I heard someone remarking that it is Valentine’s Day tomorrow. I don’t keep track of Valentine’s Day, but the remark reminded me of the picture of an old Indian postage stamp I came across very recently. It is shown below. The stamp is more than 60 years old; it was issued in the early 1960’s. It tells the story of the first ever love letter written on a lotus leaf with fingernails. The stamp shows a picture of a painting of Raja Ravi Varma depicting a scene from Kalidasa’s famous play Shākuntalam. Heroine Shakuntalā is sitting with her friends Anasūya and Priyamvadā in the premises of the hermitage where she grew up as the adopted daughter of sage Kaṇva. Priyamvada advises Shakuntala, who had lost her heart to King Dushyanta at first sight, to write a love letter to him. Shakuntala laments that she does not have any writing materials at hand. Priyamvada gives her a lotus leaf “as soft as the breast of a parrot” and asks her to write on it with her fingernails. Shakuntala writes: तव न जाने हृदयं मम पुनः कामो दिवाऽपि रात्रावपि। निर्घृण तपति बलीयस्त्वयि वृत्तमनोरथाया अङ्गानि॥
“I don't know your heart. But O merciless one, Cupid does forcibly day and night torture my limbs that have fixed their dreams on you.” The world’s first love letter written on a lotus leaf with fingernails is thus born. Wow Kalidasa!! That lead me to a malayalam old song https://youtu.be/5hGJr41FvdY YOU TUBE K Rajaram IRS 14225 -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/thatha_patty/CAL5XZoo3mqL6%3DB%2B-9EDWDZDd6DkcHuC8Fy2UzZL7QT4HgzW63A%40mail.gmail.com.
