The Power of Divine Beauty: A Study of the Saundarya Lahari

Abstract

The Saundarya Lahari is a lyrical and yet powerful set of hymns dedicated to the beautiful wife of Shiva. The authorship of the composition is traditionally and almost unanimously ascribed/ attributed to Adi Shankaracharya though some historians believe it was composed sometime after 1000 CE. (Brown, 1958, p. 29) The extensive acceptance of this hymn, over the centuries, is clear from the number of commentaries it has engendered. Even today it is immensely popular among a wide section of followers, in mostly southern India. Hindu hymns and prayers are often potent, arousing the latent powers within the worshipper. Sometimes they contain elements of auto-suggestion and self-hypnosis that help the spiritual aspirant in his upward path through samipya sarupya and sayujyam, that is, by creating a sense of’ “ nearness to the divine”., a desire to acquire the attributes of divinity and ultimate identification of the individual self with the supreme.” (Subramanian, 2011, p. iv) That the devotee begets such a dazzling form – seems to be the raison d’etre of the Saundarya Lahari, which is a direct address and written in the present . It is quite normal in such devotional hymns to portray the goddess as being beautiful but here in this poem the author has made her supremely, unsurpassed outstanding and unparalleled. She is not an ethereal, etiolated beauty but a more human- like, tangible beauty. To observe her beauty is to worship her. This hymn provides a visualization of her form. The beauty insufflates the devotee to feel a transcendence of the goddess and at the same time to experience her life as a doting wife and mother.