The Destruction of Nalanda
below a high, an almost-white moon a man is unusually awake this unusual night also observes a silhouette, an uncanny motion what belongs next to the lonely sight is a streak of flames — the library that has twice been destroyed and twice rebuilt makes love with fire that shores higher than itself in a city that yet only hallucinates in the arms of night save for a man who doesn't know of the walls but only fire, sees only flames and jets of smoke, yet to recover from shock so as to awaken the people thither — what happened before this something incomprehensible: a turk fell ill amid these: he was treated by someone who was not what he was Nalanda wouldn't have suffered another time, to never again breathe as twice earlier it did, had he: not have been resurrected, or been a little thankful -- jealousy took the toll, it was three months until each page had burnt itself alive — a slaughter of cultures Note: The Nalanda University in Bihar was burnt for the third time in A.D. 1193 by the Turkish ruler Bakhtiyar Khilji. It took three whole months for the 9 million manuscripts stored there to burn. Jayant Kashyap Jayant Kashyap's poems have been published widely, including in StepAway and Rigorous magazines; his debut chapbook comes later this year by NY-based Clare Songbirds Publishing House. He's also the founding editor of India-based Bold + Italic e-magazine alongwith a friend of his. Find him at https://onlyhumane.wordpress.com/
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April 2025
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