Appointment with Kalidasa

Author(s): G K Bhatt
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 38

Literary Works
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drinking water at a nearby river. He sent a special arrow in the direction of the sound. To his horror he heard a hu nan cry of agony. He rushed to the river and found a Brahmin boy, śrävaņa, who had come to fetch water from the river and had become the victim of his fatal arrow. Daśaratha tended him and, on his telling, carried him to his old parents. The arrow was pulled out of the heart of Śrāvana but the boy died immediately. The aggrieved father cursed Daśaratha in his anguish that he toy would die by the grief over his son. The old parents died on the pyre of their only son, and Daśaratha returned to his capital with a heavy heart, solemn like the sea with the fire burning in its belly.
Is curse, sometimes, an augury of an unconscious bliss ? Daśaratha was childless so far. He decided to perform the Putra-kama-işti. The gods in heaven were waiting, at this time, for the human avatāra of Vişnu to deal with Rāvana whose might was uachallenged and was further enhanced by the boon of Siva. Vişnu agreed to take birth as Rāma. According to divine ordination, when the wives of Daśaratha ate the sacrificial caru, Rāma was born to Kausalyā, Bharata to Kaikeyi and Laksmana and Satrughna to Sumitrā.
In the following six cantos Kālidāsa presents the story of Rāma on the lines of Vālmīki's Ramayana. There is a reference to the killing of the Kraunca bird by the hunter and Vālmīki's inspiration for the epic composition. The incidents, from the protection of Viśvāmitra's sacrifices in early childhood, through the training and education, marriages, Kaikeyi's insistence on putting Bharata on the throne, the exile into forest, Dasaratha's death, killing of Tādakā and a host of demons in the Dandakā, abduction of Sītā, search for her, friendly alliances with Sugriva and Hanumat, final crossing of the ocean, seige of Lankā, death of Rāvana and the triumphant return to Ayodhyā after Sitā's purification by fire-ordeal, are all briefly presented. Ramarkable in this presentation is the picture of the lands of India (Bhārata-bh umi) which Kālidāsa paints through Rāma as he and Sītā proceed from Lankā to Ayodhya in the Puşpaka aerial car. The pictures pulsate with life, accuracy of details, colour and variety.
The rule of Rāma was an happy augury of a just and righteous government. But the public scandal about Sita's long stay in Rāvana's captivity, in spite of her fire-ordeal, hurt Rama very much and he abandoned her while she was advanced in pregnancy. Kālidāsa's Sita does not blame Rāma, only questions his judgement in the light of her ordeal and the reputation of the family; her love for Rāma remains constant. Valmiki looked after the abandoned Sitā and her twin sons, educated them, taught them his Rāmāyana, which Rāma had an opportunity to hear when he met the boys in the course of his Aśvamedha performance. He recogoised Kuśa and Lava as his own sons but wanted Sită to demonstrate her purity before all the people, Sita chose to disappear in the bosom of her mother Eerth. This was a shock