Today's Beautiful Gem: 'Sarvatobhadram'
(Auspicious in all directions) from Sisupaalavadha

"tam sreeyaa ghanayaa nasta
ruchaa saaratayaa tayaa |
yaatayaa tarasaa chaaru
stanayaa naghayaa sritam ||

"I take refuge in Him who was eagerly and
closely embraced by the pure Sridevi with
handsome breasts, of never-failing beauty,
and endowed with every excellence."

Note: This sloka is palindromic in Sanskrit and hence the name
'sarvatobhadra'. The letters are: tam, sri, yaa, gha, na, yaa,
na, sta, ru, chaa, saa, ra, ta, yaa, ta and yaa. To get the
full palindromic impact, one must use Deavanagari or any other
Indian script. Does this remind the biologists of palindromic
DNA sequences? Poetry can be divided into four classes:
Aasu (extempore), Bandha (fit to a pattern like that of a snake
or a wheel), Garbha (two metres concurrently running in the same
poem; does this remind biologists of frame shifts), and Chitra
(unusual and extra-ordinary). This sloka belongs to the class of
'Chitra kavitva'. May be, at a future date, I will attempt to
give examples for other classes.

Om Santih! Peace! - J. K. Mohana Rao

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