9 verses · ~1 min
यह कदंब का पेड़ अगर माँ होता यमुना तीरे। मैं भी उस पर बैठ कन्हैया बनता धीरे-धीरे।।
ले देतीं यदि मुझे बांसुरी तुम दो पैसे वाली। किसी तरह नीची हो जाती यह कदंब की डाली।।
तुम्हें नहीं कुछ कहता पर मैं चुपके-चुपके आता। उस नीची डाली से अम्मा ऊँचे पर चढ़ जाता।।
वहीं बैठ फिर बड़े मजे से मैं बांसुरी बजाता। अम्मा-अम्मा कह वंशी के स्वर में तुम्हे बुलाता।।
बहुत बुलाने पर भी माँ जब नहीं उतर कर आता। माँ, तब माँ का हृदय तुम्हारा बहुत विकल हो जाता।।
तुम आँचल फैला कर अम्मां वहीं पेड़ के नीचे। ईश्वर से कुछ विनती करतीं बैठी आँखें मीचे।।
तुम्हें ध्यान में लगी देख मैं धीरे-धीरे आता। और तुम्हारे फैले आँचल के नीचे छिप जाता।।
तुम घबरा कर आँख खोलतीं, पर माँ खुश हो जाती। जब अपने मुन्ना राजा को गोदी में ही पातीं।।
इसी तरह कुछ खेला करते हम-तुम धीरे-धीरे। यह कदंब का पेड़ अगर माँ होता यमुना तीरे।।
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
Vasudev Crossing the Yamuna with Baby Krishna
This sacred image depicts a pivotal moment in the Bhagavata Purana, where the father Vasudev carries the divine infant Krishna across the storm tossed Yamuna river to safety. Shielded by the multi headed serpent Shesha, the child radiates a luminous glow that pierces the dark of the night. This work embodies the deep devotion of the era, where lithographic prints brought the tales of the divine into the living spaces of countless families, fostering a personal connection with the deity through art that serves as a conduit for grace and protection.
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