La Visvagunadarsacampu de Venkatadhvarin - Un poème satirique sanskrit

by Marie-Claude Porcher

Derived from the genre of campu (a mixture of prose and poetry), the entire volume is presented as a dialogue between two celestial beings (gandharvas), who traverse India from the north to the south flying in a celestial chariot. While one of them criticizes the citites, the inhabitants and the the gods, the other dwells on their qualities and the virtues. Reviving the theme of the aerial journey (on the lines of the Meghaduta and Kalidasa), the poem glorifies the principal places of worship in India and, in particular, in Tamil Nadu. This pilgrimage could be read as a srivaisnava hymn: Ven?katadhvarin praises his spiritual teachers, Ramanuja and Vedantadesika and their doctrines. The dialogue abounds in figures of speech, the principal being slesa (puns). A large variety of the various types of simile are also employed. The book contains the French translation of the Sanskrit text.