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Appointment with Kalidasa
out the play leave Agnimitra without any vestige of dignity either as a king or as a hero of the dramatic action. It appears that Kālidāsa has exposed through this pict. ure the hypocrisy and unfairness of the polygamous state of society.
Kalidasa appears to have used the wedded queen and the clowncompanion of the king as weapons to test the hero's protestations of love. The Vidūşka in the Vikramorvasiya is a blundering fool. But his foolishness exposes the love affair of Purūravas and the king has to face the anger of queen Auśīnari. And when the king gets a little impatient in the company of Urvaśī on the terrace of the Maņiharmya palace under the brilliant full moon, it is this fool of a Vidüşaka who asks the king sharply, 'Is it night of darkness for you two already ? 28
By placing the king-heroes, whose social greatness could never be challenged, in such situations of amusing ridicule and sharp criticism what Kalidasa suggests is that there is nothing clandestine or underband in their love affairs. And when the king-heroes are shown to be accepting the open ridicule and biting criticism meekly, with a readiness to explain and apologise, when they could have stopped such nonsense and insubordination by lifting their little finger of kingly authority, there is a further suggestion that their love for the young heroine is not a flippant affair but an inevitable urge of the heart which cannot be checked. This is the meaning of Kālidāsa's portrayal of love.
In the portrayal of Duşyanta Kalidasa has deliberately avoided introducing his queens on the stage in order to save his hero from embarrassing situations which might affect his dignity as a king and as a hero. But while changing the form of dramatic construction in this manner Kalidasa has not forgotten to provide the necessary comment on the hero's action in order to test the sincerity of his new love. The Vidūşaka Madhavya is the first critic of Duşyanta. The Vidūşaka's opening thrust is that Dusyanta's love for Sakuntalā is only lust for an attractive hermit's daughter (tāpasakanya)20. Surfeited with sweet dishes a person may turn for a change to the sour tamarind; Duşyanta's passion for Sakuntalā, after his pleasures with the jewellike women in his own harem is not in a different category; this is the Vidūşaka's second attack.3. The first implies an action against the accepted code of religion; Sakuntalā is a tāpasa-kanya, that is to say, a daughter of a Brahmin; entertaining desire for a girl of the higher caste, Duşyanta being a Ksatriya, is a form of pratiloma family connection; and it is not normally desirable, as it upsets the code of religious duty expected from the four varņas. The force of this criticism is that a king is bound by duty to respect and administer the religious laws in practice, and not set a bad example to his people by violating them himself. But, of course, the Vidū. şaka's criticism was not well founded. The factual account of Sakuntalā's birth removes this ground; the fact that she was born of a royal sage and a celestial nymph, and Kanva was only her foster-father, proves that she was fit to become the wife of a Ksatriya (kşatra-parigraha-kşama); if Duşyanța, therefore, desired to have her there
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