← All bandha forms · Back to the crossword
The sarvatobhadra (“auspicious from every side”) is the most crossword-like of the classical forms: the 32 aksharas of a verse are laid out in an 8×8 square so that every row and every column reads as a pāda of the verse — left to right, right to left, downwards and upwards. Each pāda is itself a palindrome.
The specimen is verse 19.27 of Māgha’s Śiśupālavadha (8th c.), from the famous 19th canto of virtuoso forms:
सकारनानारकास कायसाददसायका / रसाहवावाहसार नादवाददवादना
sakāranānārakāsa kāyasādadasāyakā /
rasāhavāvāhasāra nādavādadavādanā // 19.27“[That army], which relished battle, contained allies who brought low the bodies and gaits of their striving enemies; in it the cries of the best of mounts contended with musical instruments” (working gloss after Mallinātha’s interpretation).
Another textbook example is Bhāravi’s Kirātārjunīya 15.25 (devākānini kāvāde…). Tap the reading paths: the highlight shows the akshara order.