Herein is a translation of Kalidasa’s famous literary masterpiece Abhijnanam Shakuntalam, probably the best work produced in the Sanskritic literature, by Sir Monier Williams, the second Boden Professor of Sanskrit at the University of Oxford, as done in the early 19th century. Innumerable archaic English words have been used in this play but they only add to the beauty of it, rather than making it what one may deem difficult. The act has been narrated until Dushyanta’s entry into the hermitage of Saint Kanwa and the remaining part of the Act 1 will be out in the next episode. Since the drama Śakoontalá entails a total of 7 acts, it would take 14 episodes to complete the entire literary masterpiece in its translated version. Till then, stay tuned to Cosmographia!

This extract taken from Alberuni’s India by Dr. Sachau tells us about the ruling Shahis of Kabul, their origin, the benevolence they possessed and the dynasty’s end. Traveller Alberuni, having been someone in the service of Mahmud, was aware of the Shahis for quite sometime since it were the Shahis who had been contending against the prince Mahmud for time immemorial, and this is why it is no longer a surprise that Alberuni wrote about the Shahis of Kabul in the very first chapter of his work ‘Tarikh-i-Hind’ the English translation of which has, in this episode, been narrated.

Harsimran Kaur is a well acclaimed, sixteen-year-old author of 'The Best I Can Do Is To Write My Heart Out' and 'I am Perfectly Imperfect,' self-published at 14 and 15, respectively (written under the pseudonym of Harsimran Kaur Mand). She is an Asia Book of Records and India Book of Records record holder who has also contributed to several anthologies. She recently published her third book, 'Clementines on my Poetry Table: A Poetry Collection' on 17 May 2021. She has written over 150+ poems till now. An English- language enthusiast, she is also a part of the prestigious literary forum of her city. She is currently a senior in high school and resides in India. Follow her on Instagram and Facebook @harsimranwritesbooks

Prasiddhi Singh is a social entrepreneur and environmental activist, hailing from the Chengalpattu district of Tamil Nadu. She is well noted for having led the plantation programme of thousands of trees and fourteen forests all across India, with a specific focus in the derogated Tamil region, through the ‘Prasiddhi Forest Foundation’ she has established. In Puducherry, Prasiddhi had regularly been carrying out environmental activities.

Cosmographia brings you an all new Season 2 wherein our host Souhardya De, interacts with luminaries from across various genres of writing to discuss how they’ve been inspired to take up what they’ve been doing for all these years and what messages they have conveyed to the world! Season 2, Episode 1 begins with Hari Kumar Krishnamoorthy, better known by his pen name K Hari Kumar, one of India’s most acclaimed horror novelists and screenwriter who talks about his life, his upbringing, the love and fascination he had for horror and the most powerful of all, how fear can be used to restrain people from doing bad! This one hour chat is a must hear for historical horror buffs as well as for writer cum changemakers who look forward to creating an impact with their writing!

Gender Equality in Classical Antiquity is an article written by Souhardya and published in the book, “Gender Equality and Female Empowerment Policy for a Sustainable Development SDG 5” (ISBN: 9789387537828). This episode talks about the various dimensions of Gender Equality as has been narrated down in various classical tales and been researched upon by scholars throughout the ages!

Medusa, the vile monstrous feminine mortal with snakes instead of hair, is considered by many to be one of the most amazingly dangerous creatures ever to have existed in Greco-Roman Mythology. But was she always as such? If not, how did a maiden become so vile that she came to be regarded as “Medusa: The Winged Gorgon” with the Gorgon sisters having been classified as monstrous deities of the underworld? Perseus, the Greek hero is said to have slain the vociferous monster after it gave him a real, tough fight. Was he able to defeat Medusa all by himself or did the Gods plan against the monstrous woman? Or if they did, why would the gods plot against a mortal woman? To find out answers to these, do listen to “Medusa: The Winged Gorgon” by Souhardya De, exclusively on “Cosmographia: The Graeco-Romans, the Egyptians and Us”, now streaming on every major distribution platform!

Disclaimer: This episode of the podcast is an audio retelling of a column of the same name by Souhardya in the Sunday Guardian. “Amongst the inestimable Olympians that rule the various natural forces, planets and emotions in the entire ethereal universe, one is Dionysus (Roman: Bacchus), the Greek god of wine, fertility and ecstasy. His cult (the cult of Dionysus) is widely associated with the Orphic cult, the latter having been found by Orpheus, a famed musician and former Argonaut.” Dionysus had, in his infancy, travelled from the West to the East and taught its people to cultivate and culture vine. During his days in the East, he had founded a city between the Kabul and the Indus River. The earliest details of this city called Nagara, presently Nagara Ghundi (Nyssa or Nysa?) in Afghanistan are to be found in Ptolemy’s ‘Geōgraphikḕ Hyphḗgēsis’, who locates it to be in ‘India intra Gangem’ or ‘India within the Ganges’ and calls it ‘Dionysopolis’. Furthermore, Greek military commander and historian, Arrian of Nicomedia, in his work entitled, ‘Anabasis of Alexander’ details us on why this city had been spared by the Macedonian mogul Alexander, like none other.

To classify Ovid as one of the elegiac successors in Latin litterateur irradiance, after Callimachus, Virgil or Lucretius would be an erroneous interpretation, since critic James Henry, someone who had entirely analysed Virgil’s Aeneid has said that Ovid was in his own terms, “'a more natural, more genial, more cordial, more imaginative, more playful poet... than [Virgil] or any other Latin poet.” Publius Ovidius Naso, better known by the abbreviation ‘Ovid’ and popularly through his work entitled “Metamorphoses” was a Latin poet who lived during the times of Augustus, the Roman Emperor who had banished him towards Tiempo, a small island on the Black Sea, which he himself had termed as a ‘carmen et error’ or "a poem and a mistake". This podcast episode is on the ‘Ages of Mankind’ as told by Ovid (Gold, Silver, Bronze and Iron) and is an audio retelling of an article by Souhardya of the same name on ScrollStack (souhardya.scrollstack.com)

This podcast episode, hosted, written and produced by Souhardya De, is an audio retelling of a column of the same name by Souhardya for the Sunday Guardian. “Civilisations that flourished back to when man worshipped nature as the primordial force from which originated beings, were bound to have resemblances in ideologies, texts, traditions and philosophies. Greeks and Indians are two distinct races, separated by thousands of stadia, divided by natural barriers that include but are not limited to, mountains, highlands, rivers and seas, between which was once extant, the mighty Achaemenid Empire of Persia.” When Megasthenes was sent to India as the Seleucid Ambassador, he observed a striking resemblance between the Greek culture and the Indian cultural features that included but was not limited to, the characteristic traits of gods and goddesses, the philosophy that was curled up together, only known so long by different denominations. He presumed that Krishna and Balarama would definitely have been Heracles and ended up intermingling the Greek and the Indian pantheon that resulted in a cross cultural discourse, as a result of which a philosophical fusion was born.

The Egyptian Heracles: Heryshaf of Heracleopolis Magna is an audio retelling of my article of the same name on ScrollStack. This narrates about the similarities and differences of various Egyptian gods with the Greek God of strength Hercules. The Greeks had a tendency to Hellenize every place they visited, which thus led them into creating the Interpretatio graeca, one that aims to establish a comparative discourse on cross cultural similarities in literature and mythology between various civilisations. This is the third full episode of Cosmographia: the Graeco Romans, the Egyptians and Us, a podcast that aims to bring about an outstanding philosophical and mythical link between the cultures and the civilisations of the ancient world.

Apollo, the most handsome of all the gods that reside at Olympus, in a strike by Cupid’s arrow embraced Daphne, a mortal princess and the daughter of river god Peneus as his soulmate. He wandered to faraway lands, chasing the maiden wherever she went, and tried hard in fulfilling his objective. Howbeit, it was soon crystal clear that Daphne was destined to be a virgin and Apollo could do nothing other than boast of his regal, godly identity and try to win her over. Did he ultimately succeed in making Daphne his bride or did this romantic affair remain single sided forever? Listen to Episode 2 of Cosmographia: The Graeco Romans, the Egyptians and Us to know the classical truth in the form of a pleasant verse, written down by Ovid millennia ago and translated by A.D. Melville, in the Metamorphoses (Oxford World Classics Series).

The rainbow, a natural phenomenon noted for its beauty and mystical appearance, has been a favorite component of mythology throughout history. This podcast episode, the first in Cosmographia, talks about the Greek approach to the introduction of rainbow and personification through the goddess Iris, often kept in conflict with Hermes, both being regarded as the messenger of the Olympians.

From Greece to Rome, from Egypt to India, everything is bound by that same thread of knowledge: ‘logos’, using logic to make sense of the world. Cosmographia (Latin for the ‘World’) is a podcast on Spotify that will deal with the cross cultural and philosophical dimensions of the various mythological tales that ultimately weave human philosophy together. How are Orphism and the cult of Dionysus similar? What are the exact resemblances between the Hindu pantheon and the Greco Roman pantheon? If Apollo is the Sun God in the Greek mythology, Surya in Indian myths and Phoebus is such in Rome, why do the Egyptians have three different Sun gods? Do these questions intrigue you? If yes, do tune in to the very first episode of ‘Cosmographia: The Greco Romans, the Egyptians and Us’