RE: Fwd: Kalidasa And Ancient India

[Guest guest]

What is the full name of JK " tiptronicus?

The link does not give the article.

Kamlesh

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Behalf

Of Kishore patnaik

Saturday, September 06, 2008 11:15 AM

 

Fwd: Kalidasa And Ancient India

 

 

 

 

 

 

IndiaArchaeology ,

" JK " <tiptronicus wrote:

 

http://www.sulekha.com/column.asp?cid=300030

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

On Sun, Sep 7, 2008 at 8:11 AM, Kamlesh Kapur <kamleshk wrote:

 

 

 

 

 

 

What is the full name of JK " tiptronicus?

The link does not give the article.

Kamlesh The post has been made in 2001 or so. I found another link to the same article http://bsv.sulekha.com/blog/post/2007/06/kalidasa-and-ancient-india.htm

Kishore patnaik

[Guest guest]

Two tidbits which might be added to this.

 

1. kAlidAsa might have been a younger contemporary of bhAsa as well. There have been discoveries of a couple of poems which bear the poet names as 'bhAsaukAlidAsau', meaning these were jointly composed by the two. These are part of an ancient collection of poetics and rhetorics called subhAShitAvaliH by a late kashmIraka poet, containing thousands of short poetries.

 

2. it is correctly pointed out in the article that kAlidAsa relied upon purANa-s rather than itihAsa-s for the historical essence of his drama. In this regard, it has been discovered and convincingly demonstrated by Hardatta Sarma of Calcutta University, that for raghuvaMsham kAlidAsa must have relied upon the history presented in the padma-purANa rather than by vAlmIki. Likewise for the skeletal story of abhij~nAna shAkuntal, instead of following mahAbhArata, he relied again upon the story given in padma-purANa's shakuntalopAkhyAnam. I have alluded to kAlidAsa's reliance upon padma purANa in my note "Rama Setu In Padma Purana" http://bharatendu.com/2008/07/30/on-rama-setu-in-padma-purana

 

namaste,

Sarvesh Tiwari

 

 

From: kishorepatnaik09Date: Sat, 6 Sep 2008 15:15:18 +0000 Fwd: Kalidasa And Ancient India

 

 

 

IndiaArchaeology , "JK" <tiptronicus wrote:http://www.sulekha.com/column.asp?cid=300030

 

 

 

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[Guest guest]

There is a Learned Advocate who hails and works in Koraput. He has applied historical geography model and has indicated lot much intersting similarities between the description as are in Meeghadutam and Undivided Koraput.

 

 

-

Kishore patnaik

Saturday, September 06, 2008 8:45 PM

Fwd: Kalidasa And Ancient India

 

 

IndiaArchaeology , "JK" <tiptronicus wrote:http://www.sulekha.com/column.asp?cid=300030Sanskrit literature is a perfect form of a perfect pleasure. Itbecomes a lifelong obsession for most connoisseurs; I know of no otherbody of literature that is so wholesome, so cultivating and uplifting,and so timeless in its appeal to readers. Sanskrit literature easilyspans a period of some 5000 years; even though the language was nolonger being spoken in the streets as far back as 1000 BC, literaturecontinues to be created in Sanskrit to this day.Kalidasa is undoubtedly among the greatest poets of all time, andcertainly the greatest among Sanskrit poets after Vyasa and Valmiki.Four poetic works, Raghuvamsa, Kumarasambhava, Meghaduta, andRitusamhara, and three dramas, Vikramorvasiya, Malavikagnimitra, andAbhijnanasakuntala are attributed to him; in addition to these, Indiantradition attributes to him several other works in diversedisciplines, ranging from poetics and astrology to mathematics andastronomy. It goes without saying that he had more than a littlemastery of all these disciplines. His casual references to thesciences, philosophy, and literary tradition in his works areparticularly enchanting, and show the extent of his mastery over thevarious disciplines. His breathtaking reference to Valmiki and theRamayana in the Meghaduta (Valmikagrat prabhavati dhanuhkhandamakhandalasya) and the Sankhya and Vaiseshika philosophies in theopening invocation of the Raghuvamsa (Vagarthaviva samprktau�) areonly two most famous examples. It is only fitting that his most famouscommentator, Mallinatha Suri should say that he spent his entire lifeappreciating Kalidasa (Maghe Meghe gatam vayah)!The purpose of this brief article is to establish the date of Kalidasaand to examine two of his works for interesting historicalinformation. I also verified the information against traditionalsources such as the Puranas, and drew several conclusions, which Ihope the readers will find interesting and useful.Kalidasa's DateAlmost nothing definite is known about Kalidasa's life, althoughlegends abound. What one can definitely infer from his works is thathe was a Brahman, a devotee of Siva, but not a fanatic of any Hindusect, was widely travelled and very well versed in the arts, sciencesand philosophy of his day. He lived in a city in affluentcircumstances, and was well acquainted with royal courts and courtpolitics, almost certainly because he was patronised by a powerfulking. Kalidasa has been placed in the Gupta period (5th century AD) bythe early European historians of India (where he continues to beplaced faithfully even today). The following circumstances seem tohave influenced their decision:Association with King VikramadityaIndian tradition has long associated Kalidasa with a king bearing thetitle Vikramaditya. The Guptas had been great patrons of fine arts, soit would have been quite irresistible to identify the patron with theGupta king, Chandragupta II, who also bore the title of Vikramaditya,and place Kalidasa in the Gupta era.Emperor Skandagupta's victory over the HunsKalidasa mentions the conquest of the Huns by King Raghu in the poemRaghuvamsa. One famous Indian king who performed this feat was theGupta king, Skandagupta; this apparently strengthened the belief ofthe early historians that Kalidasa belonged to the Gupta period.Resemblances with Asvaghosha's worksThere are close resemblances in certain passages in the poetry ofKalidasa and Asvaghosha1, the author of the celebrated Buddha Charita.Asvaghosha has been reliably dated to the 1st century AD, because ofhis association with the Kushan emperor, Kanishka. Clearly one of thepoets is imitating the other; Kalidasa was conveniently stamped theimitator (with no convincing proof), as this further helped in placinghim in the Gupta era!I am certain that Kalidasa belonged to the 1st century BC for thefollowing reasons:Association with King VikramarkaThere is a strong Indian tradition that associates Kalidasa with KingVikramaditya of the Paramara dynasty (known as Vikramarka in southIndia) who ruled Malwa from Ujjain during the 1st century BC. Thisruler gave his name to the Vikrama or Samvat Era, which starts in 57BC1). He is one of the most celebrated kings in Indian tradition, anda number of legends are associated with him. Even though traditionassociates a number of Indian notables (the nava-ratnas, nine gems) ofwidely divergent periods with Vikramaditya, his association withKalidasa is particularly strong. The 19th century western savantsdisregarded the Indian tradition as Vikramarka's historicity (based onepigraphical evidence) was not yet established then. However, laterresearch has firmly established the credentials of the Paramaradynasty, so there are few reasons to disregard tradition now.Kalidasa has consistently called Pururavas "Vikrama" in the dramaVikramorvasiya. It is generally conjectured that Kalidasa did this tohonour his patron. He included the name in the title of the dramaitself to ensure propagation of his patron's name. In addition, thename Mahendra is mentioned together with Vikrama several times in theVikramorvasiya2; we know from the Kathasaritsagara that Vikramaditya'sfather was known by this name. It is a tribute to the fine tastes ofboth the poet and his patron that they were satisfied with such subtlereferences!Kalidasa lived in Ujjain Kalidasa was clearly closely associated with,or lived in Ujjain, the capital of Vikramarka. His love for this cityand the Malwa country is particularly apparent in the Meghaduta, fromthe way he holds forth lovingly on this city in the poem. The Yaksha'srequest to the cloud messenger to make a detour to visit Ujjain, thedescription of the dance of the devadasis in the Mahakaleswara Temple,and the incomparable descriptions of the city and of the river Sipraleave no one in doubt of this.Raghu's victory over the HunsI don't think Kalidasa was recording Skandagupta's victory over theHuns in the Raghuvamsa, because he also mentions that Raghu conqueredYavanas (Ionians i.e., Greeks) and Parasikas (Persians), besidesseveral Indian kingdoms; Kalidasa merely named all the kingdoms andnationalities known at his time to impress his readers with the extentof Raghu's conquests.Kalidasa's poetic style is not medievalKalidasa's poetry is stylistically very different from early medievalSanskrit poetry, such as that of Dandin and Bharavi. Kalidasa's poetryis chartacterised by simple and fine language, small compound phrases(samasas), simple metres, extremely apt and beautiful similes (ofwhich he is justly famous), fine humour and understated irony. Thisstyle has been called the Vaidarbhi by later aesthetes3. On the otherhand, the work of early medieval Sanskrit poets is highly stylised andtechnical, depends on the use of complex samasas, rather far-fetchedfigures of speech, and tricky slokas that read the same in reverse orplay on a single letter etc (Bharavi's Kiratarjuniya is a rather fineexample of this genre). Such stylisation usually takes several hundredyears of continuous tradition to evolve.Internal evidence in the MeghadutaKalidasa mentions certain specific, but not major, incidents thatoccurred in Ujjain during the reign of king Pradyota in the firstchapter of the Meghaduta, such as the mischief of the royal elephantAlagiri. He also mentions such details as the location of the king'sornamental palm grove, and "village elders well versed in the legendsof Udayana (Udayana kathakovida grama vriddhan)." Now Udayana was thefamous king of Vatsa, contemporary of the Buddha and much celebratedin Indian tradition, who eloped with Pradyota's daughter, Vasavadatta.Details such as the above are usually lost over time; their mention inthe Meghaduta argues for a date for Kalidasa closer to Udayana thanthe Guptas.Internal evidence in the SakuntalaThe fourth act of the Sakuntala mentions the practice of the kingannexing the properties of the issueless. It has been established thatthis was a practice widespread in India during the late BC years,whereas adoption was recognised and accepted by the time of the Guptas.Internal evidence in the Malavikagnimitra This is the clincher. In thedrama Malavikagnimitra, King Agnimitra's father, Pushyamitra isregularly referred to as senapati (commander-in-chief) by all thecharacters. We now know that Pushyamitra was the commander-in-chief ofthe last Maurya emperor, Brhadratha before he usurped the throne in185 BC; he later abdicated in favour of his son, Agnimitra. It isquite likely that he continued to play his old role and was called byhis old title even after Agnimitra became king. But how could Kalidasahave known this, if he were writing several centuries later, in theGupta period? Why did he select Agnimitra, a relatively obscure king,as his hero? These things make sense only if we agree that Kalidasalived and wrote the drama very close to the reign of Agnimitra.Historical Aspects of Kalidasa's WorksIf we accept Kalidasa belonging in the first century BC, he becomes animportant ancient source of information other than the Puranas and theBuddhist and Jain traditions. Kalidasa's encyclopedic knowledge ofancient India's arts, sciences and culture (of which no one who hasread any part of his works would have any doubt) makes him a veryvaluable source. Almost all his works have a connection with the earlyhistory of India, and need to be researched seriously from thisviewpoint. I have been able to read only the Raghuvamsa and theMeghaduta from this angle. The Raghuvamsa The Raghuvamsa deals withthe lives of the kings of the Ikshvaku dynasty of north Kosala, towhich Rama belonged. It starts with Dilipa II and ends with Agnivarna,covering some 27 kings. Pargiter's standardised Ikshvaku dynasty lists96 kings before the Bharata war: from Ikshwaku himself to Brhadbala,who died at the hands of Abhimanyu in the Bharata war. The Raghuvamsadiffers somewhat from the standardised list: Raghu is the son ofDilipa, Dirghabahu being absent; the king Dala is known as Sila; Ukthais absent, and Vajranabha is known as Unnabha; Pushya is absent, andin his place are found Kausalya, Putra and Poushya.The Raghuvamsa is the only detailed chronicle of the great Ikshvakusoutside of the Puranas. Many of the incidents mentioned in the poem donot find any mention in the Puranas, indicating that Kalidasa hadother sources as well. It is interesting to note that Kalidasafavoured the Puranic genealogy over that given in the Ramayana5,despite his great reverence for Valmiki. Evidently he had reasons tosuspect the Ramayana genealogy; we now know the Ramayana genealogy tobe mixed-up and incorrect 4,5,6.The poem begins with Dilipa's service to the divine cow, Nandini withthe desire of begetting a son. Raghu is born, succeeds to the throneand undertakes a conquest of India. His son, Aja marries the fairIndumati, who is killed by a garland falling from heaven! Chapters9-15 cover the well-known Ramayana story; the 16th chapter deals withthe reign of Rama's son, Kusa, and 17th chapter deals with Kusa's son,Atithi. The quality of the poetry, and the stately pace of the poemupto this point bear ample stamp of the master. The 18th chapter isdecidedly uncharacteristic; some 19 kings are swiftly dealt with inthis chapter, with no more than a couple of slokas for each. Thepoetry bears a definitely inferior mark. The 19th chapter, which againbears Kalidasa's stamp, is entirely devoted to the amorous escapadesof the philanderer, Agnivarna, and ends with uncharacteristicabruptness with his death from tuberculosis.The Puranas mention nine more Ikshvaku kings after Agnivarna till theBharata war. The sudden ending of Raghuvamsa with Agnivarna lendsconsiderable credence to an Indian traditionwhich holds that thepresent version is truncated; the original apparently containedtwenty-five, and not the nineteen chapters available today. There aresome who hold the view that Kalidasa died before he completed theRaghuvamsa, but I do not to this view. In my opinion,Kalidasa's last work was the Kumarasambhava; he was clearly a devoteeof Siva, and wrote the Kumarasambhava as a meritorious act in his lastdays. The Raghuvamsa might have preceded the Kumarasambhava. It seemsto me that the chapters 18-25 might have been lost during the firstcenturies of this era; the available 18th and 19th chapters might havebeen reconstructed by later transcribers.The last chapter ends on a hopeful note with the coronation forAgnivarna's unnamed pregnant queen, after the king dies ofconsumption. The coronation of a pregnant widow is clearly a veryremarkable event, and could hardly have been made up. The Ikshvakuline actually continued beyond the Bharata war; the Puranas list some27 kings (Brhatkshaya to Sumitra II) after Brhadbala, who died in thewar4. Thus the dynasty should have ended some 500 years after theBharata war, assuming on average 20 years per sovereign. Other solardynasties (those of Videha and Sravasti) continued into historicaltimes; in fact, the Buddha belonged to the Sravasti dynasty.Kalidasa displays an excellent knowledge of the geography of India andits surroundings when describing the conquests of Raghu. He mentionsthat Raghu crossed the river Kapisa on a bridge of elephants whileinvading Kalinga (later in the poem, Kusa uses the same stratagem tocross the Rewa). This confirms that at least during Kalidasa's timeelephants must have been used thus. During later times, bridges ofboats tied together were used to cross rivers during campaigns. Raghuperformed a Digvijaya and subseqently the Visvajit sacrifice; the onlyother to perform a similar feat among later Ikshvakus was Rama, whoperformed the Asvamedha sacrifice. However, in spite of the assertionsof the Ramayana and the Puranas, the Ikshvaku kingdom was quite small;most kingdoms in those days were little more than small principalitiesconsisting of hamlets around a capital where the king lived.Impenetrable jungle that usually separated neighbouring kingdomsprevented them from attacking each other, and only the mostresourceful and ambitious kings undertook conquests.Rama is clearly the most illustrious sovereign of the Ikshvakudynasty. His long banishment was not without its benefits, as itapparently helped him bring the Dakshina Kosala (approximately thepresent Chattisgarh region) under his sway, and establish friendlyrelations with the few Vanara and Rakshasa kingdoms in the deep South.He and his brothers tried vigorously to extend the Ikshvaku dominationto other parts of the country; they founded new cities that becamevery important in later times, but the kingdoms they founded do notseem to have survived. The Raghuvamsa records that Bharata obtained aprincipality in the Indus region. His sons founded Takshasila andPushkalavati in the north-west. Lakshmana founded the present Lucknow,which was to become the capital of the Awadh much later; his sonsobtained kingdoms in the "Karapatha-Desa" in the north. Satrughnaconquered the Yadavas then establishing themselves in central India,and established Mathura and Vidisa, where his sons reigned. Ramahimself took the unusual step of dividing his kingdom between hissons, installing Kusa at the new capital of Kusavati in DakshinaKosala. This was clearly an attempt to establish a firm foothold onthis newly conquered region; it would not have been possible tocontrol it from remote Ayodhya.In fact, Ayodhya was abandoned to control the extended dominionsbetter. Lava was established at the new capital of Saravati (whichlater became Sravasti) in the Kosalas. Lava appears to have soon losthis capital, for we do not hear of him or his capital any more; it isKusa who continues the line. In fact, he returns to Ayodhya soon afterhis installation at Kusavati, after the deity of Ayodhya complains ofher abandoned state and appeals to him to return. He later fights andsubdues the Naga king, Kumuda, and marries his sister Kumudvati, whoultimately gave birth to his heir Atithi.Many Indian kings of the ancient period had trouble with the powerfuland warlike tribes of Nagas, who appear to have been spread all overthe country. The relation between the Naga and Takshaka tribes issomething that needs to be researched in depth. The Nagas of latertimes who killed Parikshit II and were vanquished by his sonJanamejaya III were clearly Takshakas based in the north-west, withTakshasila as their capital. They appear to be Scythians to me. TheMahabharata mentions other Nagas as living south of the river Yamuna;the present Andhras are supposed to be the descendants of these Nagas.The eighteenth chapter, which deals with many kings, also reveals afew unexpected gems. One is the coronation of Sudarsana at the age ofsix after the sudden death of his father Dhruvasandhi in a royal hunt;a more interesting fact is the abdication of king Pariyatra "so he maygive himself to the pleasures!" Evidently debauchery was stronglydisapproved in a reigning king. However, we also see the hero of theninteenth chapter, Agnivarna, devoted himself completely to debauch,while still a monarch. He ignores affairs of state completely, andwhen requested repeatedly to appear at the jharokha by his subjects,deigns only to stick his foot through the widow! I wonder whereKalidasa got such details; it is hardly likely that he made them up.The Ikshvakus are the most ancient dynasty of India. As I had occasionto mention elsewhere, the solar dynasties are older than the lunardynasties; they always enjoyed the pre-eminence due to ancientdynasties. In more recent times, the house of Mewar, claiming descentfrom Rama's older (?) son Lava, enjoyed the highest prestige among allthe royal houses of the country, above even other solar dynasties suchas that of Amber, which claims descent from the younger son of Rama, Kusa.The MeghadutaThe Meghaduta would have been a very remarkable piece of work in anyage. It has no storyline, and depends entirely on exceedinglybeautiful descriptions of places, incidents, sentiments and people,for its extraordinary impact on the reader. A Yaksha in the service ofKubera is banished to Ramagiri for some offence; thus separated fromhis beautiful wife, the love-lorn Yakshaimplores a passing cloud tocarry his message to his wife in Kubera's city Alaka, on the slopes ofMount Kailas.The Meghaduta is divided into two chapters. The first chapterdelineates the path the cloud-messenger should follow to reach Alaka,with some of the loveliest descriptions of places, incidents andpeople one can find anywhere in world literature. The second chapteris a beautiful description of Alaka, the Yaksha's house there and hiswife, and the Yaksha's own feelings. However, the later half of thesecond chapter seems to have suffered some damage. I think several ofthe slokas in this part are not those of Kalidasa; there are bothsudden discontinuities in narration, and tiresome repetitions of thesame ideas and sentiments -- both very uncharacteristic of Kalidasa.Clearly some of those who transcribed his works over the ages had beenworking overtime inserting their own inferior pieces into the master'swork.The Meghaduta demonstrates Kalidasa's excellent knowledge of thegeography, nature, history, culture and traditions of India. TheYakshaasks the cloud to travel north from Ramagiri (near Nagpur) toAmrakuta (Amarkantak -- the origin of the Narmada), thence via theDasarna country (present Chattisgarh) to Vidisha, then make a detourdue east and travel to Ujjain. From there he is to travel to Deogiri,thence to Dasapura (Mandasaur) on the Charmanvati (Chambal) river;thence via Brahmavarta (the region between the Saraswati andDrshadvati rivers) and Kurukshetra to Kanakhala (Kanakheda) on theGanga. From there he is advised to travel north through the KraunchaRandhra (the present Lipulekh pass?) on to Mount Kailas. Theremarkable thing about this route is that it is mostly straight(except for the detour for Ujjain), suitable for one who does not needa road! I think such a delineation would not have been possiblewithout recourse to accurately drawn maps. In addition, thedescriptions of places and local landmarks make it very clear thatKalidasa must have visited all or most of the places on the route, atleast upto the Himalayas.The main historical references in the Meghaduta are to King Pradyotaof Malwa, Udayana of Vatsa, and Rantideva of Dasapura. I have alreadymentioned Udayana earlier in this article; he belonged to the greatKuru line, and was the 25th king after Yudhishthira according to mostPuranas4. The Kurus lost their traditional capital, Hastinapura a fewgenerations after Yudhishthira, moved south and established themselvesat Kausambi in the Panchala country, which later came to be calledVatsa4,5. This move must have been caused by invasions from thenorth-west, most probably by Takshakas, who had earlier killedParikshit II. The Kuru line apparently ended with Kshemaka (who waskilled by Mahapadma Nanda), some four generations after Udayana.Udayana succeeded to the throne as a minor, and was imprisoned by hispowerful southern neighbour, Pradyota of Ujjain. Popular tradition, aswell as Swapna Vasavadatta say that he ran away with Pradyota'sdaughter Vasavadatta, and regained Vatsa. Pradyota was anotherlegendary king reputed to have possessed an invincible sword andelephant called Mahasena and Alagiri respectively7; founder of theshort Pradyota dynasty, he spent his entire life in campaigns, givingno peace to his neighbours.Rantideva is a difficult king to place; even his name is doubted(Morton Smith thinks it should be Antideva)! Traditional non-Puranicsources such as the Katha Saritsagara say that he was the 60th king inthe Kuru line after Bharata; but he is nowhere to be found in thePuranic lists, as per which the last Kuru king, Kshemaka himself isonly the 48th after Bharata. I think this is another evidence of gapsin the traditional dynastic lists I alluded to elsewhere, as I see noreason to disbelieve the traditional sources. He is, however, acelebrated king in the Puranas for having performed "thousands" ofGavalambha Yagnas (Vedic sacrifices in which cows were sacrificed),and for his support to Brahmans. In fact, the river Chambal issupposed to have formed "from the blood draining from the skins of thethousands of cows sacrificed in his Yagnas3!" I don't think this is aclever attempt to derive the name of Chambal (Charmanvati -- born ofskins); it is quite likely that the skins of sacrificial animals mighthave been dropped close to the river. The Puranas give all kinds offanciful explanations as to why Rantideva had to sacrifice cows7,evidently made up to sanctify him in the eyes of Hindus of a laterperiod. However, I think that as usual Kalidasa was stating ahistorical fact of a historical king. Rantideva must have been a veryancient king indeed to have been able to sacrifice cows withoutqualms; he should be at least several generations earlier to Udayana.ConclusionsCareful study of the work of ancient poets can be a very useful sourceof information that can be helpful in weaving together a fair andaccurate ancient history of India. I believe much more can be done inthis direction in India than has been done so far. I'd consider myeffort in writing this small article well-spent if it stimulatesothers to undertake similar endeavours.Bibliography1. M.R. Kale, Introduction to critical edition of Malavikagnimitra. Healso quotes the passages.2. C.R. Devadhar, Introduction to the critical edition of Raghuvamsa,Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi, 1997. He quotes the passage.3. Vidwan K.V. Narasimha Raju, Critical edition of Meghaduta (inTelugu), Samskrta Bhasha Prachara Samiti, Hyderabad, 1995.4. R. Morton Smith, Dates and Dynasties in Earliest India, MotilalBanarsidass, Delhi, 1973.5. F.E. Pargiter, Ancient Indian Historical Tradition, MotilalBanarsidass, Delhi, 1997.6. J. Tod, W. Crooke (Ed), Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, Vol I,Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi, 1994.7. V. Srinivasa Rao, Purva Gathalahari, a Puranic index in Telugu,Venkatrama & Co., 1986.--- End forwarded message ---