Open AccessTongue
Author(s) -
Srinjay Chakravarti
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
etropic
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.184
H-Index - 3
ISSN - 1448-2940
DOI - 10.25120/etropic.16.2.2017.3607
Subject(s) - legend , silence , poetry , mythology , tongue , ninth , literature , bengal , rose bengal , history , art , ancient history , philosophy , linguistics , physics , chemistry , aesthetics , archaeology , organic chemistry , bay , acoustics
A poem for Khona. Khona (or Lilabati) was a legendary poetess and astrologer of Bengal, sometime between the ninth and 12th centuries AD. Married to the son of Varahamihira, one of the greatest mathematicians and astronomers of all time, her predictions were said to have surpassed even her father-in-law’s in their precision. The envious Varahamihira (and his son), according to the legend, severed her tongue to silence her, but her vatic rhymes acquired oracular status and are widely recited in Bengal even today.