The Word of Lalla

Temple, (Sir Richard Carnac Temple), the Principal Editor of the Indian Antiquary published from Calcutta in the twenties of the 20th century, stayed in Kashmir for a pretty long time and had intimate contacts with the most renowned Sanskrit pundits of the valley. While inquiring about various aspects of Kashmiri mysticism, called Shaivism, he had to have a thorough understanding of the poets of the land, especially Lal Dyad, recognized as the greatest women saint-poet of Kashmir who belonged to the fourteenth century. The Word of Lailla is so far the best book about the poetry and philosophy of Lal Dayad; besides giving beautiful poetic equivalents of Lal Dyad’s cryptic verses, it contains a detailed and comprehensive account of the intellectual background of the great poetess. A comparative study of Kashmir Shaivism and Muslim mysticism makes many of the esoteric verses of Lalla intelligible for a modern reader of the vaakhs. Temple’s The Word of Lalla the Prophetess, was first published from Cambridge at the University Press, in 1924. Temple felt that the translation done by Sir George Grierson and Dr. Barnette was too scholarly for an ordinary English reader to appreciate.