Discussions on Poetry Competition

We are planning to have a poetry competition on a purely merit basis. The website design team will refrain from participation. In what follows, poet is used for a poet or a poetess, whichever applies.

A few thoughts that came to our mind are as follows:

1) Rules: We plan to have strict rules. If we look back at old poetry tradition, confirmity to grammar (vyaakara.na), metric rules (cha.mda), ornation (ala"nkaara), emotion (bhaava) and theme was followed -- at the least. In order to re-clinch the past Sanskrit heritage, we wish to have all these rules in place. Any comments are appreciated.

2) Topic: Right now the topic in our mind is Baby Krishna. We wish to coincide the deadlines for submission with SriKrishna Janmashtami in 2006, and we believe that Baby Krishna topic will do justice therein. That also marks the first anniversary of Stutimandal website.

3) Format: Since our website is dedicated to stuti or eulogies, we request only a stuti or a eulogy as a submission. Please stick to the rules mentioned in Point 1). If you don't know what cha.mda or metric rules are, wait for an article at stutimandal on the same. We don't want to promote free-verse. The length of the poem may not be more than 16 cantos or 16 stanzas. The language can be Sanskrit, Hindi, Avadhi, or Vraj. It should, however, not be a mixture. Stick to one language that you are comfortable with.

3) Submission: We are planning two-stage submissions. In the first stage, the poets will submit their poems and it will be reviewed by randomly selected reviewers. Since many words in Sanskrit have more than one meaning, we request a translation (preferably in english, hindi is fine too) as well. Five entries will be selected and then the poets will be sent with a feedback from the reviewers. The poets will have a small chance to revise their submission.

In round 2, the best poem will receive a first prize and other four poems will be honorable mentions.

4) Prizes: Unfortunately, we don't have any source of earning through the website. The prize will consist of a certificate signed by Stutimandal. Either a scanned copy, or a paper) copy will be sent to the winner.

5) Ownership: We don't wish to protect or own the submissions. Thus, the poems will remain a property of the poet only. However, we will keep the right to publish the poem of the winners at our website for an indefinite period of time.

Did we forget anything? Please let us know if some point is unclear or has not been addressed.