Bhartari Hari

See also Chapter 78, 'Kausar' in The Republic of Rumi: a Novel of Reality

Bhartari Hari (more commonly written Bhart?hari in our times), was a Sanskrit poet who may have lived anytime between 400 AD and 670 AD (most scholars tend to favor the later date, and that would make him a contemporary of the companions of the Holy Prophet).

The collection of Bhartari’s poems is called Satakatraya and consists of three sections of about 100 ashlokas, or epigrams, each. Some scholars, especially in recent times, have also attributed to him a prose work, Vakyapadiya, which deals with Sanskrit grammar and linguistics.

Some of the epigrams of Bhartari have been translated by Iqbal in Javid Nama (1932), where Bhartari is seen reciting them in Persian near the celestial stream of Kausar in Paradise.

This may sound like an unusual way for a Muslim poet to glorify his Hindu counterpart, since the stream is especially associated with the Prophet, but Iqbal may have had in mind the incident where the Prophet is reported to have said about an infidel poet of Arabia, “The praise of an Arabian has never kindled in me a desire to see him, but I tell you I do wish to meet the author of this verse.” The incident had been mentioned by Iqbal earlier in an article, ‘Our Prophet’s Criticism of Contemporary Arabian Poetry’, published in a newspaper in 1917. The concerned verse of the poet, Antra of the tribe of Abs, was also quoted and translated in the article: “Verily I pass through whole nights of toil to merit a livelihood worth of an honorable man.” The spirit of these verses is indeed strikingly similar to the asholkas of Bhartari Hari.

In Gabriel’s Wing (1935), Iqbal translated an asholka of Bhartari into Urdu and used it instead of a dedication (see Chapter 82 in A Novel of Reality).