Read Of The Week: September 3 to September 9

A K Ramanujan, who infused his diverse knowledge of Indian literature and traditions into his poetry, was fascinated by the idea of Soma, the mysterious plant used by Vedic priests to extract ambrosia. Sifting through Ramanujan's archives, the editors discovered a series of unpublished 'Soma poems' whose style and theme set them apart from his earlier work. This volume includes these poems besides essays and an interview that contextualises them.

While Soma focuses on A K Ramanujan's experimental poems and his creative mindset as an expatriate in America in the 1970s and early 1980s, it also provides a glimpse into a fascinating period in Western Indology when Indian philosophies and traditions were debated, some of which became so ingrained that they influence contemporary culture to this day.

A K Ramanujan (1929-1993) was the author or translator of 23 books, including eight posthumous works, and he co-authored and edited various other seminal publications. His translation of U R Ananthamurthy's Kannada novel Samskara is considered a classic.

Mere biodata, however, cannot convey the magnitude of Ramanujan's talents as a teacher, scholar, poet, literary critic, and translator; nor can it convey how deeply he influenced a whole generation of poets, translators and scholars, and enriched the lives of all who came to know him.