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Kalidas - The poet & Playwright
This was posted on a Sanskrit mailing list.
A word of caution: This is from Encyclopaedia Americana, and I would
just like you to take what is in this with a pinch of salt.
--raj
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Kalidasa: life and works
From: Encyclopedia Americana
Written by: Walter Harding Maurer
University of Hawaii at Manoe
KALIDASA, (kaalidaasa), India's greatest Sanskrit poet and
dramatist. In spite of the celebrity of his name, the time when he
flourished always has been an unsettled question, although most
scholars nowadays favor the middle of the 4th and early 5th centuries
A.D., during the reigns of Chandragupta II Vikramaaditya and his
successor Kumaaragupta. Undetermined also is the place of Kaalidaasa's
principal literary activity, as the frequent and minute geographic
allusions in his works suggest that he traveled extensively.
Numerous works have been attributed to his authorship. Most of them,
however, are either by lesser poets bearing the same name or by others
of some intrinsic worth, whose works simply chanced to be associated
with Kaalidaasa's name their own names having long before ceased to be
remembered. Only seven are generally considered genuine.
PLAYS
There are three plays, the earliest of which is probably the
Malavikaagnimitra (Malavikaa and Agnimitra), a work concerned with
palace intrigue. It is of special interest because the hero is a
historical figure, King Agnimitra, whose father, Pushhpamitra, wrested
the kingship of northern India from the Mauryan king Brihadratha about
185 B.C. and established the Sunga dvnasty, which held power for more
than a century. The Vikramorvashiiya (Urvashii Won Through Valor) is
based on the old legend of the love of the mortal Pururavaas for the
heavenly damsel Urvashii. The legend occurs in embryonic form in a
hymn of the Rig Veda and in a much amplified version in the
ShatapathabraahmaNa.
The third play, AbhiGYaanashaakuntala ("Shakuntalaa Recognized" by
the Token Ring), is the work by which Kaalidaasa is best known not
only in India but throughout the world. It was the first work of
Kaalidaasa to be translated into English from which was made a German
translation in 1791 that evoked the often quoted admiration by
Goethe. The raw material for this play, which usually is called in
English simply Shaakuntala after the name of the heroine, is contained
in the Mahaabhaarata and in similar form also in the PadmapuraaNa, but
these versions seem crude and primitive when compared with
Kaalidaasa's polished and refined treatment of the story. In bare
outline the story of the play is as follows: King Dushhyanta, while on
a hunting expedition, meets the hermit-girl Shakuntalaa, whom he
marries in the hermitage by a ceremony of mutual consent. Obliged by
affairs of state to return to his palace, he gives Shakuntalaa his
signet ring, promising to send for her later. But when Shakuntalaa
comes to the court for their reunion, pregnant with his child,
Dushhyanta fails to acknowledge her as his wife because of a
curse. The spell is subsequently broken by the discovery of the ring,
which Shakuntalaa had lost on her way to the court. The couple are
later reunited, and all ends happily.
The infiuence of the AbhiGYaanashaakuntala outside India is evident
not only in the abundance of translations in many languages, but also
in its adaptation to the operatic stage by Paderewski, Weingartner,
and Alfano.
POEMS
In addition to these three plays Kaalidaasa wrote two long epic poems,
the Kumaarasambhava (Birth of Kumaara) and the Raghuvamsha (Dynasty of
Raghu). The former is concerned with the events that lead to the
marriage of the god Shiva and Paarvatii, daughter of the
Himaalaya. This union was desired by the gods for the production of a
son, Kumaara, god of war, who would help them defeat the demon
Taaraka. The gods induce Kaama, god of love, to discharge an amatory
arrow at Siva who is engrossed in meditation. Angered by this
interruption of his austerities, he burns Kaama to ashes with a glance
of his third eye. But love for Paarvatii has been aroused, and it
culminates in their marriage.
The Raghuvamsha treats of the family to which the great hero Rama
belonged, commencing with its earliest antecedents and encapsulating
the principal events told in the RaamaayaNa of Vaalmikii. But like the
Kumaarasambhava, the last nine cantos of which are clearly the
addition of another poet, the Raghuvamsha ends rather abruptly,
suggesting either that it was left unfinished by the poet or that its
final portion was lost early.
Finally there are two lyric poems, the Meghaduuta (Cloud Messenger)
and the Ritusamhaara (Description of the Seasons). The latter, if at
all a genuine work of Kaalidaasa, must surely be regarded as a
youthful composition, as it is distinguished by rather exaggerated and
overly exuberant depictions of nature, such as are not elsewhere
typical of the poet. It is of tangential interest, however, that the
Ritusamhaara, published in Bengal in 1792, was the first book to be
printed in Sanskrit.
On the other hand, the Meghaduuta, until the 1960's hardly known
outside India, is in many ways the finest and most perfect of all
Kaalidaasa's works and certainly one of the masterpiece of world
literature. A short poem of 111 stanzas, it is founded at once upon
the barest and yet most original of plots. For some unexplained
dereliction of duty, a Yaksha, or attendant of Kubera, god of wealth,
has been sent by his lord into yearlong exile in the mountains of
central India, far away from his beloved wife on Mount Kailasa in the
Himaalaya. At the opening of the poem, particularly distraught and
hapless at the onset of the rains when the sky is dark and gloomy with
clouds, the yaksa opens his heart to a cloud hugging close the
mountain top. He requests it mere aggregation of smoke, lightning,
water, and wind that it is, to convey a message of consolation to his
beloved while on its northward course. The Yaksha then describes the
many captivating sights that are in store for the cloud on its way to
the fabulous city of Alakaa, where his wife languishes amid her
memories of him. Throughout the Meghaduuta, as perhaps nowhere else So
plentifully in Kaalidaasa's works, are an unvarying freshness of
inspiration and charm, delight imagerry and fancy, profound insight
into the emotions, and a oneness with the phenomena of
nature. Moreover, the fluidity and beauty of the language are probably
unmatched in Sanskrit literature, a feature all the more remarkable
for its inevitable loss in translation.
Bibliography
Kaalidaasa, "Abhijnana-Sakuntala", tr. by M. B. Emeneau (1962;
reprint, Creenwood Press 1976).
Kaalidaasa, "The Dynasty of Raghu", tr. by Robert Antoine (Indo-US
Inc. 1975).
Mansinha, M., "Kaalidaasa and Shakespeare" (Verry 1968).
Narang, S. P., "Kaalidaasa Bibliography" (South Asia Bks. 1976).
Sabnis, S. A., "Kaalidaasa: His Style and His Times"
(Intl. Pub. Ser. 1966).
Singh, A. D., "Kaalidaasa: A Critical Study" (South Asia Bks. 1977).
