Three Satires From Ancient Kashmir

Three Satires From Ancient Kashmir is a compilation of three satires that were written by a Sanskrit scholar in the eleventh century with these tales originating from ancient Kashmir. These satires are aimed at the prevalent moral bankruptcy in ancient Kashmir then and are of relevance even today with the greed for wealth and power that is so common everywhere.

The book comprises three satirical bhanas or 'causeries', which are 'Narma Mala' or 'A Garland of Mirth', 'Kala Vilasa' or 'A Dalliance With Deceptions,' and 'Deshopedesha' or 'Advice From the Countryside.' the fables themselves are of little significance, but what is important is the detailing in the work by the author that cuts deeply inside the social structure of that period in time. The translation indeed does justification to the original language in which it was penned. The chapters also contain dry humour like when the author writes about the foreign student, for whom 'even a river is considered insufficient for his purificatory rites.'

The work does not spare anyone, neither a buddhist nun nor the poets themselves. The author condemns working wives and women who party as 'demons of a thousand deceptions in the dark night of this degenerate age.' He is especially harsh on cheating officials and traders in the Three Satires From Ancient Kashmir. His work is never far from its inherent wit and cynicism. The book was published by Penguin India in 2011 and is available as a paperback.

Key Features:

• This is a major work in Sanskrit written by a scholar from Kashmir in the eleventh century whose 18 works have been discovered thus far.
• You can read about characters from ancient Kashmir with their greed for money and sex and about the moral degeneration of ancient people that is relevant even in the modern world.