Setubandha

SR No.: 001384
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Krishnakant Handiqui
Publisher: Prakrit Text Society Ahmedabad
Publication Year: 1976
Total Pages: 812
Language: English, Sanskrit
Classification: Book_English & Literature
File Size: 14 MB

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INTRODUCTION
Raghuvamša is far more extensive than that of the Setubandha. It recounts the careers of many kings of a dynasty including the entire story of Rāma. As Sāradātanaya says, the Raghuvamsa is a Samhita poem, in which diverse isolated narratives are grouped togetherl. Compared with this, the theme of the Setubandha is extremely limited; it deals only with a portion of the early career of Rāma. Secondly, the descriptions that are an essential feature of a Mahakāvya are strictly subordinated to the narrative in Kalidāsa's poem. In the Setubandha they play a much more extensive role, and are aften carried beyond the requirement of the narrative. The description of the ocean, for instance, occupies nearly a Canto; and an entire Canto of much greater length is devoted to that of Mount Suvela. Kālidāsa, on the contrary, describes the ocean in sixteen verses in the Raghuvamsa (Canto 13), and assigns about the same number of verses to the description of the Himālaya in the Kumārasambhava. Apart from these conventional descriptions, the minute delineation of incidents such as we find in the Setuhandha (Cantos 5-8) in connection with the building of the causeway is a characteristic alien to the poetic art of Kālidāsa. It may be noted that Kālidāsa devotes only a verse to this topic in the Raghuvamsa (12-70). Further, in the Setubandha (Canto 10) Pravarasena introduces a new category of description : elaborate pictures of the evening scenery and the moonlit landscape, and the joys of wine and love with the abhisārikās playing their customary role. Nothing like this sequence of descriptions is found in Kālidāsa.
As regards the Mahakavyas later than Pravarasena, Bhāravi's Kirātārjuniya and Māgha's sisupalavadha deal with brief
1 वृत्तान्ता विप्रकीर्णाः स्युः संहिता यत्र कोविदैः ।
al áfgarafalen Teärit 1 $a: 11 Bhāvaprakāšana, Chap.. 9