Kumārasambhava
Kumārasambhavam (Sanskrit: कुमारसम्भवम् "The Birth of Kumāra") is an epic poem by Kālidāsa. It is widely regarded as the finest work of Kālidāsa as well as the greatest kāvya poem in Classical Sanskrit.[1][2] The style of description of spring set the standard for nature metaphors pervading many centuries of Indian literary tradition.[3] Kumārasaṃbhavam basically talks about the birth of Kumāra (Kārtikeya), the son of Shiva and Parvati.[4] The period of composition is uncertain, although Kālidāsa is thought to have lived in the 5th century.
Legend say that Kālidāsa could not complete his epic Kumārasambhavam because he was cursed by the goddess Pārvatī, for obscene descriptions of her conjugal life with Śiva in the eighth canto. But later it has inspired the famed sculpture of Khajuraho temples. The English renderings of these Sanskrit plays tend to avoid erotic and explicit aspects due to moral tastes of modern audience.[5] The play depicts Kālidāsa as a court poet of Chandragupta who faces a trial on the insistence of a priest and some other moralists of his time.[6] [7]
Contents
[edit]Kumārasambhavam literally means "The Birth of Kumāra". This epic entails Sringara rasa, the rasa of love, romance, and eroticism, more than Vira rasa (the rasa of heroism). Tārakāsura, an asura (demon) was blessed that he could be killed by none other than Shiva's son. However, Shiva had won over Kama, the god of love. Parvati performed great tapas (spiritual penance) to win the love of Shiva. Consequently, Shiva and Parvati's son Kartikeya was born to restore the glory of Indra, king of the devas.
Śiva who wears the moon in his hair said,
‘From this moment,I am your slave, gained by tapas, woman of healing beauty,’
and all the weariness of her effort left her in that instant
for out of exhaustion, once desire is satisfied,
a new strength rises.— Sarga Five (Tapaḥphalodayaḥ), Trans. Hank Heifetz
The Kumārasaṃbhavam has apparently come down to us unfinished, or as a complete fragment of a larger whole. Seventeen cantos (or sargas) are found in some manuscripts, but only the first eight can be judged, on available evidence, to be the authentic work of Kālidāsa. A later, lesser author (or perhaps two) seems to have completed the story, in nine additional sargas, describing the birth of the Young God Kumāra and his victory, as leader of the army of the gods, over Tāraka. For these nine sargas no commentary exists by Mallinātha (1350-1450), the most famous of Kālidāsa’s commentators. Even more significantly, they are never quoted in the Alaṃkāraśāstra, the Sanskrit treatises on literary theory and practice in which verses from sargas one through eight are common. Modern literary scholars also point to a general inferiority in the writing, with increased use of padding, as further argument against Kālidāsa’s authorship[1].
The eight definitely authentic sargas have a completeness of their own. Thematically, they develop not exactly a love story but a paradigm of inevitable union between male and female played out on the immense scale of supreme divinity. Sanskrit poetry excels at the blending, or counterpoint, of eroticism and reverence towards divine (or imperial) power. In the legend of the love of the God and the Goddess, of Śiva and Pārvatī, Kālidāsa chose a theme in which these two elements are naturally and intensely unified.[1]
Moralistic critics in medieval and later India have severely censured Kālidāsa for depicting the lovemaking of gods. Editions of the Kumārasaṃbhavam have been published without the eighth sarga (Umāsuratavarṇanaḥ), especially if they are intended for use in schools. By contemporary standards, however, the sexual detail of this sarga—though vivid and beautiful—is discreetly handled, and most of sarga eight is taken up with Śiva’s impassioned and sensual descriptions of nature. The evidence for its genuineness seems strong, and the level of the writing is quite as high as in the rest of the poem.[1]
When she looked in her mirror at the traces of pleasure
and saw the face of her lover who was sitting behind her
rise up in the glass beside her own reflection,
she would busy herself to hide the shame she felt.— Sarga Eight (Umāsuratavarṇanaḥ), Trans. Hank Heifetz
Adaptations
[edit]Kumara Sambhavam is a 1969 Indian film adaptation of the poem by P. Subramaniam.[8]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d Heifetz, Hank (January 1, 1990). The origin of the young god : Kālidāsa's Kumārasaṃbhava. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass. p. 1. ISBN 81-208-0754-5. OCLC 29743892.
- ^ Smith, David (2005). The birth of Kumāra (1st ed.). New York: New York University Press. ISBN 0-8147-4008-1.
The greatest long poem in classical Sanskrit, by the greatest poet of the language.
- ^ "Book Excerptise: Kalidaser granthAbalI, v.2 by Kalidasa and Rajendranath Vidyabhushan (ed.)". iitk.ac.in. Retrieved 17 April 2017.[permanent dead link]
- ^ "Kumarasambhavam by Kalidasa - Synopsis & Story". ILoveIndia.com. Retrieved 17 April 2017.
- ^ Keay, John (2010). India A History: From the Earliest Civilisations to the Boom of the Twenty First Century. New York: Harper Press. ISBN 978-0-8021-9550-0.
- ^ https://punemirror.indiatimes.com/others/sunday-read/sex-and-the-sanctity/articleshow/32561495.cms%7C Kumara Sambhav paragraph.
- ^ "Error".
- ^ Vijayakumar, B. (1 January 2012). "Kumarasambhavam - 1969". The Hindu.
Bibliography
[edit]- Hank Heifetz (1 January 1990). The Origin of the Young God: Kālidāsa's Kumārasaṃbhava. Motilal Banarsidass. ISBN 978-81-208-0754-9.
External links
[edit]
- full text of the Kumārasambhava in Devanāgarī script (first eight sargas)
- full text of the Kumārasambhava in Roman script at GRETIL
- The Birth of the War-God, selected translation by Arthur W. Ryder
- single folio of a Kumārasambhava manuscript in the Cambridge University Library
- [1] Attempted English translation of text by RTH Griffith
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