From the Sanskrit

Robert Hueckstedt

“King, your daughter doesn’t teach me, and your wives are silent!
Feed me, Kubja! Why are the princes and their friends not eating today?”
Set free by travelers from his cage, looking at the paintings one by one
On the roof of your enemy’s palace, thus speaks the royal parrot.

The author of this poem is unknown. It appears in the Kavyaprakasa (Light on Poetry) of Mammata (ca. 11^th – 12^th cent. A.D.) as an example of aprastuta prasamsa (indirect description). The particular type of indirect description illustrated by this poem is one in which the cause of a situation—the real subject of the poem—is described by its effect.

Here we see the transience of empire through the eyes of a parrot. Its owner, the king, has been overthrown; the conquerors have left, and the palace is abandoned. The parrot is looking at murals of the deposed king and his court painted on a retaining wall that runs around the edge of the roof. The bird cannot tell the difference between real and painted figures, and addresses the paintings.