Theft of a Tree
Published on 8. February 2022
Book
Hardback
544 pages
978-0-674-24589-1 (ISBN)
Description
A thousand-year-old story of Krishna and his wife Satyabhama retold by the most famous court poet of the Vijayanagara Empire.
Legend has it that the sixteenth-century Telugu poet Nandi Timmana composed Theft of a Tree, or Parijatapahara?amu, which he based on a popular millennium-old tale, to help the wife of Krishnadevaraya, king of the south Indian Vijayanagara Empire, win back her husband's affections.
Theft of a Tree recounts how Krishna stole the parijata, a wish-granting tree, from the garden of Indra, king of the gods. Krishna does so to please his favorite wife, Satyabhama, who is upset when he gifts his chief queen a single divine flower. After battling Indra, Krishna plants the tree for Satyabhama-but she must perform a rite temporarily relinquishing it and her husband to enjoy endless happiness. The poem's narrative unity, which was unprecedented in the literary tradition, prefigures the modern Telugu novel.
Theft of a Tree is presented here in the Telugu script alongside the first English translation.
Legend has it that the sixteenth-century Telugu poet Nandi Timmana composed Theft of a Tree, or Parijatapahara?amu, which he based on a popular millennium-old tale, to help the wife of Krishnadevaraya, king of the south Indian Vijayanagara Empire, win back her husband's affections.
Theft of a Tree recounts how Krishna stole the parijata, a wish-granting tree, from the garden of Indra, king of the gods. Krishna does so to please his favorite wife, Satyabhama, who is upset when he gifts his chief queen a single divine flower. After battling Indra, Krishna plants the tree for Satyabhama-but she must perform a rite temporarily relinquishing it and her husband to enjoy endless happiness. The poem's narrative unity, which was unprecedented in the literary tradition, prefigures the modern Telugu novel.
Theft of a Tree is presented here in the Telugu script alongside the first English translation.
Reviews / Votes
Theft of a Tree is wonderful piece, but it's not what you're used to-unless you were born five hundred years ago, in a galaxy far, far away...I had a helluva time, rethinking everything, thanks to this book. -- Anthony Madrid * RHINO *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge, Mass
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
1 illus
Dimensions
Height: 210 mm
Width: 146 mm
Thickness: 32 mm
Weight
593 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-674-24589-1 (9780674245891)
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Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Harshita Mruthinti Kamath is the Visweswara Rao and Sita Koppaka Associate Professor in Telugu Culture, Literatures and History at Emory University. Velcheru Narayana Rao is the Krishnadevaraya Emeritus Professor of Languages and Cultures of Asia at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.