Get it on Google Play
Download on the App Store

Sanskrit Tidbits-39:Kalidasa anecdotes

In the last tidbits, we talked about Kalidasa.  All said and done, we don’t know much about Kalidasa.  We don’t know where he lived.  We don’t quite know the period.  This has a bit to do with pinning down King Vikramaditya.  There was a king named Vikramaditya in Ujjain in 1st century BCE.  There were believed to be nine gems (navaratnas) in King Vikramaditya’s court and their names were Kalidasa, Vetalabhatta, Varahamihira, Vararuchi, Amarasimha, Dhanvantari, Kshapanaka, Shanku and Ghatakarpara.  If this belief is true and if this is the right Vikramaditya, Kalidasa dates to 1st century BCE and 1st century ACE.  However, there may have been other King Vikramadityas too.  But Kalidasa must have lived in and around Ujjain.

There are many wonderful stories about Kalidasa.  One of these concerns his being somewhat stupid in his youth.  There was a princess named Kamala (some say Vidyuttoma).  Her decision was that she would only get married to someone cleverer than her and this would be proved through a debate.  Two learned men decided to teach her a lesson by getting her married to someone who was really stupid.  They found a man seated on a tree, who was using an axe to chop down the branch he was seated on.  They decided that this was the right match.  The debate was arranged.  It was so arranged that Kalidasa didn’t speak a word at the debate.  He answered through signs and the signs were so interpreted that the princess lost the debate and got married to Kalidasa.  On the wedding night, a camel began to call outside the window.  “What is that?” asked the princess, expecting a learned response from her learned husband.  Kalidasa replied, उष्ट, though the word for camel is actually उष्ट्र.  The princess was appalled.  Kalidasa tried to correct himself and said उट्र.  The princess was so disgusted that she threw him out.  In mortification, Kalidasa went to the forest and prayed to Kali (some people say Sarasvati).  He became learned and returned after many years.  He knocked at the palace gates and said अनावृतं कपाटं द्वारं देहि – literally, open the door and grant me entrance.  “Who is it?” asked the princess.  Kalidasa responded, अस्ति कस्चित् वाग्विशेषः – “It is someone with a special gift for words.”   The princess realized that Kalidasa was a changed man and welcomed him back.

There are some works that are ascribed to Kalidasa.  Among plays there are अभिञ्जानशकुन्तलम् (recognition of Shakuntala), मालविकाग्णिमित्राम् (King Agnimitra gets married to a servant-girl named Malavika) and विक्रमोर्वशीयम् (the story of Pururava and Urvashi).  Among mahakavyas, there are रघुवंश (the story of the lineage of Raghu) and कुमारसम्भव​ (the birth of Kumara or Kartikeya).  Notice that I have used the word महाकाव्य.

The structure of Sanskrit literature was tight. Any piece of poetry did not deserve to be called a mahakavya.  Some criteria had to be satisfied before something could be called a mahakavya.  Perhaps we will revisit this in some future tidbits.  As opposed to mahakavyas, there were khandkavyas or minor pieces of poetry.  Kalidasa is believed to have authored two khandakavyas, meghadutam and ऋतुसंहार (about the seasons).  So we have a corpus of seven pieces of work.  As far as I can make out, there is some doubt about whether Kalidasa actually wrote ritusamhara.  But we are certain that he authored the remaining six.  Back to the wonderful story – the princess asked Kalidasa to author works with the four words in अस्ति कस्चित् वाग्विशेषः, that is, अस्ति कस्चित् वाक् विशेषः.  अस्त्य् उत्तरस्यां दिशि देवतात्मा हिमालयो नाम नगाधिराजः.  These are the first lines of Kumarasambhava.  Loosely translated, in the northern direction, there are the mountains that are the king of the mountains, the Himalayas, the soul of the gods.  Note that the first word is अस्ति.  The first word of Meghadutam is कस्चित्. The first word of Raghuvamsha is वागर्थाव्, so we have the वाक् too.  However, there is no work by Kalidasa that begins with विशेषः and what about his other works?  So I think that this is just a wonderful story that is not true.

Here is another story about Kalidasa.  Once a learned man went to Kalidasa and said, “You are not a mahakavi (great poet).  Valmiki is the first mahakavi, because he is the original kavi.  Vyasa is a mahakavi, because he authored Mahabharata.  Dandi is a mahakavi, because he authored dashakumaracharitam.”  Kalidasa was upset and went to the temple of the goddess Sarasvati.  He told her what he what had been told and asked, “Who am I?”  The goddess replied, त्वम् एवाहम्, “You are indeed me.”

Another story about Kalidasa illustrates an important grammatical point. Vikramaditya loved Kalidasa, who was the court poet.  There were many other poets who sought to rival him and seek Vikramaditya’s favours.  One such learned man decided to go to Ujjain and exhibit his poetical powers.  King Vikramaditya knew that such a man was arriving and sent a delegation to welcome and receive him. Incognito, Kalidasa went along too.  There was a palanquin with four palanquin bearers and the learned man rode on this, on his way to Ujjain.  Kalidasa also pretended to be a palanquin bearer and bore the palanquin.  However, he was unused to carrying such a load and kept shifting the pole of the palanquin from one shoulder to another.  The palanquin rocked in the process.  I have to give this to you in the Sankrit.  The learned man asked Kalidasa, अयम् आन्दोलिकदण्डः स्कन्धे बाधति किं तव​?  “Is this pole of the palanquin hurting your shoulder?”  I have told you earlier that verb forms are of three types, atmanepada, parasmaipada and ubhaypada. Since this verb is atmanepada, the right form of the verb was बाधते, not बाधति. Kalidasa replied, न तथा बाधते दण्डो यथा बाधति बाधते.  “The pole is not hurting as much as बाधति is hurting.”  The learned man was amazed that such a mere palanquin-bearer should be correcting his grammar.  “Who are you?” he asked Kalidasa.  And Kalidasa replied, “I am Kalidasa’s servant.”  The long and short of it is that the learned man gave up any attempt to rival Kalidas

 

Sanskrit Tidbits

Bibek Debroy
Chapters
Sanskrit Tidbits-43:Exploring Sanskrit Bharati’s Sanskrit Wikipedia Sanskrit Tidbits-41:Vedic Sanskrit and wisdom of Upanishadas Sanskrit Tidbits-40:The brilliance of Sanskrit poet Magha Sanskrit Tidbits-39:Kalidasa anecdotes Sanskrit Tidbits-37:Valmiki’s Poetry Sanskrit Tidbits-36:First Shloka of Valmiki Ramayana Sanskrit Tidbits-35: Durga Saptashati famous hymn sung by Gods for Goddess Durga made easy Sanskrit Tidbits-34:An introduction to Maarkandeya Purana Sanskrit Tidbits-33:Shivaashtakam made easy Sanskrit Tidbits-32:A shloka by Vivekananda in honour of Paramahansa Sanskrit Tidbits-31:Spiritual aspect of Manusmriti Sanskrit Tidbits-30:Manusmriti on crimes,punishments,penances and intercourse Sanskrit Tidbits-29:More on different Varnas-Brahman,Shudra as per ManuSmriti Sanskrit Tidbits-28:Manusmriti and Position of Women Sanskrit Tidbits-27:18 Types of cases dealt by kings as per Manusmriti Sanskrit Tidbits-26:Duties of a king as per Manusmriti Sanskrit Tidbits-25:Strictures on different kinds of food as per Manusmriti Sanskrit Tidbits-24:Brahmin and Sanatan Dharma as per Manusmriti Sanskrit Tidbits-23:Different types of Marriages as per Manusmriti Sanskrit Tidbits-22:An introduction to Manusmriti Sanskrit Tidbits-21:How Sanskrit is a two-way flow Sanskrit Tidbits-20:More about the sanskrit thesaurus Amarkosha Sanskrit Tidbits-19:An introduction to Amarkosha,the Sanskrit Thesaurus Sanskrit Tidbits-18:Jayadeva’s Geet Govind and erotic undertones in Radha-Krishna’s love Sanskrit Tidbits-17:Exploring Jayadeva’s Geet Govind Sanskrit Tidbits-16:Metres in Sanskrit,Fibonacci Series,Pascal’s Triangle and Binomial Theorem Sanskrit Tidbits-15:Poetry,Kalidasa,Jaideva and Sanskrit Sanskrit Tidbits-14: Deeper Nuances of Sanskrit Poetry Sanskrit Tidbits-13:An introduction to Vedangas Sanskrit Tidbits-11:Rules, Formulae and Aphorisms Sanskrit Tidbits-10: Fun with riddles in Sanskrit Sanskrit Tidbits-9:Sanskrit alphabets,phonemes and mathematics Sanskrit Tidbits-8: Myth behind different names of Lotus in Sanskrit Sanskrit Tidbits-7: Myth behind most commonly used words in hymns Sanskrit Tidbits-6:How innovative is Sanskrit! Sanskrit Tidbits-5: The Importance of Pronounciation in Sanskrit Sanskrit Tidbits-4:Can you detect anything wrong in this picture? Sanskrit Tidbits-3 Sanskrit Tidbits-2 Sanskrit Tidbits-1