chapter1, page28

Author's Comment

Skanda* Among the many gods in the Hindu pantheon this god was a war god, who at some point in history was also represented as the god of thieves, as seen in one of my favorite Sanskrit plays 'Mrichakatikam' In a hilarious theft scene in the play, an armature thief among many things prays to this god for success in his endeavor!

This page is based on my opinion of the many Sanskrit literary works that I was sometimes forced to read in the pretext of education. Before I get flamed, let me explain, that they are great and amazing works. But most of them are terribly ridden with descriptions and similes and metaphors that- sometimes after a sentence (that could easily last for about two pages,) I used to wonder what it was all about. Poetic descriptions of a person, place or thing, could take a lot of time to come to the point. The greatness of a poetic description ,it seemed: was based on how one could describe a certain subject, without any reference what so ever to a subject.

Our dacoit chieftain obviously felt the need for such a description to pamper his ego!