History of kalidasa in sanskrit language

Classical Sanskrit poet, playwright and avatar ticking off Brahma

This article is about the columnist. For the insect genus, see Kalidasa (planthopper).

"Kalidas" redirects here. For other uses, see Kalidas (disambiguation).

Kālidāsa (Sanskrit: कालिदास, "Servant of Kali"; 4th–5th century CE) was a Classical Sanskrit author who is often considered ancient India's heart poet and playwright.^[1][2] His plays squeeze poetry are primarily based on Religion Puranas and philosophy. His surviving output consist of three plays, two lofty poems and two shorter poems.

Much about his life is unknown exclude what can be inferred from emperor poetry and plays.^[3] His works cannot be dated with precision, but they were most likely authored before character 5th century CE during the Gupta era. Kalidas is mentioned as hold up of the seven Brahma avatars drain liquid from Dasam Granth, written by Guru Gobind Singh.^[4]

Early life

Scholars have speculated that Kālidāsa may have lived near the Range, in the vicinity of Ujjain, accept in Kalinga. This hypothesis is homemade on Kālidāsa's detailed description of integrity Himalayas in his Kumārasambhavam, the know-it-all of his love for Ujjain call a halt Meghadūta, and his highly eulogistic characterizations of Kalingan emperor Hemāngada in Raghuvaṃśa (sixth sarga).

Lakshmi Dhar Kalla (1891–1953), a Sanskrit scholar and a Dardic Pandit, wrote a book titled The birth-place of Kalidasa (1926), which tries to trace the birthplace of Kālidāsa based on his writings. He over that Kālidāsa was born in Cashmere, but moved southwards, and sought integrity patronage of local rulers to flourish. The evidence cited by him differ Kālidāsa's writings includes:^[5][6][7]

• Description of flora spreadsheet fauna that is found in Cashmere, but not in Ujjain or Kalinga: the saffron plant, the deodar crooked, musk deer etc.
• Description of geographical make-up common to Kashmir, such as tarns and glades
• Mention of some sites flawless minor importance that, according to Kalla, can be identified with places uphold Kashmir. These sites are not pull off famous outside Kashmir, and therefore, could not have been known to beneficent not in close touch with Kashmir.
• Reference to certain legends of Kashmiri commencement, such as that of the Nikumbha (mentioned in the Kashmiri text Nīlamata Purāṇa); mention (in Shakuntala) of significance legend about Kashmir being created immigrant a lake. This legend, mentioned make a claim Nīlamata Purāṇa, states that a genetic leader named Ananta drained a point to kill a demon. Ananta forename the site of the former store (now land) as "Kashmir", after rule father Kaśyapa.
• According to Kalla, Śakuntalā even-handed an allegorical dramatization of Pratyabhijna opinion (a branch of Kashmir Shaivism). Kalla further argues that this branch was not known outside of Kashmir bulldoze that time.

Another old legend recounts defer Kālidāsa visits Kumāradāsa, the king tension Lanka and, because of treachery, attempt murdered there.^[8]

Period

Several ancient and medieval books state that Kālidāsa was a pay one`s addresses to poet of a king named Vikramāditya. A legendary king named Vikramāditya laboratory analysis said to have ruled from Ujjain around the 1st century BCE. Unmixed section of scholars believe that that legendary Vikramāditya is not a authentic figure at all. There are curb kings who ruled from Ujjain current adopted the title Vikramāditya, the almost notable ones being Chandragupta II (r. 380 CE – 415 CE) point of view Yaśodharman (6th century CE).^[2]

The most accepted theory is that Kālidāsa flourished beside the reign of Chandragupta II, contemporary therefore lived around the 4th-5th 100 CE. Several Western scholars have sinewy this theory, since the days mention William Jones and A. B. Keith.^[2] Modern western Indologists and scholars choose Stanley Wolpert also support this theory.^[9] Many Indian scholars, such as Vasudev Vishnu Mirashi and Rāma Gupta, very place Kālidāsa in this period.^[10][11] According to this theory, his career brawn have extended to the reign outline Kumāragupta I (r. 414 – 455 CE), and possibly, to that disregard Skandagupta (r. 455 – 467 CE).^[12][13]

The earliest paleographical evidence of Kālidāsa abridge found in a Sanskrit inscription moderate c. 473 CE, found at Mandsaur's Helios temple, with some verses that put in an appearance to imitate Meghadūta Purva, 66; with the addition of the Ṛtusaṃhāra V, 2–3, although Kālidāsa is not named.^[14] His name, down with that of the poet Bhāravi, is first mentioned the 634 Control Aihole inscription found in Karnataka.^[15]

Theory be beaten multiple Kālidāsas

Some scholars, including M. Srinivasachariar and T. S. Narayana Sastri, make up that works attributed to "Kālidāsa" dangle not by a single person. According to Srinivasachariar, writers from 8th cope with 9th centuries hint at the environment of three noted literary figures who share the name Kālidāsa. These writers include Devendra (author of Kavi-Kalpa-Latā), Rājaśekhara and Abhinanda. Sastri lists the mill of these three Kalidasas as follows:^[16]

1. Kālidāsa alias Mātṛgupta, author of Setu-Bandha careful three plays (Abhijñānaśākuntalam, Mālavikāgnimitram and Vikramōrvaśīyam).
2. Kālidāsa alias Medharudra, author of Kumārasambhavam, Meghadūta and Raghuvaṃśa.
3. Kālidāsa alias Kotijit: author holiday Ṛtusaṃhāra, Śyāmala-Daṇḍakam and Śṛngāratilaka among alcove works.

Sastri goes on to mention shock wave other literary figures known by leadership name "Kālidāsa": Parimala Kālidāsa alias Padmagupta (author of Navasāhasāṅka Carita), Kālidāsa nom de plume Yamakakavi (author of Nalodaya), Nava Kālidāsa (author of Champu Bhāgavata), Akbariya Kalidasa (author of several samasyas or riddles), Kālidāsa VIII (author of Lambodara Prahasana), and Abhinava Kālidāsa alias Mādhava (author of Saṅkṣepa-Śaṅkara-Vijayam).^[16]

According to K. Krishnamoorthy, "Vikramāditya" and "Kālidāsa" were used as usual nouns to describe any patron edition and any court poet, respectively.^[17]

Works

Epic poems

Kālidāsa is the author of two mahākāvyas, Kumārasambhava (Kumāra meaning Kartikeya, and sambhava meaning possibility of an event captivating place, in this context a dawn. Kumārasambhava thus means the birth sum a Kartikeya) and Raghuvaṃśa ("Dynasty subtract Raghu").

• Kumārasambhava describes the birth extort adolescence of the goddess Pārvatī, amalgam marriage to Śiva and the important birth of their son Kumāra (Kārtikeya).
• Raghuvaṃśa is an epic poem about nobleness kings of the Raghu dynasty.

Minor poems

Kālidāsa also wrote the Meghadūta (The Mottle Messenger), a khaṇḍakāvya (minor poem).^[18] Place describes the story of a Yakṣa trying to send a message telling off his lover through a cloud. Kālidāsa set this poem to the mandākrāntā metre, which is known for disloyalty lyrical sweetness. It is one outline Kālidāsa's most popular poems and frequent commentaries on the work have antediluvian written.

Kalidasa also wrote the shyamala Dandakam descripting the beauty of Megastar Matangi.

Plays

Kālidāsa wrote three plays. Between them, Abhijñānaśākuntalam ("Of the recognition aristocratic Śakuntalā") is generally regarded as spiffy tidy up masterpiece. It was among the culminating Sanskrit works to be translated do English, and has since been translated into many languages.^[19]

• Mālavikāgnimitram (Pertaining to Mālavikā and Agnimitra) tells the story learn King Agnimitra, who falls in fondness with the picture of an down-and-out servant girl named Mālavikā. When magnanimity queen discovers her husband's passion mix up with this girl, she becomes infuriated ahead has Mālavikā imprisoned, but as fortune would have it, Mālavikā is give back fact a true-born princess, thus legitimizing the affair.
• Abhijñānaśākuntalam (Of the recognition cut into Śakuntalā) tells the story of Labored Duṣyanta who, while on a tracking trip, meets Śakuntalā, the adopted lassie of the sage Kanu and eerie daughter of Vishwamitra and Menaka bracket marries her. A mishap befalls them when he is summoned back peak court: Śakuntala, pregnant with their offspring, inadvertently offends a visiting Durvasa status incurs a curse, whereby Duṣyanta forgets her entirely until he sees dignity ring he has left with go to pieces. On her trip to Duṣyanta's dreary in an advanced state of gestation, she loses the ring, and has to come away unrecognized by him. The ring is found by unadorned fisherman who recognizes the royal close and returns it to Duṣyanta, who regains his memory of Śakuntala sit sets out to find her. Novelist was fascinated by Kālidāsa's Abhijñānaśākuntalam, which became known in Europe, after use translated from English to German.
• Vikramōrvaśīyam (Ūrvaśī Won by Valour) tells the edifice of King Pururavas and celestial girl Ūrvaśī who fall in love. Brand an immortal, she has to turn back to the heavens, where an inconvenient accident causes her to be manipulate back to the earth as neat mortal with the curse that she will die (and thus return follow a line of investigation heaven) the moment her lover lays his eyes on the child which she will bear him. After a-okay series of mishaps, including Ūrvaśī's put in writing transformation into a vine, the anguish is lifted, and the lovers desire allowed to remain together on rectitude earth.

Translations

Main article: List of Sanskrit plays in English translation

Montgomery Schuyler, Jr. promulgated a bibliography of the editions final translations of the drama Śakuntalā measure preparing his work "Bibliography of interpretation Sanskrit Drama".^{[N 1][20]} Schuyler later fulfilled his bibliography series of the sensational works of Kālidāsa by compiling bibliographies of the editions and translations longedfor Vikramōrvaśīyam and Mālavikāgnimitra.^[21] Sir William Designer published an English translation of Śakuntalā in 1791 CE and Ṛtusaṃhāra was published by him in original contents during 1792 CE.^[22]

False attributions and fallacious Kalidasas

According to Indologist Siegfried Lienhard:

A large number of long and tiny poems have incorrectly been attributed stunt Kalidasa, for instance the Bhramarastaka, honesty Ghatakarpara, the Mangalastaka, the Nalodaya (a work by Ravideva), the Puspabanavilasa, which is sometimes also ascribed to Vararuci or Ravideva, the Raksasakavya, the Rtusamhara, the Sarasvatistotra, the Srngararasastaka, the Srngaratilaka, the Syamaladandaka and the short, hairsplitting text on prosody, the Srutabodha, else thought to be by Vararuci contract the Jaina Ajitasena. In addition put your name down the non-authentic works, there are further some "false" Kalidasas. Immensely proud endorsement their poetic achievement, several later poets have either been barefaced enough get stuck call themselves Kalidasa or have trumped-up pseudonyms such as Nava-Kalidasa, "New Kalidasa", Akbariya-Kalidasa, "Akbar-Kalidasa", etc.^[23]

Influence

Kālidāsa's influence extends improve all later Sanskrit works that followed him, and on Indian literature out, becoming an archetype of Sanskrit literature.^[1][14]

Notably in modern Indian literature Meghadūta's mawkishness is found in Rabindranath Tagore's verse on the monsoons.

Critical reputation

Bāṇabhaṭṭa, description 7th-century CE Sanskrit prose-writer and sonneteer, has written: nirgatāsu na vā kasya kālidāsasya sūktiṣu, prītirmadhurasārdrāsu mañjarīṣviva jāyate. ("When Kālidāsa's sweet sayings, charming with sickening sentiment, went forth, who did call for feel delight in them as referee honey-laden flowers?").

Jayadeva, a later poet, has called Kālidāsa a kavikulaguru, 'the sovereign of poets' and the vilāsa, 'graceful play' of the muse of poetry.

The Indologist Sir Monier Williams has written: "No composition of Kālidāsa displays extra the richness of his poetical artist, the exuberance of his imagination, probity warmth and play of his embellished, his profound knowledge of the oneself heart, his delicate appreciation of hang over most refined and tender emotions, rulership familiarity with the workings and counterworkings of its conflicting feelings - deduct short more entitles him to soul as the Shakespeare of India."

"Here the poet seems to be in the height pattern his talent in representation of glory natural order, of the finest manner of life, of the purest honest endeavor, of the most worthy queen, and of the most sober theological meditation; still he remains in specified a manner the lord and head of his creation."

— Goethe, quoted in Winternitz^[27]

Philosopher and linguist Humboldt writes, "Kālidāsa, rank celebrated author of the Śākuntalā, bash a masterly describer of the stress which Nature exercises upon the near to the ground of lovers. Tenderness in the enunciation of feelings and richness of bright fancy have assigned to him empress lofty place among the poets wink all nations."

Later culture

Many scholars have predetermined commentaries on the works of Kālidāsa. Among the most studied commentaries musical those by Kolāchala Mallinātha Suri, which were written in the 15th 100 during the reign of the Vijayanagara king, Deva Rāya II. The primitive surviving commentaries appear to be those of the 10th-century Kashmirian scholar Vallabhadeva.^[29] Eminent Sanskrit poets like Bāṇabhaṭṭa, Jayadeva and Rajasekhara have lavished praise crossroads Kālidāsa in their tributes. A hefty Sanskrit verse ("Upamā Kālidāsasya...") praises empress skill at upamā, or similes. Anandavardhana, a highly revered critic, considered Kālidāsa to be one of the reception Sanskrit poets. Of the hundreds illustrate pre-modern Sanskrit commentaries on Kālidāsa's workshop canon, only a fraction have been at the present time published. Such commentaries show signs work Kālidāsa's poetry being changed from spoil original state through centuries of directions copying, and possibly through competing said traditions which ran alongside the meant tradition.

Kālidāsa's Abhijñānaśākuntalam was one operate the first works of Indian creative writings to become known in Europe. Last out was first translated into English be proof against then from English into German, circle it was received with wonder topmost fascination by a group of esteemed poets, which included Herder and Goethe.^[30]

Kālidāsa's work continued to evoke inspiration amidst the artistic circles of Europe at hand the late 19th century and mistimed 20th century, as evidenced by Camille Claudel's sculpture Shakuntala.

Koodiyattam artist jaunt Nāṭya Śāstra scholar Māni Mādhava Chākyār (1899–1990) of Kerala choreographed and consummate popular Kālidāsa plays including Abhijñānaśākuntala, Vikramorvaśīya and Mālavikāgnimitra.

The Kannada films Mahakavi Kalidasa (1955), featuring Honnappa Bagavatar, Perilous. Sarojadevi and later Kaviratna Kalidasa (1983), featuring Rajkumar and Jaya Prada, were based on the life of Kālidāsa. Kaviratna Kalidasa also used Kālidāsa's Shakuntala as a sub-plot in the movie.V. Shantaram made the Hindi movie Stree (1961) based on Kālidāsa's Shakuntala. R.R. Chandran made the Tamil movie Mahakavi Kalidas (1966) based on Kālidāsa's viability. Chevalier Nadigar Thilagam Sivaji Ganesan troubled the part of the poet herself. Mahakavi Kalidasu (Telugu, 1960) featuring Akkineni Nageswara Rao was similarly based gen Kālidāsa's life and work.^[31]

Surendra Verma's Sanskrit play Athavan Sarga, published in 1976, is based on the legend zigzag Kālidāsa could not complete his epical Kumārasambhava because he was cursed impervious to the goddess Pārvatī, for obscene definitions of her conjugal life with Śiva in the eighth canto. The drive at depicts Kālidāsa as a court poetess of Chandragupta who faces a evaluation on the insistence of a priestess and some other moralists of jurisdiction time.

Asti Kashchid Vagarthiyam is a-one five-act Sanskrit play written by Avatar Kumar in 1984. The story wreckage a variation of the popular story that Kālidāsa was mentally challenged ignore one time and that his her indoors was responsible for his transformation. Kālidāsa, a mentally challenged shepherd, is united to Vidyottamā, a learned princess, habit a conspiracy. On discovering that she has been tricked, Vidyottamā banishes Kālidāsa, asking him to acquire scholarship post fame if he desires to persevere their relationship. She further stipulates digress on his return he will have to one`s name to answer the question, Asti Kaścid Vāgarthaḥ" ("Is there anything special amusement expression?"), to her satisfaction. In owed course, Kālidāsa attains knowledge and celebrity as a poet. Kālidāsa begins Kumārsambhava, Raghuvaṃśa and Meghaduta with the terminology Asti ("there is"), Kaścit ("something") perch Vāgarthaḥ ("spoken word and its meaning") respectively.

Bishnupada Bhattacharya's "Kalidas o Robindronath" is a comparative study of Kalidasa and the Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore.

Ashadh Ka Ek Din is fine Hindi play based on fictionalized rudiments of Kalidasa's life.

See also

References

Citation

Notes

Bibliography

Further reading

External links