this post was submitted on 03 Oct 2025
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Traditional Art

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51
Somaprabha and a Celestial Nymph Listening to Music (lemmy.dbzer0.com)
submitted 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) by SnokenKeekaGuard@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/traditional_art@lemmy.world
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~1590 Opaque watercolor and gold on paper

The Kathasaritsagara (Ocean of the Streams of Stories) is a vast anthology of hundreds of folk stories and fairy tales compiled in Sanskrit by the Kashmiri poet Somadeva in 1063–1081. Derived from earlier literary sources, the embellished tales were told by Somadeva for the diversion of Suryamati (or Suryavati), the queen of King Ananta of Kashmir (r. 1028–1063). The text was translated into Persian by Mustafa Khaliqdad ‘Abbasi for the Mughal Emperor Akbar (r. 1556–1605), but only about a dozen illustrated leaves are extant. The known leaves are cropped and have the Persian text on the reverse.

This folio illustrates the story of the celestial nymph Somaprabha from Chapter 17 of the text. Born on earth because of a curse, Somaprabha is married to the merchant Guhachandra of Pataliputra (modern Patna in Bihar) on the condition that they refrain from sleeping together. Each night, however, Somaprabha mysteriously leaves the house to return at dawn. With the help of a charm given to him by a Brahman, Guhachandra gains the help of Agni, the God of Fire. That night, Agni and Guhachandra take the form of bees and follow Somaprabha. In the forest they discover her listening to heavenly music with another beautiful nymph. Agni advises Guhachandra to dally with a courtesan, which makes Somaprabha jealous and arouses her passion.

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[–] SnokenKeekaGuard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

This is a very special piece. Give the story a read. I'll add context of mughal India at the time later in the comments.

[–] Maeve@kbin.earth 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

A lovely image and lovely tale! Where can I learn more?

[–] SnokenKeekaGuard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Lovely to see someone interested!

Here's a few links:

This chapter: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Katha_Sarit_Sagara/Chapter_17

The whole book: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Katha_Sarit_Sagara

Obviously wiki links means you can delve deeper into the tales.

A much larger text if youre interested: https://archive.org/details/oceanofstorybein01somauoft The translated version of the original text itself.

(Internet archive ❤️)

I presume the Wikipedia page of Kathasaritsāgara must be good.

Smth I haven't read but relevant: https://mkraina.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Birth-Journey-of-Katha-Sarit-Sagar.pdf

[–] Maeve@kbin.earth 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Thanks so much! I've always been fascinated with the arts, particularly literary, dramatic, dance, and mythology. It's a blessing that I was afforded a bit of an education that was still decent enough to capture my interest and imagination, and personal tiny bane that I was unable to attain more formal and sophisticated education to learn more. But I've enjoyed the ability to learn a little on my own, with the grace of internet comrades sharing their wealth of knowledge.

Cheers!

[–] SnokenKeekaGuard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

particularly literary, dramatic, dance, and mythology.

Welcome to India/ Pakistan lol. You'll get all that in massive doses. I'd say dance is more culturally alive in India than anywhere else in the world. Similarly the worlds oldest civilisation, religion and mythology. Languages that have long survived too.

Formal education is smth we all ought to be very grateful for. We share similar interests clearly. Unfortunately I never got much education in the arts. My college degree and certifications were focused around the technical stuff.

I'd recommend Yale courses on yt. Great resources.

Hope you enjoy this research and then some!

[–] Maeve@kbin.earth 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I'm sure I will!

I read Rig Veda a long time ago and recently began the Gita, but got distracted with Judaism, since it's the predecessor of my own tradition, and some side quests, besides. But I'm still interested, since it's also related to the side quests. I'm just like that, for reasons 😂 I have delved into some yt videos and lectures too. I know a lot without actually having read the prerequisites, imo.

I think it's a little sad that religions are either completely disregarded or treacherously completely overblown, used to promote and justify nationalism and xenophobic attitudes, which completely misses the modern mark. For me, it's psychotherepuetic philosophical endeavor that captivates the imagination with such vivid imagery textbooks lack, to unite us with ourselves, and each other, in a world that values hyper individualism and treats, to the extent that we'd kill our neighbors that have little to acquire that bit they have to add to stockpiles that will do nothing to heal the schisms within self and each other. And sadder still that it's by design.

It may interest you that a couple of decades ago, I was gifted a shiv ling, and several decades ago, a Ganesha. They're what I consider to be part of my personal treasure, and probably not worth much to anyone but me!

Namaste, my friend.

[–] SnokenKeekaGuard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Judaism and the traditions of the Abrahamic religions are just as fascinating.

Yes the power of story telling is powerful. Seeing what exactly has always captured the human mind can tell us much about ourselves.

I love that you got to the idea of alienation by religion since just yesterday I said leftists ought to know more about Feuerbach and Bauer, two of the young Hegelians. People who laid the groundwork for Marx.

It may interest you that a couple of decades ago, I was gifted a shiv ling, and several decades ago, a Ganesha. They're what I consider to be part of my personal treasure, and probably not worth much to anyone but me!

That is amazing!

PS. I'm not Hindu. Atheist now and an ex Muslim.

And now that I say that out loud, it's amazing how long my ancestors were Muslim and it just ended with me.

I'm a Mughal as the figures on the left side of this image are. They were obsessed with religion.

Before that was Timur. So atleast 700 years of Muslim ancestory.

[–] Maeve@kbin.earth 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Well then I should have said salaam!

I did read and probably upvote that comment. It's also sad we threw away the other classics we used to mandate.

I also like Rumi, but I can't tell you jack about Sufism. I gor a little tidbit I didn't know about Baha'i, last night.

I really like "Namaste," because of the implications. We all came from the same source. And we all return to that same source. It staggers my mind that people who claim any sort of faith are so quick to disregard that for things we fight over, from holy wars to rotten dinosaurs.

Sorry I'm jumping around. I love these things.

[–] SnokenKeekaGuard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Rumi and Sufism is cool stuff honestly.

Namaste is a perfect representation of what makes Indian religions so fascinating to so many.

I always saw a link between Hinduism, Buddhism and Hegel but I've never researched it and would like to do that sometime. Especially in regards to alienation, not necessarily the geist. And while Hegelian thinkers criticize religion as causing alienation by creating god and the devil and externalising what is internal, I think Hegelian thought is better lended to pro religious thought.

Rotten dinosaurs is amazing lol.

[–] Maeve@kbin.earth 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Conversations like these are the real treasures. And I love your sn, it's clever.

Tell me more about the link between Hegel and mythos, please? I'm hijacking your thread, sorry; if you're inclined to share, perhaps a new thread?

I didn't miss Timur, I just don't know anything about it. Perhaps one day you'll write about it in these spaces.

[–] SnokenKeekaGuard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Buddhism highlights that everything is impermanent, unsatisfactory, and lacking inherent substance. Yet, rather than rejecting the world, it turns back to the ordinary samsaric world as precisely the place where the emptiness of nirvana can be realized and where compassion can be practiced. Similarly, in Hegel’s philosophy, negation does not end in mere destruction. The dialectical dissolution of old metaphysical concepts produces a positive outcome: it opens a new method of understanding reality.

Both Hegel and certain Buddhist schools see individual minds as expressions of something greater.

Geist unfolds dialectically through history; Buddhist consciousness unfolds through conditioning.

In both systems, the individual mind is not ultimate; it participates in a larger process or reality.

The more I try to express it, the less convinced I am of my own argument lol.

[–] Maeve@kbin.earth 2 points 3 months ago

I think you did quite well, thank you.

And that's probably why taoism and mysticism in general says "who knows doesn't talk; who talks doesn't know."

[–] cccrontab@lemmy.world 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Are they listening to music or are they listening to music?

[–] SnokenKeekaGuard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 3 months ago

Given the context I'd go for listening in this case, not listening

That is clearly also the interpretation of the mughal era artists who painted this image