Alankar(Decor)-216 Poem by Indira Renganathan

Who Is That 'I'? (Vakh)

Kashmiri poetry from the northwest, bordering Pakistan, is said to be influenced by its setting.
Kashmir is a valley framed by the Himalaya Mountains which reflects grandeur, serenity and vivid color.
It is the jewelled crown on the head of India. The language is descendant of Sanskrit and
influenced by Urdu.

Vakh (Sanskrit - 'speech' interpreted by some as 'verse teaching')is a 14th century stanzaic form,
originated by a woman poet, Lalla-Devi or Lallashwari, a Kashmiri Shaivite mystic and Sufi saint.
258 poems by Lalla were preserved in this form ranging from songs, proverbs and prayers.
This form is found among the earliest Kashmiri literature and records
when the Kashmiri language emerged from a descendant of Sanskrit.

The Vakh is:
a tetrastich, a poem in 4 lines although it has occasionally been found in a couple of stanzas of
4 lines.
syllabic, lines of 7 syllables each, with 4 stresses per line.
occasionally rhymed with true or near rhyme.

Who Is That 'I'?

Bones, nerves, flesh, blood make body
Who drives it to live and die?
'I' says mine and hers and his
And others'.. who is that'I'?