Listen to Shyamala Dandakam

Kalidasa was one of the great Sanskrit poets. He wrote many great dramas like Shakunthalam and great epics like Kumara Sambhavam, Malavikagni mithram, the message poetry called Megha Sandesham etc. He is extremely famous for the use of appropriate similes and metaphors. Shyamala Dandakam is perhaps the greatest stotra written by him eulogizing the mother goddess Shyamala.

He has employed a poetic style called Dandakam in writing this prayer. Dandakam is that poetry where some of the lines have more than 26 syllables. It very much resembles prose. In this case, the entire Dandakam is a single sentence from start to the end. I have attempted to retain the same style

There is a folk story about how he came about to write this stotra. He was a foolish wood cutter who was made to act wise by the courtiers of a proud princess and thus convinced the princess marry him. The princess advised the wood cutter to enter in to a temple of Kali, and when she went for a walk, he locked himself in. When Kali came back, the wood cutter refused to allow her in, unless she made him wise. After she did, the first prayer of this wood cutter to Kali was Shyamala Dandakam.

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