Campakali Namere

In Bengali by HindiRinnyLeave a Comment

Campākali nāmere. Śrīkr̥shna Baruwā. Nagm̐āo: Nagm̐āo Shṭorarca, 1967. From the University of Chicago Library.

চম্পাকলি নামেৰে Campakali Namere by শ্রীকৃষ্ণ বৰুৱা Srikrishna Baruwa.

The catalog tells me that this is a book of Assamese short stories. I was unable to find more information about the book or author.I’m assuming that the transliteration of “ca” for “চ” is somewhat correct – although the Wikipedia Assamese script page says that “চ” transliterates to “so”. Sompakali? During my search I learned that champakali is the name of a savory crunchy snack. Could there be any correlation? Probably not. Champakali is also a woman’s name. That’s more likely the case for this book 🙂

** Update: The ever-helpful Liang Hai tells us: চম্পাকলি is a Sanskrit word, literally “a flower bud of champak (Magnolia champaca)” (hence the cover art).  — here is an image of the flower. Thank you, friend!

Very interesting intersecting lines create the letterforms on this cover (what am I seeing in this? Kandinsky? Frank Lloyd Wright?). How interesting are those circular “knots” on the Ma ম, and how deep the Na ন goes – I thought it was a Devanagari Ta त at first.

 

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