Thread by @shrikanth_krish

Here's a puzzle on Independence day.

A couple of Sanskrit verses from a very great Sanskrit work.

(source:prapatti.com)

What's unique about these verses?

The verses are a part of the great 13th century theologian's magnum opus "Paduka Sahasram" - that comprises of over a 1000 verses as implied by its name.

This work is a eulogy of Lord Ranganatha's Paduka (footwear).

These two verses occur towards the end of the work. And they are very significant in Indian literature, not because of their meaning or literary merit but on account of Desika's ingenuity

The first thing to note here is that the second verse is an anagram of the first.

An ingenious feat by itself.

But there's more to it.

Let's represent the first verse on the chessboard by placing each syllable from Left to Right, starting at the top-left corner

Reading syllables from left to right gives us the first verse

The second verse is the path traced by the Knight starting from the top left cell

sThi thA sa ma ya rAj a thpA ga tha rA mA dha kE ga vi
dhu ran ha sAm sa mna thA dhA sA dhyA thA pa ka rA sa rA

This is famously known as the "Knight's tour problem" - the challenge is for the Knight to traverse all squares on the board without visiting any cell twice.

A problem that has occupied many mathematicians over the ages including Gauss in the 18th century

This is a problem that has no doubt fascinated the great Desika too, as evidenced by these verses.

But Desika did not originate this problem. It was first posed by the Kashmiri poet Rudrata, at the other end of the country in the 9th century

By the way what do Desika's verses mean? Here's the translation as per Dr U Ve Vedanta Desikan Swamy ( a 20th cen namesake of Desika)

"Oh Paaduka of the Lord who is meant by the word 'Sat'! The worst of
sinners can worship You and benefit." (Contd..)

""You ward off all evil happenings, which are inherently grief-causing. What a melodious walk You possess! You diligently keep guard in respect of people who stick to the righteous path with pure activities." (Contd..)

"You remain in an effulgent site with SRI, granting affluence to the
worshippers. You remove the pitiable condition that accrues to sinners. You make the strolls pleasing and relaxing to the Lord, when He has to go out. May You please lead me on to the Lord Ranganatha's Abode!"

I cannot vouch for the translation. So I leave it to others to judge the translation.

Here is the source for the chessboard illustration : ibiblio.org/sripedia/ebook…

But Paduka Sahasram is widely regarded as Desika's literary magnum opus.

While the Knight's tour problem is interesting, that is not what the text is primarily known for.

It is a text of 1008 verses eulogizing the Paduka (sandals) of the Lord Ranganatha of Srirangam.

Desika, a theologian in Ramanuja's spiritual lineage, was actually not a native of Srirangam. He was from the northern tamil country around Kanchipuram.

As per legend he was invited to reinvigorate the temple scholastic culture in Srirangam.

While in Srirangam, it is recounted that he got into a challenge with another Sri-Vaishnavite on who will be able to compose the most number of Bhakti verses overnight.

While Desika's rival picked the Lord Ranganatha's Pada (feet) as the subject of his eulogy, Desika felt he can do better justice to the Lord's Paduka (Sandals) as opposed to the Pada

Desika ofcourse won the challenge as per legend and Paduka Sahasram is the legacy of that brilliant night

While the poem is admired for both its piety and its literary merit, it is these 2 verses that are among the best remembered today on account of their remarkable ingenuity

Post-script: Just discovered that this pair of verses had already been discussed on twitter 2 months back. Missed it back then

However that thread does not give much context on the much larger literary work of which this was only a v small part

https://twitter.com/Bharathgyan/status/1020265548725153794