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SUPREME THEME: Sṛngara or Love
In understanding Kalidasa's thoughts and ideas there was an attempt to discover his outlook on life. In this discussion Kalidasa's thoughts on love were not touched. The reason is that they deserve a separate treatment. As the major theme of Kalidasa's poetry and drama his views on love are very important in order to understand his art as well.
Kalidasa may be described as the Prince of śṛngara. Śṛngara holds the kingly position among the rhetorical rasas, and Kalidasa is the 'grace of Poetic Muse who gives a 'beautiful literary expression' to this king of sentiments. Two of his poems and all his three plays carry the theme of love. His lyric Rtusamhara is principally devoted to the description of the six seasons of nature; but in describing the effect of the seasons on the emotional life of man the colourful shades of diffrent emotions and particularly of love have naturally crept over the canvas. The Raghuvasa sings the praises of ancient kings of the Solar dynasty and their royal life; but here again glimpses of maried love and occasionally of youthful love cannot be missed. The basic emotion of Kalidasa's literature is, thus, srigära or love; it is the sthayi bhäva of his writing.
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Before examining Kalidasa's treatment of love, it will be of some advantage to consider the objections raised in this connection. These objections come from different. approaches. There is a section of critics who are traditionally very conservative. They always think that the veriety of life can suggest a number of themes to a writer; harping therefore on the theme of love and such intimate subjects is meaningless. They think that frågara and woman who symbolises its pleasures are a positive obstacle from raligious and other-worldly viewpoint; the aim of human life must be realisation of God and salvation from the repeated cycle of life and death; as such, the literary or any other art that hinders the spiritual progress of man must be deemed to be completely irrelevant. Assuming that such an objection is sincere and honest, it has to be remembered that it is not confined to Sanskrit literature or to Kālidāsa; it can be, and has been taken at all times, in all countries, against erotic literature. It is not necessary to make any particular attempt to answer this objection. Those who honestly object to literature of love have other kinds of writing available to them, like the lives of saints and ideal men, and books on religion, philosophy and spiritful life. The truth, however, is that love has been a universal theme of literature. at all times and in all countries It is the essential and important emotion that
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