Poets in India had handled interesting word structures from very early times. We hear about interesting structures such as Palindromes and Anagrams and much word play is seen in the clever use of these structures. What is not well known is that the poets of India had mastered the art of word play and had created truly amazing word structures that had poetic beauty combined with spatial arrangement of the aksharas. Sanskrit and Tamil literature abound in such wonderful structures. The examples shown below stand testimony to the creative minds of our literary masters for whom language and life meant the same.
Magha the composer of Sisupalavadam belonged to the seventh century (A.D). He excelled in composing verse with amazing spatial symmetries. The ninteenth chapter of the Kavya, is full of such verses.
The palindromes seen in Saint Thirugnana Sambhandar's Thevaram reflect the mastery of the composer in the language. It is said that palindromes are seen in eleven different couplets in the text of Thevaram.