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Appointment with Kalidasa
pleasures, and the havoc it does work, 6 Kalidasa places side by side the pictures of Satakarni who was an easy prey to the enticements of nymphs and of Sutikṣṇa who was an ascetic by temperament and who had moral control over his conduct and actions, and thereby indicates the supreme importance of self-control and restraint over senses. The heroes and heroines of Kalidasa convey the message that enjoyment of pleasures has a definite place in human life; but just as the denial of youth and its pleasures is a mistake, even so is excess in the indulgence of pleasures; love, sex and other pleasures of life must not contradict the precepts of religioa;To the puruşartha Kama must obey the dictates of restraint.
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Kalidasa seems to accept the current frame of religious, political and philosophical thought; his attitude is the same in regard to social philosophy, especially as it affects marriage and family life. The contemporary society had accepted polygamy and it was prevalent among the higher and rich classes, The heroes of Kalidasa are polygamous, the two exceptions being the Yaksa and Rama. It is inevitable that a woman's place will be after the man; secondary to the male, in such a social setup. Kalidasa has not expressed any dissenting opinion against this social order. On the contrary, he has accepted it as it is. Abandoned by Rama, the message the forlorn Sit sends to him through Lakṣmaṇa is,71 You deserted me listening to public scandal; does it become your learning and wisdom, the prestige. and glory of your family? As the rejected Sakuntala tries to follow the aśrama party, Kanva's pupil Samngarava orders her to stay back, stating. 'It is quite all right even if you worked as a maid-servant in your husband's family. '72 And the philosophical, solemn Saradvata too admits Dusyanta's right to deal with his own. wife in any way he liked; for, the authority of the husband over his wife is plausible and universal'73. The far-sighted and wise Kanva also has not been able to divine any answer to the social inequality between the sexes. On the eve of her departure to her husband's house he advises Sakuntala, 'Serve your elders. Behave like a true friend towards your rival wives. Though humiliated or badly treated by your husband do not be angry and act against his wishes. ... This is the way young women attain the position of good housewives. Those who act to the contrary become a bane to their family,74 The advice of Kanva is evidently an understandable compromise with the existing social conditions. A woman had no alternative but to please, satisfy and obey her husband. Religious and social laws had declared complete devotion and loyalty to the husband as the worthy goal of a woman's Life.
It appears that marriages, in those days, were generally arranged and settled by. the elders in the family. But Kalidasa's writing bears evidence to svayamvara and gandharva forms, that is, love marriages. A girl's father tried to obtain a worthy bridegroom for his daughter by stipulating some wager or arranging a test to
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