Satavahana Hala

Satavahana Hala (1st-2nd century) was an Andhra king and poet, who ruled in the present-day Deccan region (spread in present-day Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Maharashtra) in India for a very short period during (c. 20–24 CE). He was the 17th ruler of the Satavahana dynasty. He composed the famous Gatha Saptashati (also called Gaha Sattasai) in Maharashtri-prakrit languages, called so because it contains 700 single-verse poems. Gatha Saptashati gives valuable insights into the rural and social life, culture, and romantic sensibilities of the Deccan region during that period.

Wisdom & Quotes

• A miser utilises his wealth to the same extent as a wanderer his own shadow.

- Gatha Saptashati

• Distance destroys love, and so does lack of it.

Gossip destroys love, and sometimes, it takes nothing to destroy love.
– Gatha Saptashati

• Their love by long years secured,

Sharing each other's joys and sorrows,
Of such two the first to go lives,
It's the other, dies.
– Gatha Saptashati

• Stag and doe

Enter the forest
Separately looking for
Herbage and water,
And stay unparted
Till death.
– Gatha Saptashati

• He, for whom I forsook

Shame, chastity, honour,
Now sees me as just
Another woman.
– Gatha Saptashati

Venmanipputi