6 verses · ~1 min
अपने काले अवगुंठन को रजनी आज हटाना मत। जला चुकी हो नभ में जो ये दीपक इन्हें बुझाना मत॥
सजनि! विश्व में आज तना रहने देना यह तिमिर वितान। ऊषा के उज्ज्वल अंचल में आज न छिपना अरी सुजान॥
सखि! प्रभात की लाली में छिन जाएगी मेरी लाली। इसीलिए कस कर लपेट लो, तुम अपनी चादर काली॥
किसी तरह भी रोको, रोको, सखि! मुझ निधनी के धन को। आह! रो रहा रोम-रोम फिर कैसे समझाऊँ मन को॥
आओ आज विकलते! जग की पीड़ाएं न्यारी-न्यारी। मेरे आकुल प्राण जला दो, आओ तुम बारी-बारी॥
ज्योति नष्ट कर दो नैनों की, लख न सकूँ उनका जाना। फिर मेरे निष्ठुर से कहना, कर लें वे भी मनमाना॥
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
The Abduction of Sita
This profound work captures one of the most poignant and sorrowful moments within the epic Ramayana. The demon king Ravana, his form imposing and his expression hardened by desire and arrogance, carries away Sita, the epitome of grace and virtue. Her countenance reflects a quiet, enduring dignity amidst the turmoil of her forced departure. Beside them, a small attendant figure grounds the scene in a sense of dark, atmospheric tension. The artist employs a rich, academic style to render the divine figures, grounding this celestial tragedy in a tangible, earthly reality that invites the viewer to meditate upon the themes of duty, suffering, and the eventual triumph of righteousness over darkness.
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