On Suryadasa and the invention of bidirectional poetry (vilomakavya).

• Author: Minkowski, Christopher

The subject of this communication is the small but well-known genre of bidirectional poetry in Sanskrit called vilomakavya, in which a poem is composed in such a way that it can be read meaningfully from left to right, and from right to left, and in which two different narratives are sustained in the two directions. Here I argue four points: (1) It is reasonable to suppose that this genre had a beginning; to suppose, that is, that someone invented it at some time. (2) When one considers the evidence of the extant vilomakavya literature, it becomes clear that Suryadasa was the inventor of the genre. (3) For a Sanskrit literatus of his time, Suryadasa had an unusually detailed knowledge of the knowledge systems communicated in Persian and Arabic, and was active in a period when such interest was growing among Sanskrit authors. (4) Given that the Arabic and Persian scripts read from right to left, and given Surya's predilection for ingenious forms of poetry, his invention of the full-length vilomakavya was motivated most proximately by his engagement with the knowledge systems of the mlecchas or foreigners.

1. VILOMAKAVYA AND ITS BEGINNINGS

   The term vilomakavya means that all of the verses of the poem can be read both anulomena 'with the grain', in the ordinary direction, and also pratilomena 'against the grain', or from right to left. (1) The relevant units which are read in one direction or the other are the syllables, not individual phonemes. (2) Poets writing in the viloma form created verses of two types. In the first, called visamaksara, the verse sounds different when read in the two directions. The second, called samaksara, or tulyaksara, is palindromic; that is, each pada, half-verse, or verse sounds the same when read either way, even though the words can be segmented differently and can take different semantic values, in the fashion of bitextual or slesakavya poetry. (3)

   Was vilomakavya invented? There is nothing to recommend the idea that vilomakavya as a genre always existed. On the face of it, bidirectional poetry does not strike one as the first form that poetry would take in any literature. Furthermore, serious Indologists today cannot believe any more in a timeless, unchanging Indian culture, the same in all historical periods, with all forms, concepts, beliefs, and literary genres always already existing. The burden of proof really has to be placed on the other side of the argument, to show why and how it is that the genre of vilomakavya could be uncreated, a svayambhu. Furthermore, the Sanskrit poetic tradition has long included in its conceptual repertoire the notion that genres can be invented. Valmiki is accepted in the literary-critical and aesthetic tradition as the original poet (adikavi), who is depicted in the opening chapters of the Ramayana inventing poetry in the epic meter. (4) It is plausible, therefore, to assume for prima facie as well as for internal reasons that the vilomakavya genre came into being at some moment. If this is so, is it possible to discover who invented it, and when?

2. SURYADASA AS THE INVENTOR OF THE GENRE

   Recently Yigal Bronner has produced a full-length study of the phenomenon of slesakavya in Sanskrit, in which he showed, among other things, the historical development of bitextual poetry, from its early form in individual verses, through the full-length poems of double-meaning (dvisandhana kavya) of the Raghavapandaviya sort, and beyond. (5) One of the many findings of Bronner's work is that full-length bitextual poems are a later development in this history. (6) The vilomakavyas, which depend for their conception on the existence of full-length bitextual works like the Raghavapandaviya, must be even more recent.

   In fact, if we compile a list of all known vilomakavya texts, we find that bidirectional poetry is a rare and relatively late phenomenon. The list below identifies known vilomakavya works. (7) All but one of these texts have attributable dates, either because the author gives a date, or because the author himself can be assigned a date.

   Vilomakavya Works with Their Authors and Probable Dates Author Title of Work Date Suryadasa Ramakrsnavilomakavya ca. 1580 (Parthapur / Ahmadnagar) Cidambara Kavi Sabdarthacintamani ca. 1600 (Tanjore) (8) Venkatadhvarin Yadavaraghaviya ca. 1650 (Kanci) (9) ? Nalahariscandriya ? (10) As it turns out, there are not that many vilomakavyas. A certain number of other texts are identified as bidirectional in secondary sources; examination of the texts reveals that they are slesakavyas but not vilomakavyas. (11) One work in this list remains undated--the Nalahariscandriya--but its length, topic, and comparative obscurity suggest that it is a later and secondary experiment in the genre. (12) Short viloma-type poems have continued to be produced by Sanskrit authors more recently. (13)

   Of these texts Suryadasa's poem, the Ramakrsnavilomakavya, is the oldest. (14) Given Surya's dates, the work must have been composed in roughly the mid- or later sixteenth century. (15) In its two directions it tells the stories of Rama and Krsna, respectively.

   If it is the oldest known, is it also the first? In the opening and concluding verses of his autocommentary on the work, Surya as much as claims that he has invented the genre. (16) In the introductory verses he explains, in more detail than would be necessary for an existing genre, how a vilomakavya works, and what the registers of this particular poem will be (vss. 4-5). He lists the main difficulties that confront the author of a vilomakavya; confesses to succumbing nevertheless to the arrogance necessary to attempt the feat; and begs pardon from those who will understand how difficult this achievement is (vs. 2). He points out the pitfalls common in ingenious poetry (citrakavya), which he has avoided in this work: monosyllabic words, unknown words, and grammatical solecisms (vs. 6). And he asserts that while skill or talent might enable someone to accomplish great things, the writing of a vilomakavya lies beyond the scope of ordinary human effort, and requires divine assistance (vs. 3).

   The commentary ends with the following verses:

   godavari brahmagireh sakasat samprapita prag udadhim prayatnat yenarsina so 'pi punah pratipam anetum adrim prabhavet kim etam || evam vilomaksarakavyakartur bhuyamsam ayasam aveksya tajjnah janantv imam citrakavitvasimam daivajnasuryabhidhasampradistam || The sage made the Godavari flow east from the Brahma (Sahyadri) mountains to the ocean; but is even he able to make the river flow backward to its mountain source? Cognoscenti should appreciate the huge effort that the author of this viloma work has made, and should recognize that this, the very limit of poetic skill in citrakavya, has been marked by the one called Daivajna Surya. (17) The great effort, which Surya mentions twice, might explain why there are so few bidirectional poems. The ones that do exist, however, especially Surya's and Venkata's, are very well known. The Ramakrsnavilomakavya was disseminated throughout the Sanskrit-reading world. (18) The work turns up in almost every modern history of Sanskrit literature. There are at least seven copies extant in the Sarasvati Mahal collection in Tanjore. (19) The manuscripts are not dated in the catalogue, but their presence in the Tanjore palace collection lends further plausibility to the assumption that Surya's poem was the inspiration for the two southern authors.

   It is important to make clear what Surya did and did not invent. Surya did not invent the small-scale effect of reversible poetry. Earlier theoreticians of literary form in Sanskrit had already posited a poetic ornament (alamkara) called pratilomanuloma "in which the syllables in the second half of a verse repeat in exact inverse order those of the first half verse." (20) The figure appeared in some earlier poetry, most notably two passages famously laden with wordplay; the fifteenth chapter of...