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98
Appointment with Kalidasa
criticism of art and liter.
critical approach is unavoidable for a healthy, unbiassed ature,
Uma observed such hard penance as would have daunted even determined ascetics. Why? In order to get siva. In the simple language of life Umā did this to get siva as her husdand whom she loved from the depth of her heart. She resorted to tapa because Śiva was a tapasvi, a yogi, whose heart could be touched only by tapa; the attractions of youth and feminine beauty, stirring of human einotions and blandishments of nature had failed to produce any effect on Siva's mind. The effort of Umā, therefore, is like that of a young girl who identifies herself completely with the absorbing interests of her young man, who struggles to achieve some measure of skill or efficiency in that interest, in order to win his heart for herself. In other words, were the hero of this theme different, interested, say in lute-playing, the heroine would have displayed absorbing interest in music, striven to get music lessons from him, and thereby work her way to his heart.11 The art design is unmistakable; and it is useless to put one's own construction on it to suit one's fancy or pet philosophy, If penance undertaken to win a husband were to be regarded as spiritual exercise, what name is to be given to the careful efforts made to get a suitable wife and to the pain of waiting till fulfilment came ? Śiva is the greatest of yogis by traditional standards. When the severe penance of Umā pleased him, why did he not appear before her in his true divine form and carry her straight to spiritual salvation? Why did he hold Umā's hand as common lover? And why did Kalidasa himself describe the marriage of this couple with all the loving details of mundane celebration and carry it upto their honeymoon? in stead of showing Śiva and Umā perched on the peaks of Kailāsa and lost in divine samadhi, why did Kālidāsa choose to take his readers into the privacy of the couple's bedchambor? A child being born is an ordinary and natural event in the life of a married conple; but the gods belong to a different category altogether. If gods allow themselves to be born the birth underscores a divine purpose, that of 'protecting the righteous and punishing the evil-doers.'12 Kalidasa could have shown the birth of Kumāra in some marvellous, supernatural way, without describing the union of love; why did he not do it? It appears to me that the above, so-called spiritual approach of criticism is incapable of explaining some of these details in Kālidāsa's treatment of a love theme.
We will be driven to the same conclusion, I am afraid, if the story of the love of Duşyanta and Sakuntalā were to be examined without prejudice and pre-conceived philosophical attitudes. If Duşyanta's first greeting to Sakuntalā was, 'Api tapo var. dhate ? was it not quite natural and merely polite in the aśrama surroundings? As a matter of fact, Sakuntalā was not doing any penance. Dusyanta knew that she was frightened by the bee pursuing her, and he made his appearance before the girls challenging, on kingly authority, this avina ya or impudence perpetrated on the innocent girls of the hermitage. Duşyanta should have really asked her about her fright and pervousness. In stead, if Kalidasa's Dusyanta puts a question about tapa, it means
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