Who hasn’t heard of Kalidasa’s opening verse from Raghuvamsha that shows how inseparable Shiva and Shakti, that goes as follows?

वागर्थाविव सम्पृक्तौ वागर्थ प्रतिपत्तयॆ |
जगतः पितरौ वन्दे पार्वती परमेश्वरौ ॥

 

Uma-Maheshwara (9th century) Currently in Chicago Institute of Art

Uma-Maheshwara (9th century) Currently in Chicago Institute of Art

(Picture taken from : http://satyamshivamsundaram.blogspot.com/2010/10/art-indian-but-not-in-india.html)

vAgarthAviva samprktau vAgartha pratipattayE
jagataH pitarau vandE pArvatI paramEshvarau

(Veneration to the parents of the world, Parvati and Parameshwara
Who remain inseparable as the word, and it’s meaning )

Here is the Kannada translation of the same verse, which I had written a while ago:

ತಲೆವಾಗುವೆ ನಾ ಶಿವಶಿವೆಗೆ
ಜಗದಲಿ ಎಲ್ಲರ ಹೆತ್ತವರ;
ಬಿಡದೊಡಗೂಡಿಯೆ ಇಹರಲ್ಲ!
ಮಾತಿಗೆ ಬೆಸೆದಿಹ ಹುರುಳಂತೆ

When I was thinking about this verse, I was also reminded of couple of earlier translations about Shiva and Shakti which I had done(You can find them here and here). Then I ended up reading a few more verses about Shiva in the subhashita compilation called “Subhashita Ratna Bhandagara” (This is available on Google Books for those of you interested! Yay! )

Among the verses, I found the following verse very interesting:

च्युतं इन्दोर्लेखं रतिकलहभग्नम् च वलयं
द्वयं चक्रीकृत्य प्रहसितमुखी शैलतनया
अवोचद् यं पश्येत्यवतु स शिवः सा च गिरिजा
स च क्रीडाचन्द्रो दशनकिरणापूरिततनुः ||

chyutAm indorlekhAM ratikalahabhagnaM cha valayaM
dvayaM chakrIkRRitya prahasitamukhI shailatanayA |
avochad yaM pashyetyavatu sa shivaH sA cha girijA
sa cha krIDAchandro dashanakiraNApUritatanuH || (Vidyakara: 47)||

(Original source of the shloka is likely Vidyakara’s compilation called Subhashita Ratna Kosha – who in turn may have taken it from another earlier source )

Here is my translation of this verse in Kannada:

ಇರುಳಿನಪ್ಪುಗೆಯಲೊಡೆದ ಕಡಗವನು ಉರುಳಿ ಹೋಗಿದ್ದ ಎಳೆಯ ಚಂದಿರನ
ಜೊತೆಗೆ ಸೇರಿಸುತ ಬಳೆಯ ಮಾಡುತಲಿ ಗಿರಿಜೆ ಶಿವನೆಡೆಗೆ ನಗುತ “ನೋಡಿಲ್ಲಿ”
ಎನುತ  ಬಾಯ್ದೆರೆಯೆ ಅವಳ ಹಲ್ಲುಗಳಕಾಂತಿಯನ್ನೆಲ್ಲ ತನ್ನ ಮೈದುಂಬಿ
ಹೊಳೆವ ಚಂದಿರನು ಜೊತೆಗೆ ಶಿವಶಿವೆಯ ಸೇರಿ ಕಾಪಿಡಲಿ! ನಮ್ಮ ಕಾಪಿಡಲಿ!

(Although it is not a verbatim translation, I hope I have captured the essence of the verse)

The musician/composer G.N.Balasubramaniam, popularly known as GNB passed away on May 1st, 1965. And on this day it is quite appropriate that I am thinking and writing about Shiva-Shakti! GNB was an innovator, and he composed in some ragas that he brought to life. The raga Shiva Shakti was also one such raga. He has a very catchy composition this rare raga:

You can listen to this composition by Smt P Ramaa here in this YouTube video link.

Sometime ago, I had composed a swarajati in this raga, and I thought it was appropriate to share it with the readers on this day of remembering the great GNB:

Please listen to this composition!  Feel free to post your thoughts about the composition either on this post or on the MixCloud track.

-neelanjana