Appointment with Kalidasa

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

Page 78

World of Thought
widely spread among the people influencing the modes of their living. The horizons of scientific thinking were enlarging; and it was becoming increasingly necessary to codify all this diverse knowledge and preserve it in its essential principles in a form easy for memorising. In other words, it was the time for sūtra works and their com. mentaries extended to all branches of scientific thought. This was a period of striking intellectual activity.
As a matter of fact, the religious philosophy promulgated by the Vedic literature had permeated down to the life of the people and could have sunk its roots dee por still. Time had moved so far ahead. That this did not actually happen may be partially due to political rivalries and unsteady governments that this period in history witnessed. But the major cause appears to be the rise of new religions, like the Bauddha and the Jain, which broke away from the Vedic tradition. There is no doubt that the thoughts of Buddha and the way of life he taught had deeply touched the mind of common men and had influenced some intellectuals of the time. During the period from the first century B. C. to the first-second century A. D. some ruling kings of North India had embraced Buddhist religion, giving it thus the prestige of political authority. The old religion had naturally to face this challenge. The period of time, therefore, is mainly that of conflict and transition; and it is with these times that Kālidāsa seems to be connected. A predecessor or a senior contemporary of Kālidāsa, Ašvaghoșa (1st cent between 50 B. C. & 50. A. D.) who was a Brahminturned-Buddhist wrote some philosophical works on the Buddhistic doctrines and also composed Sanskrit epics, Buddhacarita and Saundarananda, to teach the life and phil. osophy of Buddha, to carry the new message to the heart of the people through the alluring medium of literary art. The great need of the times, was the coming on the horizon of a writer who would hold the attention of the people and who would champion the cause of the old religion and philosophy and recapture the glory of the ancient Vedic tradition.
The literature of Kalidāsa fulfilled this need indirectly. 'Indirectly', for two obvious reasons : Kālidāsa never wrote anything to propagate any particular philogophy or religious creed, as Ašvaghoşa did. He was an artist to his finger-tips, and would not permit any upadeśa to swallow his art presentation. The opinion, therefore, expressed by a scholar, tbat Kālīdāsa's Sakuntala is an answer of the Brahmanical Culture to the Buddhist religion, is exaggerated and misleading. Kālidāsa is not a philosopher like the Upanişadic thinkers or like Śankaracārya of the later period. He does not hold a brief for any particular opinion, has no personal axe to grind, but strictly adheres to his role as an artist. There is another reason also, Controversies and taking sides apart, Kālidāsa does not even invite attention through his characters to possible faults in the current religious behaviour of the people and to precepts that have lost validity of the context. A sadra, Sambuka, practised penance