Appointment with Kalidasa

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

Page 60

Glimpses of Personality
story describes him as the husband of a princess. It may not be true. But historical records prove that poets or learned Brahmins were in royal service as ministers or officers. A reference in Meghadūta is worth investigating in this context. The Yakşa praising the Cloud calls him as the 'praksti-puruşa' of Indra. The phrase is as striking as it is surprising. There is an opposition between the two words as the Sāmkhya philosophy or even common knowledge would vouch : Prakrti and Puruşa are opposite concepts; one cannot be the other; so that the compound of the two words is not a case of apparent contradiction (virodhabhäsa) but of actual contradiction (virodha). How did Kālidāsa come to use such a contradictory phrase ? Considering Kalidāsa's perfect command of language, the coining must appear to be deliberate; and if so, the meaning of the compound expression must be determined from other than the philosophical source. It appears that the phrase has a political connotation. The word prakrti denotes a king's minister, cabinet minister, or the subjects in the political context. Puruşa has the sense of officer in Kālidāsa's own play,1° PrakrtiPuruşa thus means 'a king's minister or officer'. Indra in the later mythology is a god of rain; and the cloud may be looked upon as a servant or representative of Indra whose duty is to distribute rain over the earth. There is poetry in this concept and an evidence of the flight of imagination. But this chief function of the cloud of showering rain-water is quite irrelevant, or at best incidental, in the theme of the Meghaduta. The peculiar phrase, therefore remains a literary puzzle. May we surmise that it is a projection of the poet's own psychology ? Perhaps, Kalidasa bimself was a 'praksti-puruşa', that is, a minister of a king, who in his capacity as a minister in charge of foreign affairs or as an embassador, may have been sent out by his king on a political mission. He may have been required to stay away from his home and his beloved wife for a long time to carry out his mission. And the sight of the raincloud 'on the first day of Āşāļha' may have deeply stirred Kalidāsa's heart with tender memories of home and of love. The love-lyric Meghadūta may have been born in some such very personal circumstances. It is a surmise, an inference drawn from the writer's works. But it is tempting to believe that the lyric was inspired by an intensely moving personal experience. And then the puzzling phrase which is so unusual becomes clear. In describing the Cloud as the 'prakrti-puruşa' Kalidasa is imposing his own official position on the cloud, either deliberately or due to a psychological trick !
If Kalidāsa was closely connected with a king both as a poet and as the king's political officer, it follows that he must have been adept in contemporary lores and in political science; for without comprehensive learning and skill a high political office cannot normally be attained. Kālidāsa's own literature testifies to his comprehensive knowledge of different sciences and arts. Vedas, Upanişads, Gitā, Vedānta, Samkhya, Yoga, Nyāya, Vaiśeşika, Mimāṁsā, as well as material sciences like Arthaśāstra and Rājanīti, are mentioned in his poetry and dramas with significant and skilled allusions.