कथा कौतुकम् - 3 - सर्वतोभद्रम्
Māgha’s verse from the Śiśupālavadha can be arranged in a grid and read identically in multiple directions—horizontally and vertically, forwards and backwards. Yet this extraordinary verbal construction remains a meaningful description of a battlefield and its warriors.
Article compiled by Harsha M Krishna
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अन्यः कविः आसीत्। तस्य नाम माघः। anyaḥ kaviḥ āsīt. tasya nāma māghaḥ. (There was another poet. His name was Māgha.)
सः भारवेः अनन्तरम् अभवत्। सः अपि कौतुकं कर्तुम् ऐच्छत्। saḥ bhāraveḥ anantaram abhavat. saḥ api kautukaṃ kartum aicchat. (He came after Bhāravi. He too wished to do something wondrous.)
तेन एकः श्लोकः लिखितः। तं वयं चतसृषु पङ्क्तिषु लिखामः। tena ekaḥ ślokaḥ likhitaḥ. taṃ vayaṃ catasṛṣu paṅktiṣu likhāmaḥ. (He wrote a verse. We write it out in four rows.)
वामतः पठामः — समानम्। दक्षिणतः पठामः — समानम्। उपरितः पठामः — समानम्। अधस्तात् पठामः — समानम्। vāmataḥ paṭhāmaḥ — samānam. dakṣiṇataḥ paṭhāmaḥ — samānam. uparitaḥ paṭhāmaḥ — samānam. adhastāt paṭhāmaḥ — samānam. (Read from the left — the same. From the right — the same. From the top — the same. From the bottom — the same.)
अतः अस्य नाम सर्वतोभद्रम् — सर्वासु दिक्षु भद्रम्। 🤯 ataḥ asya nāma sarvatobhadram — sarvāsu dikṣu bhadram. (So its name is Sarvatobhadra — auspicious in every direction.)
श्लोकः — Śiśupālavadha 19.27
सकारनानारकास-कायसाददसायका । रसाहवा वाहसार-नादवाददवादना ॥
sakāranānārakāsa-kāyasādadasāyakā | rasāhavā vāhasāra-nādavādadavādanā ||
पश्यन्तु — Now put it in a grid (Screenshot)
Now try it: ✅ Read row 1 left to right → sa kā ra nā nā ra kā sa ✅ Read it right to left → the same ✅ Read column 1 downward → sa kā ra nā — same as the row ✅ Every row, every column, forwards or backwards — the same syllables
Four rows. Eight columns. Not one syllable out of place.
अर्थः — And it still means something
That army revelled in battle. Its warriors brought low the proud strides and the very bodies of their many struggling foes. And within it, the neighing of the finest steeds rose up to rival the sound of the war-drums.
A battlefield scene. In a magic square.
In English 👇
Māgha (7th–8th c.) wrote the Śiśupālavadha deliberately modelled on Bhāravi’s work — and set out to outdo it. Where Bhāravi used 19 metres, Māgha used 23. Where Bhāravi praised Shiva, Māgha praised Vishnu. Where Bhāravi wrote a one-consonant verse, Māgha wrote his own.
And in canto 19 he produced this — which scholars have called the most complex palindrome ever devised in any language. Think of it as a Sator Square, but made of syllables, and inside an epic poem, and describing an army.
There’s a Sanskrit saying about him: माघे मेघे गतं वयः — “My life has passed away in Māgha and in clouds” — the lament of students who spent their youth wrestling with Māgha’s verses and Kālidāsa’s Meghadūta. 😄
Same canto, more madness: 🔹 Verse 34 is verse 33 written backwards, with an entirely different meaning 🔹 Verse 29 can be arranged into the shape of a drum (muraja-citra)
अद्य कः प्रयत्नं करोति? Try reading the grid in a direction I haven’t listed. 🌸