Sir Edwin Arnold

The author of this poem of 50 verses, Bilhana, was an 11th century Kashmiri poet. The verses of poem have been illustrated many a times by various school of arts and the poem is considered to be a rare confluence of poetry and painting. The story behind this poem is that a young and accomplished Brahaman, Chaura at the court of King Sundava of Kanchipuram was appointed to train his beautiful daughter Vidya (or Sasikala). In order to avoid any romantic development between the two, he told the princess that her tutor was a leper and told Chaura that his student was blind. However, the ruse soon fell flat through and before the king could know both the young souls were into passionate love. When the king came to know about the affair he imprisoned Chaura who spent his last hours in prison composing the verses in praise and detailing his amours with his beloved. Each verse began with the refrain ‘I still remember her’. The verses have been popular in India for centuries, and have many local variants. The copy of Chaurapanchasika was printed in London in 1896 and includes a translation by the English poet and journalist, Sir Edwin Arnold. The script is handwritten (both the Sanscrit and the English) and the volume’s illustrations (done in auto-lithography) look very much like hand-done watercolours. They include Indian characters, landscapes, flowers and insects, and range from simple to elaborate.