The Landscape of the Battlefield

The article presents an in-depth analysis of the description of the battlefield found in the poem Varadāmbikāpariṇaya or “The Marriage of Varadāmbikā,” composed in verse and prose (campū) by Tirumalāmbā, a poetess active at Acyutadevarāya’s court, and most likely his wife. The detailed accounts of war campaigns, with depictions of marching troops and battles, concern the figure of Acyutadevarāya’s father, Narasa Nāyaka, whom the authoress calls King Narasiṃha. The verbal portrayal of the battle against the Chola ruler is particularly striking. It is unlikely to find in other works of kāvya literary tradition a similarly dazzling compilation of images painting a word picture of the battleground by means of objects and situations belonging to a sphere of human life so different from the deadly combat.