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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[AUGUST, 1910.
It has been commented upon largely; and some ingenious scholars would interpret the last påda- cam-s signifying both Siva and Visbņu. They would explain the compound thus :
पार्वतीपथ रमेश्वरच-पार्वतीपरमेश्वरी This interpretation is hardly convincing, and is to be taken simply as an attempt to show that Kalidasa was equally devoted to Vishnu and Siva, a fact that can be easily proved otherwise. The passage quoted by Mallinâtha from the Vayupurana, viz.,
सपनासमोपं धत्ते सर्वस्व वल्लभा।
भर्यरूपं बरखिलंधतेमुग्धेन्दुशेखरः॥ -offers the key-note to the correct interpretation of the verse.
It must, however, be admitted that Kalidasa's religious belief is fall of toleration. His liberal viows mark him out as an unprejudiced and impartial Vedantin.
The following are some of the main philosophical tenets referred to in his work. :(1) that the individual souls enjoy in this birth the results of past karma ;
() that God, though omnipresent and ever-watchfal, is indifferent when the sonls act against his injunctions as laid down in the Sastras ;
(3) that the soul's observance or non-observance of the Sdstras is dependent entirely on the samakdras (mental impressions) of previous births ;
(4) that God is always jast and impartial, and is all-merciful ;
(5) that meritorious deeds, done with attachment to the results thereof, are only productive of trivial and ephemeral fruit;
(6) that deeds performed as duties, 1.c., without attachment to the resnlts thereof, are conducive to the attainment of salvation; and
(7) that God, who is residing in everybody's heart as Antary&min, is realisable by means of yoga-namddhi or uninterrupted concentration of the mind, which realisation is the highest end of life.
Kalidasa's verseg, containing these and other philosophical ideas, are frequently found to echo the very sentiments expressed in the Upanishads, the Bhagavad-Gita, and the Brahma-stras. One could easily quote parallel passages in support of this statement.
Kalidasa's philosophical knowledge is exhibited to the greatest advantage in the 10th sarga of the Raghuvamia (stanzas 16—82), where the Devas (derni-gods) approach Vishņu lying on the Milky Sea and sing his praises. A summary of the thoughts ranning through these few stanzas may not be out of place here :
(1) God is three-fold in form-as the Evolver, the Preseryer and the Dissolver of the Universe.
(2) If it be objected -"How can the Immatable take this three-fold form ? "-the answer is–Just as the very same rain-water acquires different tastes by falling on different regions, so the Immutable God takes different forms by assuming different qualition, vis., satta (parity), rajas (turbidity), and tamas (darkness).
