The Samdesarasaka of Abdul Rahman.

• Author: BEHL, ADITYA
• Position: Review

The Samdesarasaka of Abdul Rahman. Translated by C. M. MAYRHOFER. Delhi: MOTILAL BANARSIDASS PUBLISHERS, 1998. Pp. xvi + 259, indices. Rs 400.

3. M. Mayrhofer has rendered a signal service to the field of Apabhramsa studies and to scholars of Indian Islam and of Indian literature in general by translating this little-known poem into literal English prose. The text, a duta-kavya or messenger poem based on the Sanskrit model of Kalidasa's Meghaduta, is the only surviving Apabhramsa work by a Muslim poet. It provides valuable evidence of early Muslim participation in the formation of Indian literary canons and probably predates the creation of literatures in the new Indo-Aryan languages. While the dating and provenance of the text are uncertain, its unusual interest lies both in the Muslim author's adaptation of the Sanskrit model as well as in his documentation of the musical performance of poetry. From the benediction onwards, Abdul Rahman signals that his poem is not dedicated to Siva or Visnu but to a formless Islamic creator. Rather than following the Meghadata slavishly, Abdul Rahman creates a new narrative frame: a woman approaches a traveler on the old trade route from Multan to Cambay and begs him to take a message to her husband there. As the traveler is seduced by the woman's passionate expression of her need, he asks when her husband left. She responds by describing the six seasons of her separation, a generic set-piece that allows the author to show...