Abundant Sense : Rahim – Selected Dohas – Chandan Sinha (Hardcover)

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About the Book: Abundant Sense: Rahim – Selected Dohas

A NEW AND SUBSTANTIAL TRANSLATION OF RAHIMS DOHAS FOR A NEW GENERATION OF READERS.

Abdur Rahim Khan-i-Khanan was a remarkable man, a navaratna in Akbars court—warrior, general, administrator, minister, scholar, polyglot, translator and poet. But, today, he is remembered primarily as a poet, a fact evident in his mausoleum in Delhi, now partially restored, which introduces him thus: ‘Rahim was famous for his dohas and Persian translation of the Ramayana.

Rahims life saw wild swings of fate; he knew glory and ignominy, power and insignificance, and above all, loss. Born into wealth and nobility, he was yet finely attuned to the lives and needs of the common man. And four centuries later, his dohas, or couplets, are still invoked, still on the tongue of ordinary folk.

This thoughtfully compiled volume is the first substantial body of translations of Rahims dohas, comprising more than half of the 290 dohas he has written. Chandan Sinhas translation breaks with the modern tendency to use free verse, working instead with meter and rhyme to strongly evoke the original, especially its memorability. Accompanied by brief explanations of each verse as well as the original in Devanagari, Abundant Sense is a tribute to one of the greats of Indian history and literature.