FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155  
156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   >>  
substantially as Kalidasa wrote it. Plainly, it has a unity which is lacking in Kalidasa's other epic, _The Dynasty_ _of Raghu_, though in this epic, too, the interest shifts. Parvati's love-affair is the matter of the first half, Kumara's fight with the demon the matter of the second half. Further, it must be admitted that the interest runs a little thin. Even in India, where the world of gods runs insensibly into the world of men, human beings take more interest in the adventures of men than of gods. The gods, indeed, can hardly have adventures; they must be victorious. _The Birth of the War-god_ pays for its greater unity by a poverty of adventure. It would be interesting if we could know whether this epic was written before or after _The Dynasty of Raghu_. But we have no data for deciding the question, hardly any for even arguing it. The introduction to _The Dynasty of Raghu_ seems, indeed, to have been written by a poet who yet had his spurs to win. But this is all. As to the comparative excellence of the two epics, opinions differ. My own preference is for _The Dynasty of Raghu_, yet there are passages in _The Birth of the War-god_ of a piercing beauty which the world can never let die. * * * * * THE CLOUD-MESSENGER In _The Cloud-Messenger_ Kalidasa created a new _genre_ in Sanskrit literature. Hindu critics class the poem with _The Dynasty of Raghu_ and _The Birth of the War-god_ as a _kavya_, or learned epic. This it obviously is not. It is fair enough to call it an elegiac poem, though a precisian might object to the term. We have already seen, in speaking of _The Dynasty of Raghu_, what admiration Kalidasa felt for his great predecessor Valmiki, the author of the _Ramayana_; and it is quite possible that an episode of the early epic suggested to him the idea which he has exquisitely treated in _The Cloud-Messenger_. In the _Ramayana_, after the defeat and death of Ravana, Rama returns with his wife and certain heroes of the struggle from Ceylon to his home in Northern India. The journey, made in an aerial car, gives the author an opportunity to describe the country over which the car must pass in travelling from one end of India to the other. The hint thus given him was taken by Kalidasa; a whole canto of _The Dynasty of Raghu_ (the thirteenth) is concerned with the aerial journey. Now if, as seems not improbable, _The Dynasty of Raghu_ was the earliest of
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155  
156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   >>  



Top keywords:
Dynasty
 

Kalidasa

 

interest

 

adventures

 

Ramayana

 
author
 
written
 

journey

 
Messenger
 

aerial


matter

 

improbable

 
literature
 

Valmiki

 
predecessor
 

earliest

 
critics
 
speaking
 

precisian

 

learned


elegiac

 

object

 

admiration

 

treated

 

opportunity

 

describe

 

country

 

thirteenth

 

Northern

 

travelling


Ceylon

 
struggle
 

exquisitely

 

suggested

 

episode

 
defeat
 

concerned

 
heroes
 

Sanskrit

 
Ravana

returns
 

beings

 
insensibly
 
victorious
 

interesting

 

adventure

 
greater
 

poverty

 
shifts
 

Parvati