Appointment with Kalidasa

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

Page 83

Appointment with Kalidasa
of royal life, including the private harem life of a king with the harem conflicts, jealousies and rivalries with such minute and penetrating details as Kalidasa seems to have done. The Udayana plays of Sri Harsa show such pictures; but there is an obvious imitation and influence of Kalidasa; and in the later plays the love life of a royal hero has a conventional set pattern, modelled on Kalidasa's writing. It is reasonable to believe, therefore, that Kalidasa initiated the court comedy of royal love. And this he could not have done by mere poetic observation from a distance, but by close contact with royal life. It has been already suggested that Kalidasa must have been connected with some royal court not only as an honoured poet but also as an officer, perhaps as an embassador, of a king. The intimate pictures of royal life given by Kalidasa can be better understood on such an assumption; and they also show Kalidasa's views on the ideals of kingship and monarchial government.
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It is evident that Kalidasa is a royalist; and this is not surprising on the background of ancient Indian history which shows that the form of government was prevailingly monarchial. But it must be remembered that Kalidasa's political loyalties are not determined by the fact of royal patronage. It was a general belief of the people in those days that if a ruling king happened to be strong and brave, just and generous, the subjects had no worry about their welfare; that a good government under the leadership of a king would be free from difficulties and discontent of any kind. Kālidāsa shares this belief. The Raghu kings were, of course, ideal rulers. But even an earthly king like Agnimitra wins this encomium from Kalidāsa that under his rule no calamity, earthly or supernatural, ever visited his people.28 A complete harmony between the wishes of a king and of his subjects is the basis of this belief.
It is obvious that the government of an ideal king would give no cause for discontent or opposition Kalidasa tells us that under the rule of Raghu kings the mass of their people did not swerve from the chartered path by even so much as a thin line. But granting that a ruling king followed his ideals, what about the integrity of his officers whom he must appoint to share the burden of the administration ? One or two instances in the Sakuntala certainly give an odour of hypocrisy and dishonesty. The meeting with Sakuntala has taken away Dusyanta's attention from the projected hunting. The comfortloving Vidūşaka would naturally like the hunt to be abandoned; his opposition to hunting is selfish but consistent with his nature. But the attitude of Dusyanta's commander of the army is definitely puzzling. He encourages the Viduṣaka privately to be persistent with his opposition and promises that he will personally take the opposite stand only to please his master.30 Is not the Senäpati's praise of hunting an obvious hypocrisy though his obedience to his master is transparent? The behaviour of Dusyanta's chief of police and his two constables is openly dishonest. They terrorize the poor fisherman; later they are prepared to share half the reward with him; and take him to a liquor shop to celebrate their new friendship.31 Dusyanta may be an ideal king in himself; but his officers are shown to be hypoc ritical and corrupt; and the picture is contradictory to the assertion that the wrong