)
Rs. 100
£ 3,00
DDC: 891.21

Beschreibung
The Madhurā Vijaya is a 14th century court epic by a princess of the Vijayanagara Empire. Its historical importance is matched only by its literary qualities – the editors who rediscovered it, in 1916, noted that it was so good that some scholars couldn’t believe it had been written by a woman.
   The poem celebrates the victory of the Vijayanagara Empire’s crown prince, Kampa, over the Persian-ruled Madurai. In addition to battle scenes awash with blood, gore and plenty of poetic fantasy, the poetess describes how her husband Kampa passes the time between wars with his bevy of beautiful wives. The Rasāla edition comprises about 200 of the original Sanskrit verses alongside a new English translation. [Verlagsinformation]

Übersetzer
Shankar Rajaraman, Rasāla’s general editor, is a psychiatrist by profession who moonlights as a Sanskrit poet. Shankar is an aṣṭāvadhānī, which means that he has faced eight examiners in the traditional avadhāna or poetry competition, composing verses on the spot and correctly identifying quotations from a huge selection of possible poems. He specialises in citrakāvya, poetic compositions fitted, with great skill, into pre-detemined shapes such as that of a cobra or flower. His book on citrakāvya, Devīdānaviyam, was published in 2011.
Venetia Kotamraju, who set up Rasāla, is a Sanskrit enthusiast who has been working in the publishing industry for just under five years. Venetia has a degree in Classics and Sanskrit from Oxford and has now settled in Bangalore with her husband.

Quellen: Rasala Books; Pothi; Infibeam
Bildquelle: Rasala Books, Bangalore.
Bibliographie: [1]

References