4 verses · ~1 min
आ, स्वतंत्र प्यारे स्वदेश आ, स्वागत करती हूँ तेरा। तुझे देखकर आज हो रहा, दूना प्रमुदित मन मेरा॥
आ, उस बालक के समान जो है गुरुता का अधिकारी। आ, उस युवक-वीर सा जिसको विपदाएं ही हैं प्यारी॥
आ, उस सेवक के समान तू विनय-शील अनुगामी सा। अथवा आ तू युद्ध-क्षेत्र में कीर्ति-ध्वजा का स्वामी सा॥
आशा की सूखी लतिकाएं तुझको पा, फिर लहराईं। अत्याचारी की कृतियों को निर्भयता से दरसाईं॥
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
Krishna Enters Dvaraka
This masterful composition depicts the glorious return of Lord Krishna to the city of Dvaraka, a moment saturated with divine majesty and joyous devotion. As Krishna arrives in his resplendent chariot, the architecture of the city stands as a testament to an ancient, golden age of civilization (characterized by intricate stone carvings and towering spires). The atmosphere is one of profound celebration, as the citizens emerge in collective ecstasy to welcome their protector. Tomassetti captures the intersection of the celestial and the earthly, rendering the scene with a devotional clarity that invites the viewer to step into the bustling streets of a sacred history that transcends mere time.
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