The Circle of Six Seasons: A Selection from Old Tamil, Prakrit and Sanskrit Poetry

Dating from the first to late fourteenth centuries CE, this collection of 188 poems is gleaned from the three literary languages of classical India—old Tamil, Prakrit and Sanskrit. Martha Ann Selby combines her unique mastery of these languages with her scholarship and poetical skills to offer a pan-Indian flavour of the changing seasons. These poems celebrate the rhythm and beauty of the cycle of time. Nature is portrayed through a range of sensual, sexual and colourful images and allegories. The autumn poems, for example, depict a world washed clean by rains, ready for love, specifically, clandestine love, set in the hills among mists and blooming wild cane at night. Readers will appreciate the collection’s fine poetic quality and be spellbound by the unique beauty of India’s six seasons.