Ashutosh Trivedi

Figures that carry a verse.

Each figure carries a reading rule. The figures rely on Devanāgarī, where one akṣara is one glyph, so they lose their property under transliteration.

Classical bandhas
  • रापुमारःसःविरादकश्रीविपुचरःरवि
    Chakrabandhaचक्रबन्ध

    Syllables sit on the rim, hub and spokes of an n-spoked wheel. Found from Daṇḍin's Kāvyādarśa onward and richly developed in chapter 30 of the Pādukāsahasra.

    Read anti-clockwise around the rim for one verse. Read along the spokes, rim to hub, for a second.

  • सातःरमकविसिद्ध
    Padmabandhaपद्मबन्ध

    An eight-petalled lotus with a calyx. Each petal carries a unit of the verse.

    Syllables shared at petal joins serve two readings at once, which forces dense lexical play.

  • रघुवीरशीरामचन्द्रशीशारदपू
    Murajabandhaमुरजबन्ध

    A grid shaped like a muraja (mṛdaṅga) drum. The Agnipurāṇa fixes its metrical rules.

    Read across the parallel skins for one verse. Read along the curving body for another.

  • शस्त्रमेवाशुसार
    Khadgabandhaखड्गबन्ध

    Syllables arranged along a sword's silhouette: hilt, guard, fuller and edge. Māgha (7th century) is the locus classicus; canto XIX of the Śiśupālavadha holds a celebrated example.

    Reading follows the silhouette from hilt to point.

  • अहिरूपेणविश्वरूप
    Nāgabandhaनागबन्ध

    The verse coils along a serpent's body. A favourite of the temple-inscriptional tradition, with instances at Kanchi and Tirumala.

    Begin at the tail and end at the hood. Mirror readings double back.

  • करुणासारःकरूणिसारम
    Gomūtrikābandhaगोमूत्रिका

    Two lines of verse arranged so that a zigzag path through them yields a third. An unusually compact case of information shared across line boundaries.

    Read the lines straight for two verses, then alternate along the zigzag for a third, grammatically valid verse.

  • देवाकानिवाहिकास्वकाकारेभनिस्वभव्य
    Sarvatōbhadraसर्वतोभद्र

    A 4×4 or 8×8 grid in which the same śloka reads the same left-to-right, right-to-left, top-to-bottom and bottom-to-top. Each row, each column and the verse as a whole is a palindrome.

    Read in any cardinal direction; the syllabic sequence repeats.

Sarvatōbhadra

The four-fold palindrome.

A 4×8 surface on the syllables sa, ka, ra, ta. Reading left to right, right to left, top to bottom or bottom to top repeats the same sequence.

स
क
र
त
त
र
क
स
क
र
त
स
स
त
र
क
र
त
स
क
क
स
त
र
त
स
क
र
र
क
स
त

Each row is a palindrome, and each column mirrors the column across the centre. Pick a row or a column to see the symmetry.

Kirātārjunīya 15.25, Bhāravi.

The full 8×8 square. Each row and each column is a palindrome, and the whole square reads the same from any side.

दे
वा
का
नि
नि
का
वा
दे
वा
हि
का
स्व
स्व
का
हि
वा
का
का
रे
भ
भ
रे
का
का
नि
स्व
भ
व्य
व्य
भ
स्व
नि
नि
स्व
भ
व्य
व्य
भ
स्व
नि
का
का
रे
भ
भ
रे
का
का
वा
हि
का
स्व
स्व
का
हि
वा
दे
वा
का
नि
नि
का
वा
दे

देवाकानिनि कावादे वाहिकास्वस्वकाहि वा । काकारेभभरे काका निस्वभव्यव्यभस्वनि ॥

devākānini kāvāde vāhikāsvasvakāhi vā / kākārebhabhare kākā nisvabhavyavyabhasvani

Modern English chitrakāvya, Donald Knuth, 2005

In 2005, in correspondence with the IIITB-CSL group, Donald Knuth contributed two English-language chitrakāvyas: pairs of 32-word verses arranged on a 4×8 chessboard so that a knight's tour over the first verse produces the second. They are the only widely known modern analogues of Vedānta Deśika's Pādukāsahasra and the Harivijaya. Where the Sanskrit originals exploit the meaning-stable word order of Sanskrit, Knuth exploits the homophonic looseness of English: two and too, four and for, see and sea, terns and turns, passed and past are the same syllable when spoken aloud.

Both poems are reproduced with audio recitations from the IIITB archive. Press Listen to recital and the knight jumps in time with the voice, one cell per spoken word; the word-onset timestamps were recovered from the recordings by onset detection. Step and Auto-play walk the tour silently.

Poem 1, after the Pādukāsahasra

One, two, three, four, see each word here…

Sequential reading (verse 1)
Knight's-tour reading (verse 2)
0 / 32

Verse 1, sequentialOne two three four, See each word here.
Jumps so wise now, find their place passed.
Terns can't soar like flies, the free rook.
Goose steps just won't mean knight hops last.

Verse 2, knight's tourOne knight jumps like three rook wise steps.
Past sore too mean, so just for free.
Hops here turns there, flies each goose now.
Can't place last word? Won't find the sea.

The same multiset of syllables, read in two orders. Listen with the recital playing: both verses sound nearly identical, only the punctuation and spelling change.

Poem 2, after the Harivijaya

Have some fun, watch this or that word…

Knight's-tour reading (verse 1)
Sequential reading (verse 2)
0 / 32

Verse 1, knight's tourHave some fun, Watch this or that word.
Great four lines take out each, gives eight.
Left than two black and just here white.
Three rook steps make one knight move right.

Verse 2, sequentialOne two three four, watch each word here,
or take some left steps and move eight.
Just right gives this black rook great fun,
than have lines make out that white knight.

Here the order is reversed, as in the Harivijaya: the knight's-tour reading is the first verse, and the sequential reading is the second. Watch the left grid light up as the knight walks the right one.

Nineteenth-century bandhas
  • Matsyabandhaमत्स्यबन्ध

    Verse fitted to a fish's silhouette: body, tail, gill, eye. Late-Vaiṣṇava poets used it for invocations of Viṣṇu's matsya avatar.

    Reading starts at the mouth and runs along the spine.

  • तंवन्देखिलनायकंहितार्थिनापुनःपुंसासनीमिभूरिःपाप्यउच्य
    Toraṇabandhaतोरणबन्ध

    The lintel carries the opening line; two pillars carry mirrored secondary lines descending in parallel. Common on praise inscriptions at Tirupati and Srirangam.

    Lintel first, then each pillar top to bottom.

  • सदातनदीनशादीनाशनपाहि
    Chatrabandhaछत्रबन्ध

    Canopy syllables read across the curved arc; staff syllables descend the vertical. An arrow marks the start of reading.

    Arc first, then down the staff.

  • सदारमसंसदारमसंसदा
    Padmabandha (12)पद्मबन्ध

    The eight-petal lotus elaborated to twelve, with a syllabic centre. One verse spirals inward and a second appears in the calyx.

    Reading direction is given by an external arrow.

  • किविचदयेदवंतेसाकिविचदयेदवं
    Chakrabandha (16)चक्रबन्ध

    The classical wheel doubled to sixteen spokes, so two interlocking verses share a hub syllable. Appears in late-19th-century stuti literature, at Pandharpur, and in Maithili anthologies.

    Two interlocking rim readings; the hub syllable belongs to both.

  • दवंतेजविक्षौसावंयजदक्षौ
    Chakrabandha (simple)चक्रबन्ध

    A tighter wheel with two concentric reading rings, used as a mnemonic in 19th-century pāṭhaśālā instruction.

    Reading directions differ between the outer rim and the inner ring.

The figures are set in Tiro Devanagari Sanskrit. Misalignment usually indicates font fallback.

References
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