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100
Appointment with Kalidasa
ned the tapovana into an uparana are intended by the poet to convey something altogether different. The artistic fact is that the unexpected meeting between Sakuntalā and Dusyanta is not an everyday occurrence in the life of a hermitage. It happens once in a while; and when it does it cannot help affecting its usual peaceful and monotonous life. A serious love affair in the peaceful, disciplined life of ascetics or say of college students is an unexpected happening which is bound to cause an agitation and a stir. Such a thing may happen even today in a yoga-āśrama, a college or a school ; and it will create a great disturbance. We describe such a happening as 'virodhi' in the simple sense that colleges, schools or aśramas are not the places for love affairs or for fixing marriages. And yet unusual though, such things may happen occasionally. When they do, the normal discipline of educational or ascetic life is temporarily disturbed. The authorities may issue a warning or give commonsense advice to the young people concerned in the interest of their own future life. But no one would pronounce a deadly curse on their heads or rusticate them from the educational institution simply because they happened to fall in love. The warning and advice are perhaps necessary to maintain the geneal discipline and to see that the attention of the students is not deviated from their studies; childhood and young age are meant for study ; love and marriage can come at the end of the educational career ; this is the normal channel for normal life ; that is all. Further sometimes when love strikes a young heart there is always a possibility that the choice of a partner may not be correct; the young people are too blinded by their passion to see ahead, and that may seriously harm their future life. Kālidāsa shows this red light of possible danger by letting his Kaạya use the imagery of a sacrificer whose eyes are bli. nded by sacrificial smoke and whose oblation may, therefore, fall outside the ritual fire. Fortunately Sakuntala had fallen for the right kind of man. Kanva himself is convinced about his daughter's worthy choice ; Duşyanta, according to him, is the foremost among the worthy' (arhatām prāgrasaraḥ); and nobody could have made a better choice than this. Kaņva, therefore, feels that in bestowing Saku: talā on Duş. yanta he is handing over his vidyā to the wortbiest pupil, and that there is absolutely no cause for any sorrow or repentance13. This is all that artistic picture of Kāli. dasa conveys; and there is nothing in Kālidāsa's writing to indicate that the poet had any further suggestions to offer. Yow far, therefore, can the process of vyanjana be stretched ?
In this picture of Kalidasa there is no repudiation of natural love, nor denial of marriage. This is not to be confused with any mistaken notion of promiscuous liberty. For, the students who were given education in the ancient gurukulas or the hermitages of learned sages had to follow a certain discipline, which was perhaps more exacting than the one prevailing in modern educational institutions. The boys and girls in the hermitages had their daily duties assigned to them!4. Consulting the clocks of the Sun and the Moon they had to tell their preceptor the time for his daily ablutions, ritual and fire worship ; they had to collect and se ch from the for
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