ShringaraIntermediate

साध

Saadh

Subhadra Kumari Chauhan

1 min read 7 versesImagination River Loneliness

7 verses · ~1 min

मृदुल कल्पना के चल पँखों पर हम तुम दोनों आसीन। भूल जगत के कोलाहल को रच लें अपनी सृष्टि नवीन।।

वितत विजन के शांत प्रांत में कल्लोलिनी नदी के तीर। बनी हुई हो वहीं कहीं पर हम दोनों की पर्ण-कुटीर।।

कुछ रूखा, सूखा खाकर ही पीतें हों सरिता का जल। पर न कुटिल आक्षेप जगत के करने आवें हमें विकल।।

सरल काव्य-सा सुंदर जीवन हम सानंद बिताते हों। तरु-दल की शीतल छाया में चल समीर-सा गाते हों।।

सरिता के नीरव प्रवाह-सा बढ़ता हो अपना जीवन। हो उसकी प्रत्येक लहर में अपना एक निरालापन।।

रचे रुचिर रचनाएँ जग में अमर प्राण भरने वाली। दिशि-दिशि को अपनी लाली से अनुरंजित करने वाली।।

तुम कविता के प्राण बनो मैं उन प्राणों की आकुल तान। निर्जन वन को मुखरित कर दे प्रिय! अपना सम्मोहन गान।।

इति

Rasa: Shringara
Stanzas: 7
Lines: 14
Reading time: ~1 min
Form: Geet (lyric song)
Metre: geet
Rhyme: AABB

The poem evokes a serene and romantic atmosphere of intimate solitude, depicting a couple retreating from the tumultuous world to craft a private, idealistic reality within the quietude of a remote hermitage. A painting of this scene would capture a rustic leaf-hut nestled on the verdant, sun-dappled bank of a flowing river, where the couple finds harmony in simplicity, drinking crystalline water and resting beneath the cooling shade of lush trees. The river’s rhythmic, gentle flow serves as a central symbol for their life—a continuous, untroubled motion that mirrors the creative union between a poet and his muse, whose shared songs fill the empty forest with vibrant, life-affirming color. Ultimately, the work resonates with a deeply devotional and romantic tone, portraying an escape into nature where the purity of art and the tranquility of isolation protect the lovers from the cynical reach of society.

साध (Saadh), by Subhadra Kumari Chauhan runs to 14 lines across 7 stanzas, set as Two-line rhyming couplets expressing romantic and peaceful aspirations. Its governing rasa is Shringara, shaded by Shanta. The metre is geet. Rhyme falls as AABB.

It belongs to the 1904 · 1948 span of Subhadra Kumari Chauhan's working life, and keeps the plain, spoken register that period is known for.

Read it for संसार के कोलाहल से दूर एकांत प्रेम की इच्छा and प्रकृति की गोद में सरल और कलात्मक जीवन की चाह. 5 words in it carry older or regional senses, so the poem rewards a second pass.

The verse is hung beside Summer Landscape: Bathed in a warm, contemplative atmosphere of rustic tranquility, the painting exudes a quiet, timeless stillness that invites deep reflection on the pastoral landscape. A majestic, lushly leafed tree stands sentinel…

Words worth pausing on

आसीन: बैठे हुए
कल्लोलिनी: लहरों वाली नदी
विकल: व्याकुल या बेचैन
समीर: हवा या पवन
अनुरंजित: रंगा हुआ या सुशोभित

Threads

Imagination River Loneliness

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.