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Theft of a Tree

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Theft of a Tree Synopsis

A thousand-year-old story of Krishna and his wife Satyabhama retold by the most famous court poet of the Vijayanagara Empire.

Legend has it that the sixteenth-century Telugu poet Nandi Timmana composed Theft of a Tree, or Parijatapahara?amu, which he based on a popular millennium-old tale, to help the wife of Krishnadevaraya, king of the south Indian Vijayanagara Empire, win back her husband's affections.

Theft of a Tree recounts how Krishna stole the parijata, a wish-granting tree, from the garden of Indra, king of the gods. Krishna does so to please his favorite wife, Satyabhama, who is upset when he gifts his chief queen a single divine flower. After battling Indra, Krishna plants the tree for Satyabhama-but she must perform a rite temporarily relinquishing it and her husband to enjoy endless happiness. The poem's narrative unity, which was unprecedented in the literary tradition, prefigures the modern Telugu novel.

Theft of a Tree is presented here in the Telugu script alongside the first English translation.

About This Edition

ISBN: 9780674245891
Publication date:
Author: Nandi Timmana
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Format: Hardback
Pagination: 544 pages
Series: Murty Classical Library of India
Genres: Poetry
Hinduism

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