Chautisa

Chautisha is a prominent genre of medieval Bengali poetry.[1] A special feature of this is that each verse is composed keeping each letter of the alphabet in the beginning. Sometimes multiple verses are composed in the same phase with the same letter. It is called Chautisha because such poems are composed with the help of thirty-four letters. This style has been widely practiced in medieval Bengali literature.

Chautisha is also found in ancient Sanskrit literature. In Sanskrit, verses have been composed in this style mainly for the purpose of composing hymns of gods and goddesses. There are Chautisha in Brihadharmapurana. The hymns in praise of Gods and Goddesses composed as Chautishas are a part of the structural features of Bengali Mangalkavya. The first letter of the verses must be alphabetical. In Mukundaram's Kavikankan Chandi, Sripati Saudagar, while in captivity, sang the praises of Goddess Kali and gained her favour and was released from the prison blessed by the of the Goddess. Here Chautisha starts with ‘ক’ and ends with ‘ক্ষ’. The first stanza is 'কালী কান্তি কপালিনী কপালকুন্ডলা' and the last stanza is 'ক্ষেণেক ধরিয়া রাখ আমি দীন হীন'. The Chautisha is composed of 67 pairs of verses or 134 lines in total. There are 50 such pairs in Bharatchandra's Annadamangal. The hero was freed from the death penalty by worshipping Goddess Kali and receiving Her grace in the beautiful crematorium. Here it starts with 'অ' and ends with 'ক্ষ', such as: ‘অপর্ণা অপরাজিতা অচ্যুত অনুজা’and ‘ক্ষুব্ধ হই ক্ষোভ পাই ক্ষীণাঙ্গী ভাবিয়া’.

In the Medieval literature, several Muslim poets also wrote poems in this style, but the context and themes are completely different. They have introduced other contexts for a good reason as it was not possible for a Muslim poet to have a deity. Sheikh Faizullah's Chautisha of Zainab, Bahram Khan's Chautisha of Layli, Syed Sultan's Gyan Chautisha are composed in the aforementioned style. The Dobhashi-style poet Muhammad Fasih has prayed to Allah in this style under the title 'আরবী ত্রিশ হরফে মুনাজাত'.

Fifteenth century poet Sheikh Faizullah's Chautisha of Zainab is a mourning poem. In this poem written about the tragic story of Karbala, the lamentation of Imam Hussain's sister Bibi Zainab has been narrated. The same pattern is followed in the lament of abandoned Laili in the 16th century poet Bahram Khan's Layli-Majnu. The poet has started composing poems in Tripadi verses starting with 'ক' and ending with 'ক্ষ', such as: ‘কমল নয়ান পিয়/ কঠিন তোহ্মার হিয়/ করুণা ছাড়িয়া দূরে গেলা’ and ‘ক্ষেমিতে মনের মান/ ক্ষিতিত চৌতিশা ভাণ/ ক্ষুদ্রবুদ্ধি দৌলত উজির’. Another sixteenth-century poet, Syed Sultan, wrote Gyanchautisha on the subject of Sufism and Yoga. The subjects have changed here. Gyanchautisha is a fragmentary poem.

The eighteenth-century poet Muhammad Fasih revamped this genre by composing Chautisha in Payaar Chanda basing itself on Arabic. He composed a total of 120 stanzas, 4 each with 30 Arabic letters. It begins with the letter 'Alif' and ends with the letter 'Ye', such as: 'আলিপে আল্লার নাম মনে করি সার' and 'ইতি সমাপ্ত এবে মোর মুনাজাত'. Thus Muslim poets have composed Chautisha using Arabic-Persian elements. In the Middle Ages, this genre became very popular among both Hindu and Muslim communities.

Chautisa is one of the earliest form of poetry in Odia language.[3] Numerous Chautisas have been written in medieval Odia literature. The Prachi Samiti(1925-34) collected and published four volumes of medieval poetry and contains hundreds of Chautisas.[4][2] The earliest known Chautisa is the Kesaba koili of Markanda Dasa.[5]

Baladeba Ratha, Banamali Dasa, Dinakrushna Dasa are some of the most famous poets who wrote Chautisas.

Typically the poetry starts with the letter କ and ends with କ୍ଷ . Each verse or line of each couplet starts with the same letter.

There are some poetic liberties taken by the poets. Such as in place of the letter ଙ/ଞ, words beginning with ନ are used as there are no words that begin with those letters.

Some poets reverse the order of the letters and wrote starting from କ୍ଷ and ends with କ. This is called Olata Chautisa.[6]

Typically the Chautisas have 34 couplets/stanzas. Other popular variants include:

• Chautisa with 2 couplets- each couplet containing 17 consonants.
• Chautisa with 3 couplets- two couplets containing 12 consonants and one couplet with 10 consonants.
• Chautisa with 6 couplets- Eg- Chitau chautisa by Upendra Bhanja.
• Chautisa with 9 couplets- Eg- Hanumanta Janana Chautisa by Damodara Dasa.