6 verses · ~1 min
अपने बिखरे भावों का मैं गूँथ अटपटा सा यह हार। चली चढ़ाने उन चरणों पर, अपने हिय का संचित प्यार॥
डर था कहीं उपस्थिति मेरी, उनकी कुछ घड़ियाँ बहुमूल्य नष्ट न कर दे, फिर क्या होगा मेरे इन भावों का मूल्य?
संकोचों में डूबी मैं जब पहुँची उनके आँगन में कहीं उपेक्षा करें न मेरी, अकुलाई सी थी मन में।
किंतु अरे यह क्या, इतना आदर, इतनी करुणा, सम्मान? प्रथम दृष्टि में ही दे डाला तुमने मुझे अहो मतिमान!
मैं अपने झीने आँचल में इस अपार करुणा का भार कैसे भला सँभाल सकूँगी उनका वह स्नेह अपार।
लख महानता उनकी पल-पल देख रही हूँ अपनी ओर मेरे लिए बहुत थी केवल उनकी तो करुणा की कोर।
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
Lady Making a Garland
In this transcendent work, Raja Ravi Varma captures a quiet, intimate moment of domestic grace and devotion. A young woman sits in soft light, delicately stringing fragrant white and pink blossoms into a traditional floral garland. Her dark, cascading hair, luminous skin, and traditional ornaments speak volumes of her classical elegance. Varma masterfully employs European academic realism, yet the soul of the painting remains entirely Indian, evoking the timeless poetic moods of classical literature and daily ritual.
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