The Life of Harishchandra

“[This] 13th-century epic by the Veerashaiva poet, Raghavanka, is a path-breaking work in many ways. It is the first Kannada epic to give up Sanskrit meters (vruttas) and narrate the entire epic in a native meter called Shatpadi (a six-line stanza, similar to Spenserian stanza in English)… As a translator, [Vanamala Vishwanatha] has done a remarkable job of recreating the experience of the Kannada epic in English… A brilliant work, faultlessly produced.”—C. N. Ramachandran, The Hindu

“The Life of Harishchandra, Vanamala Viswanatha’s lucid, playful and sympathetic translation of Kannada poet Raghavanka’s Harishchandra Kavya, brings this medieval text to rich and vibrant life… Since 2015, a steady trickle of excellent translations has been quietly coloring our literary landscape. The Life of Harishchandra is among the most recent of these.”—Arshia Sattar, The Hindu

“Raghavanka’s Harishchandra Kavyam [is] rendered into limpid, eminently readable English by Vanamala Viswanatha… [There are] many virtues that grace Viswanatha’s translation of this rich text. Her erudition is obvious; but with it she also shows a fine ear for the poet’s rhythms in her prose translation. Her occasional verse translations evoke the lyricism of the original while her spritely dialogue brings out its surprisingly contemporary dramatic qualities. With prose, verse and drama, her translation acquires an interesting texture, making The Life of Harishchandra a truly remarkable achievement.”—Shanta Gokhale, Pune Mirror