The Quartet of Causeries

By Śūdraka, Śyāmilaka, Vararuci & Īśvaradatta Translated by Csaba Dezső & Somadeva Vasudeva

“The Quartet of Causeries” date to the Gupta era, the time of Kali·dasa, but nothing certain is known about their four authors. Though stylistically divergent, they share a common plot: the hero is an inept, bungling procurer, who mismanages his client’s love-affairs to an unexpectedly successful completion. A wide and comic spectrum of India’s urban society is scandalized. The verse below illustrates the popular Sanskrit style of punning, that is the deliberate fusion of two senses in one phrase. Such single phrases demand two parallel translations:

Whoever sees me,

hangs around flees elsewhere
entertains polite chitchat shuts up
even if in hurry even if there is no hurry.

Even in a congestion if there is a danger of injury
everybody

happily their hair standing on end
gives way tramples onwards.
Nobody detains me for long Within no time someone

harasses me,

fearing that they may obstruct my affairs no matter

how rudely.

Widely travelled men Those who are familiar with its

inhabitants

declare

the fame of this best of cities to be alleged fame of this

worst of cities

well-deserved a mystery.

About the Translator
Csaba Dezső is Assistant Lecturer in Sanskrit in the Department of Indo-European Linguistics at Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest.
Somadeva Vasudeva is Assistant Professor in Sanskrit at Columbia University, New York.
Csaba Dezső has also translated Much Ado About Religion for the CSL.
Somadeva Vasudeva has also translated Three Satires and The Recognition of Shakúntala for the CSL.