Bhartrihari is one of the important poets of Sanskrit Literature. It is said that he belonged to the first century B.C and that he was the elder brother of King Vikramaditya, the great ruler of Ujjain.
Bhartr̥ihari was not only a great King. He was a great scholar, a great poet, a great Yogi, a versatile genius and above all a great Vedantin. He has written many works in Sanskrit. Three of them are popular poems consisting of one hundred verses each. They are-the Shringara Satakam, the Niti Satakam and the Vairagya Satakam. Satakam means a work consisting of 100 verses.
Vairagya Satakam is a philosophical work dealing with the subject of liberation. Vairagyam means detachment. So, this work deals with the subject of Vairagyam as a pre requisite for liberation.
Bhartrihari acknowledges the fact that the things of the world do give some security and happiness. But one of the disadvantages of the pursuit of worldly pleasures is Atripti, a sense of constant want, a constant sense of dissatisfaction. Whatever we acquire, the sense of want does not go away. To overcome that we need to get a sense of contentment. For this, we need to follow the path of detachment. This view has been elaborately dealt with in this poem.
