Bharthari was a philosopher-poet of the fifth century A.D. and the author of a legendary tripartite work of Sanskrit poems known as the Satakatraya. In popular legend he was a king who, after learning of his wife's infidelity, renounced society and retired to the solitary life of an ascetic. His poetry displays the depth and intensity of his renunciation as he vacillates between the pursuits of fleshly desires and those of the spirit. This is most evident in the Vairagyasataka, the third and final section of the Satakatraya, which is translated by Sanskrit scholar Barbara Stoler Miller as Refuge in the Forest. The first and second sections are the Nitisataka or Among Fools and Kings and the Srngarasataka or Passionate Encounters.
Page 1 of 1