Author Vidyā

Vidyā is the earliest woman who wrote poetry in Sanskrit, living in India between the seventh and ninth centuries. No record of her life exists beyond thirty-odd lyric poems, including some of the best love poems in any language. One scholar coined the term “the Sappho of India” for Vidyā, which succinctly catches both her breathtaking mastery of poetry and the way her writings lie scattered through old anthologies and grammars.