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Supreme Theme : Srngāra or Love
moulds and shapes all life. And no one has the right to tell a real artist what he should and should not present in his art. The emotion of love came to be born in this universe with the appearance of the first man and woman on the surface of this earth; and it is bound to remain here as long as there is man on the earth. Besides, love has inspired and shaped some of the most beautiful creations of art as universal history testifies. In other words, love has been a perennial theme of art, and in spite of any objections honest or hypocritical, it will remain so.
Another objection to śțngāra is due not to the description of love as such but to the excess, the openness in it. An objection from this angle can be both honest and hypocritical as well. The element of hypocrisy lurk in it because these critics often enjoy such literature of love in private and turn to it again and again with relish. Only they lack the courage to admit their enjoyment in public or the cloak of decent culture with which they cover themselves in public appearance prevents them from speaking the truth. If the objection is on such a level of hypocrisy, the answer is that man is inevitably fond of love; the limits imposed on the public exhibition of love either in art or in life do undergo a change with the passage of time or with an evolution in culture; so that, what a person may regard as an unbecoming excess may not appear to be so to another person. A reasonable stand like this leaves no room for guarded hypocrisy. The readers who admire Bhartshari for his Niti and Vairāgya Satakas must reinember that the same poet had scored a Century of love.
But the objection taken against the open description of love, when it is on the level of art values, is no doubt worthy of consideration, and literary criticism can not ignore it. This kind of objection has been levelled against a body of literature in all countries and Sanskrit drama and poetry do not escape from the charge of indecent eroticism. Kālidāsa is guilty too of an occasional excess in his treatment of love which offends the values of art. The usual example is the sexual love he describes of Śiva and Pārvati in the eighth canto of his Kumarasambhava. Traditional criticism even in Sanskrit has expressed an unfavourable opinion against this gay picture; and it is believed, in old tradition, that Kālidasa gave up writing this epic further in the face of the critical disfavour. Personally, I do not share this belief. For, the very title of the epic implies only the 'possibility of the 'birth' of Kumāra; and considering Kālidāsa's leaning on the art of suggestion (dhvani) of which he is a master, the subject of the epic is really fulfilled with the marriage of Siva and Parvati and their union in love. If the story were to be extended further by describing the actual birth of the child born of the love union, his growing up, and his marvellous achievement, the epic theme would not be Kumarasambhava, but Kumāracarita or Sivavursa! Returning to the point of discussion, it must be pointed out that one of the ablest masters of Sanskrit literary theory and criticism, Anandavardhana, shows his frank disapproval of excesses in the treatment of Srăgăra, drawing attention to the many
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