Vaidarbhi Style of Sanskrit Poetry

Vaidarbhi style of Sanskrit poetry

This is a small note on the Vaidarbhi style of Sanskrit poetry used by poets such as the queen-poet Gangadevi, the very eminent poet Kalidasa and many others. I thought it would be interesting to sketch a very basic idea of what exactly this style of poetry is all about.

Vaidarbhi is a style or riti mentioned in Bharata’s Natyashastra.

Not for nothing is this style known as Samagraguna Vaidarbhi (Vaidarbhi with all the guna, poetic excellences). Such a composition is believed to be harmonious to the ear and to the senses. A composition rendered in the Vaidarbhi style has all these guna, attributes - 

Ojas (compact word construction and deep meaning), 

Prasada (no terseness of expression and the ability to convey meaning),
Slesha (smooth word flow and the binding of thoughts with harmony and sequence),
Samata (uniformity and matching of ideas between the beginning and the end), 
Samadhi (construction of syllables beginning with long and heavy sounds descending to short and light sounds), 
Madhurya (use of uncompounded words), 
Saukumarya (smoothness of expression even to convey unpalatable ideas), 
Udarata (absence of vulgarity), 
Arthavyakti (clarity of expression), 
Kanti (fresh word usage [word use] and the imparting of a glow to the composition [sense use]).

The styles in Sanskrit poetry were named after their region of origin. Thus Vaidarbhi, Gaudi, Panchali etc. indicate these styles originated from the areas of Vidarbha, Gauda and Panchala. 

To go into slightly more detail -

Vaidarbi uses no compound words. It employs compactness. Evenness of syllable structure and symmetry are its hallmarks.

Gaudi’s characteristic is compound high-sounding words, alliteration and verbosity.

Panchali employs middling compounds.

Reference -

Sanskrit Criticism by VK Chari

Gangadevi, The poet-queen

GANGADEVI

The poet-queen

Gangadevi is the author of Madhura Vijaya (also named Virakamparaya Charita). She was the queen of Kumara Kampana Raya of Vijayanagara who conquered Madurai in 1371 and represented the empire at Kanchipuram. It is speculated that the poem was composed approximately between 1375 and 1400 CE.

What is interesting about this poet is that her royal status gave her access to an education not easily available to all women at the time. She was royalty by birth and by marriage. Her guru was the eminent poet Viswanatha. Her learning resulted in a breadth of vision that enabled her to write poetry of a high standard. Gangadevi was well-read as is obvious from her salutations and eulogies at the beginning of Madhura Vijaya.

Style

Madhura Vijaya is nine cantos long composed in 522 verses written in the Vaidarbhi style in Grantha characters. This class of Sanskrit poetry is considered to be a complete style since it requires all guna (attributes) to be invoked, wherein puns and other rhetorical embellishments are absent and no terse words are used. There are no long compound words and alliterations. Instead, soft and melodious syllables convey the sense of the rasa (emotion, mood). Simple and lucid phrases are characteristic of this style. The expertise of the poet lies in being able to incorporate all the guna, to a greater or lesser degree depending on the rasa to be conveyed, and yet bringing the entire work under the umbrella of one unified theme.