7 verses · ~1 min
मेरे भोले मूर्ख हृदय ने कभी न इस पर किया विचार। विधि ने लिखी भाल पर मेरे सुख की घड़ियाँ दो ही चार॥
छलती रही सदा ही मृगतृष्णा सी आशा मतवाली। सदा लुभाया जीवन साकी ने दिखला रीती प्याली॥
मेरी कलित कामनाओं की ललित लालसाओं की धूल। आँखों के आगे उड़-उड़ करती है व्यथित हृदय में शूल॥
उन चरणों की भक्ति-भावना मेरे लिए हुई अपराध। कभी न पूरी हुई अभागे जीवन की भोली सी साध॥
मेरी एक-एक अभिलाषा का कैसा ह्रास हुआ। मेरे प्रखर पवित्र प्रेम का किस प्रकार उपहास हुआ॥
मुझे न दुख है जो कुछ होता हो उसको हो जाने दो। निठुर निराशा के झोंकों को मनमानी कर जाने दो॥
हे विधि इतनी दया दिखाना मेरी इच्छा के अनुकूल। उनके ही चरणों पर बिखरा देना मेरा जीवन-फूल॥
इति
The Poet
सुभद्राकुमारी चौहान
Subhadra Kumari Chauhan
1904 · 1948
There is a moment in every liberation movement when the struggle finds the poem that becomes its most essential utterance, not because the poem is merely rhetorical, but because it crystallizes an emotion so precisely that an entire people recognize themselves inside it. Subhadra Kumari Chauhan provided such a moment with Jhansi Ki Rani, her electric account of the warrior queen of Jhansi. This poem was so concentrated in its energy and so clear in its moral architecture that generations of Indian schoolchildren have carried it inside them as something closer to memory than memorization. But to reduce Chauhan to a single poem would be a severe literary injustice. She was an active participant in the independence movement who walked the path of satyagraha herself, becoming one of the first women to be imprisoned for civil disobedience. She was a poet of domestic tenderness, exploring childhood and the complex inner life of Indian women that formal literature had largely chosen to ignore. Born in 1904, she died in a road accident in 1948 too soon and too abruptly. Her voice remained fully alive and deeply necessary. She gave the warrior women of Indian mythology a voice, and in doing so, she became one herself.
Paired Painting
Sita Bhumipravesh
This profound canvas captures one of the most heartbreaking and poignant moments in the epic Ramayana, when the noble Queen Sita, weary of constant trials and unjust doubts cast upon her purity, appeals to her divine mother, Bhumi, the Earth goddess. Raja Ravi Varma masterfully orchestrates the scene with deep theatrical grace and psychological tension. On the right, King Rama sits upon his royal throne, his posture a mixture of shock, sorrow, and helpless realization as the earth begins to open up beneath his beloved wife. In the center, devoted attendants and sages watch in stunned silence and despair, their faces etched with grief. On the left, Sita gently surrenders to the embrace of the earth, her expression radiating serene detachment and divine dignity as she departs a world that continually tested her unwavering virtue. Through rich chiaroscuro and masterful emotional expression, the artist transforms a legendary mythological tragedy into an intimately human experience of profound loss and ultimate spiritual liberation.
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