Suleiman Charitra

A marvelous retelling of a biblical tale through Sanskrit eyes

A Hindu poet, Kalyana Malla, renders in classical Sanskrit a biblical story for his Muslim patron, a Lodhi prince of the sixteenth century, in this unusual intermingling of cultural traditions. The sensual unfolding of David and Bathsheba's love story-the bathing scene, David's infatuation, his pursuit of Bathsheba and their eventual union-is strikingly portrayed in the language of the gods through its shringara rasa or the erotic mode, by a writer better known for the sex manual Ananga Ranga.

This marvellous, first-ever English translation of Suleiman Charitra-a delightful Sanskrit rendering of Hebraic and Arabic tales-elegantly brings together the east and the west.