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B.A English Literature
3rd Year 6th Semester
Indian Literatures in English
UNIT-1: Poetry
1.1 “Is Poetry always worthy when it's old?" - Kalidasa (Malavikagnimitra)
About Poet:
KALIDASA: An Indian poet and dramatist, who lived sometime between the reign of Agnimitra, the second Shunga king (c. 170 BC) who was the hero of one of his dramas, and the Aihole inscription of AD 634 which praises Kalidasa's poetic skills. Most scholars now associate him with the reign of Candra Gupta II (reigned c. 380-c. 415). He wrote in Sanskrit.
Little is known about Kalidasa's life.
According to legend, the poet was known for his beauty which brought him to the
attention of a princess who married him. However, as legend has it, Kalidasa
had grown up without much education, and the princess was ashamed of his
ignorance and coarseness. A devoted worshipper of the goddess Kali (his name
means literally Kali's slave), Kalidasa is said to have called upon his goddess
for help and was rewarded with a sudden and extraordinary gift of wit. He is
then said to have become the most brilliant of the "nine gems" at the
court of the fabulous king Vikramaditya of Ujjain. Legend also has it that he
was murdered by a courtesan in Sri Lanka during the reign of Kumaradasa.
He is famously called the Shakespeare of India. His plays include Sakuntala, Meghaduta, Vikaramaurvasya, Kumarasambhava and so on. His dramas describe the imaginative and the mythological stories of romantic love and adventure.
Kalidasa's first surviving play, Malavikagnimitra or Malavika and Agnimitra tells the story of King Agnimitra, a ruler who falls in love with the picture of an exiled servant girl named Malavika. Kalidasa's second play, generally considered his masterpiece, is the Shakuntala which tells the story of another king, Dushyanta, who falls in love with another girl of lowly birth, the lovely Shakuntala. The last of Kalidasa's surviving plays, Vikramorvashe or Urvashi Conquered by Valor, is more mystical than the earlier plays. In addition to his plays, Kalidasa wrote two surviving epic poems Raghuvamsha ("Dynasty of Raghu") and Kumarasambhava ("Birth of the War God"), as well as the lyric "Meghaduta" ("Cloud Messenger"). He is generally considered to be the greatest Indian writer of any epoch.
BHAVABHUTI: Bhavabhuti was the Sanskrit poet and dramatist. He lived in the early eighth century. His eminence specially lies in the suspense and characterization. He wrote the following plays – Mahavavircharitam, Malti Madhavam and Uttar Ramcharitam.
BHARTTRHARI: Bhartrhari was the Sanskrit poet, philosopher and grammarian. He lived in the latter half of the fifth century. He wrote Vakyapadiya, which is the seminal work on the philosophy of language. He had also produced three collections of poetry, each of which contains 100 verses. His poetry throws light on the wisdom, love and renunciation.
Poem:
1
Is poetry always worthy when it's old?
And is it worthless, then, because it's new?
Reader, decide yourself if this be true:
Fools suspend judgement, waiting to be told.
- Kalidasa
2
If learned critics publicly deride
My verse, well, let them. Not for them I wrought.
One day a man shall live to share my thought:
For time is endless and the world is wide.
- Bhavabhuti
3
Of what use is the poet’s poem,
Of what use
is the bowman’s dart,
Unless another’s senses reel
When it
sticks quivering in the heart?
4
Scoundrels without the wit to fit
A word or two of verse together
Are daunted not a whit to sit
In judgement on the abstruse poetry of another.
Such men will listen with attentive mind,
Alert to see how many faults they find.
And if they’re vexed because they fail to grasp the sense
Of works conceived for readers of intelligence,
They naturally do not blame their foolishness:
A girl who’s less than perfect always blames the dress.
5
A man lives long who lives a hundred years:
Yet half is sleep, and half the rest again
Old age and childhood. For the rest, a man
Lives close companion to disease and tears,
Losing his love, working for other men.
Where can joy find a space in this short span?
6
‘Do not go’, I could say but this is inauspicious.
‘All right, go’ is a loveless thing to say.
‘stay with me’ is imperious. ‘Do as you wish’ suggests
Cold indifference. And if I say ‘I’ll die
When you are gone’, you might or might not believe me.
Teach me, my husband, what I ought to say
When you go away.
- Bhartrhari
Summary:
The poem Is Poetry Always Worthy When It’s
Old? six selections.
The first verse is composed by Kalidasa,
the great Sanskrit poet. The second is composed by Bhavabhuti. The remaining
four poems are written by Bhartrhari. The entire poem sequence depicts on the
nature of poem and the critical analysis on the work of art creativity and
criticism.
Kalidasa in the first poem questions
validity of a good poem. He asks if poetry is always worthy, because it is old
and classical. At the same time, he does not stop from asking if a poem is
useless because it is a new one. He does not approve of critic’s opinions. To
him, the Reader is the most powerful critic who passes on judgments on works
composed by the artists. He grants permission to the reader to decide if a work
of art is worthy or not. He castigates the so-called critics as fools, because
they are unable to judge the work of art. He condemns them saying that they
keep their lack of judgment. They always are waiting for sometime to tell them
quality of poetry. In this poem, Kalidasa highlights the importance of a
reader.
In the second poem, Bhavabhuti boldly
challenges the so-called learned critics to deride his verse. He further says
that he does not compose poems for such kind of people. He avers, “Not for them
I wrought.” He hopes that his thoughts might one day be recognized by someone.
According to him, time is eternal and the world is wide. In other words, in the
limitless nature of time and world, some unknown reader may understand the tone
of his verse.
Bhartrhari, the Sanskrit poet, comments on
the nature of poetry. He makes a keen observation of the cynical attitude of
critics on poetry. They never hesitate to reject work if are not able to
understand it. They ridicule such critics in this selection of poem. Both the
poet’s poem and the bowman’s dart are compared. Both of them are futile if they
fail to make reeling effect in the heart. In the next poem, he calls the
critics as scoundrels who are not discouraged to sit in judgment on the merits
on the works of art by others. They are unable to compose a word or two of
verse together. These people will be keen enough to listen to poems of others
with attentive mind. They are alert to see the faults of others. If they are
unable to understand meaning, which is intended only for the intelligent
readers, they immediately blame the poets. They never blame themselves for
their inability. They are compared to a less elegant girl who out of her
inferiority of her appearance blames only her dress, not herself.
In the fifth poem, Bhartrhari shifts from
negativity of judgments of critics to bleakness of vision of world. Human life
is filled with the futile events and activities. According to Bhartrhari, a
man’s life lives a life span of hundred years. However, it is predominantly
filled with sleep and the remaining part is occupied by old age and childhood. The
so-called bright life is occupied by disease and tears, due to love frustration
and exploitation by other men. In this short span of life, a man hardly lives a
happier life. The poet feels melancholic about man’s birth and his death. The
middle part is filled with the uneventful work.
In the last selection, the poet
concentrates on the love that exists between man and wife. This section is
highly rhetorical. The wife does not know what she should say when her husband
departs from her. She has many options from the soft to the hard petitions. She
at first finds it inauspicious to say “ Do not go.” It will be heartless to
say, “All right, go.” It is rude to ask him to remain with her. At the same
time, it is cold to say to do as he wishes. Her husband may or may not believe
her if she says that she will die in the 6 event of her death. So she says that
she needs instructions from her husband about the ways of answering him on his
departure.
Kalidasa, Bhavabhuti and Bhartrhari are the
all Sanskrit poets. They emphasise the importance of poetry and its reception
on the readers and critics. Both the reader and critic are kept in equal
opposition. In the middle, the poet confers superiority on the common reader,
because he judges a work of art if it is truly worthy. The title of a poem is
not working. The question of merit of work is old. As it is old, it does not
deserve to be good. Similarly, because it is new, it is not trash. A work of
art is decided on the mind of the common reader.
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