Kalidasa

“ Tempt not the lotus-flowers that bloom by day.
The King of Shurasena has no better fortune, in spite of his virtues and his wealth. As a river hurrying to the sea passes by a mountain that would detain her, so the princess passes him by. She is next introduced to the king of the Kalinga country;
His palace overlooks the ocean dark
With windows gazing on the unresting deep,
Whose gentle thunders drown the drums that mark
The hours of night, and wake him from his sleep.
But the maiden can no more feel at home with him than the goddess of fortune can with a good but unlucky man. ”

“ He vainly asks help of the creatures whom he meets: a peacock, a cuckoo, a swan, a ruddy goose, a bee, an elephant, a mountain-echo, a river, and an antelope. At last he finds a brilliant ruby in a cleft of the rocks, and when about to throw it away, is told by a hermit to preserve it: for this is the gem of reunion, and one who possesses it will soon be reunited with his love. With the gem in his hand, Pururavas comes to a vine which mysteriously reminds him of Urvashi, and when he embraces it, he finds his beloved in his arms. ”

“ Portress (to herself) . What a virtuous king he is! Would any other man hesitate when he saw such a pearl of a woman coming of her own accord?
Sharngarava. Have you nothing to say, O King?
King. Hermit, I have taken thought. I cannot believe that this woman is my wife. She is plainly with child. How can I take her, confessing myself an adulterer?
Shakuntala (to herself) . Oh, oh, oh! He even casts doubt on our marriage. The vine of my hope climbed high, but it is broken now.
Sharngarava. Not so. ”

“ Shakuntala dominates the play. She is actually on the stage in five of the acts, and her spirit pervades the other two, the second and the sixth. Shakuntala has held captive the heart of India for fifteen hundred years, and wins the love of increasing thousands in the West; for so noble a union of sweetness with strength is one of the miracles of art.
Though lovely women walk the world to-day By tens of thousands, there is none so fair In all that exhibition and display With her most perfect beauty to compare—
because it is a most perfect beauty of soul no less than of outward form. ”

“ Surely, she is the daughter of the nymph.
Anusuya. Yes.
King. It is as it should be.
To beauty such as this
No woman could give birth;
The quivering lightning flash
Is not a child of earth.
(SHAKUNTALA hangs her head in confusion.) King (to himself) . Ah, my wishes become hopes.
Priyamvada (looking with a smile at SHAKUNTALA) . Sir, it seems as if you had more to say. (SHAKUNTALA threatens her friend with her finger.)
King. You are right. Your pious life interests me, and I have another question.
Priyamvada. Do not hesitate. We hermit people stand ready to answer all demands. ”

“ When they reach the mountain where Shiva dwells, Spring shows his power. The snow disappears; the trees put forth blossoms; bees, deer, and birds waken to new life. The only living being that is not influenced by the sudden change of season is Shiva, who continues his meditation, unmoved. Love himself is discouraged, until he sees the beauty of Parvati, when he takes heart again. At this moment, Shiva chances to relax his meditation, and Parvati approaches to do him homage. Love seizes the lucky moment, and prepares to shoot his bewildering arrow at Shiva. ”

“ In cooing cuckoo-song,
Bidding Shakuntala farewell,
Their sister for so long.
Invisible beings,
May lily-dotted lakes delight your eye;
May shade-trees bid the heat of noonday cease;
May soft winds blow the lotus-pollen nigh;
May all your path be pleasantness and peace.
(All listen in astonishment.)
Gautami. My child, the fairies of the pious grove bid you farewell. For they love the household. Pay reverence to the holy ones.
Shakuntala (does so. Aside to PRIYAMVADA) . Priyamvada, I long to see my husband, and yet my feet will hardly move. It is hard, hard to leave the hermitage. ”

“ But blessed, austere Kanva had divine discernment. He discovered her, and seeing the matter with celestial vision, he was pleased and said: "What you have done, dear, to-day, forgetting me and meeting a man, this does not break the law. A man who loves may marry secretly the woman who loves him without a ceremony; and Dushyanta is virtuous and noble, the best of men. Since you have found a loving husband, Shakuntala, a noble son shall be born to you, mighty in the world." ”

“ Yet King Dilipa has one deep-seated grief: he has no son. He therefore journeys with his queen to the hermitage of the sage Vasishtha, in order to learn what they must do to propitiate an offended fate. Their chariot rolls over country roads past fragrant lotus-ponds and screaming peacocks and trustful deer, under archways formed without supporting pillars by the cranes, through villages where they receive the blessings of the people. At sunset they reach the peaceful forest hermitage, and are welcomed by the sage. ”

“ Maid. Please hold the picture, Madhavya, while I am gone.
King. I will hold it. (He does so. Exit maid.)
Clown. What are you going to add?
Mishrakeshi. Surely, every spot that the dear girl loved.
King. Listen, my friend.
The stream of Malini, and on its sands
The swan-pairs resting; holy foot-hill lands
Of great Himalaya's sacred ranges, where
The yaks are seen; and under trees that bear
Bark hermit-dresses on their branches high,
A doe that on the buck's horn rubs her eye.
Clown (aside) . ”

“ I know of no poet, unless it be Shakespeare, who has given the world a group of heroines so individual yet so universal; heroines as true, as tender, as brave as are Indumati, Sita, Parvati, the Yaksha's bride, and Shakuntala.
Kalidasa could not understand women without understanding children. It would be difficult to find anywhere lovelier pictures of childhood than those in which our poet presents the little Bharata, Ayus, Raghu, Kumara. It is a fact worth noticing that Kalidasa's children are all boys. Beautiful as his women are, he never does more than glance at a little girl. ”

“ Also, the Rama story is so moving that a mere allusion to it stirs like a sentimental memory of childhood. It has the usual qualities of a good epic story: abundance of travel and fighting and adventure and magic interweaving of human with superhuman, but it has more than this. In both hero and heroine there is real development of character. Odysseus and Æneas do not grow; they go through adventures. But King Rama, torn between love for his wife and duty to his subjects, is almost a different person from the handsome, light-hearted prince who won his bride by breaking Shiva's bow. ”

“ As pure men, those whom passions soil,
As waking men view men asleep,
As free men, those in bondage deep.
Chaplain. That is why men like you are great.
Shakuntala (observing an evil omen) . Oh, why does my right eye throb?
Gautami. Heaven avert the omen, my child. May happiness wait upon you. (They walk about.)
Chaplain (indicating the king) . O hermits, here is he who protects those of every station and of every age. He has already risen, and awaits you. Behold him.
Sharngarava. Yes, it is admirable, but not surprising. For
Fruit-laden trees bend down to earth ”

“ Matali. There is a host of demons who call themselves Invincible—the brood of Kalanemi.
King. So Narada has told me.
Matali.
Heaven's king is powerless; you shall smite
His foes in battle soon;
Darkness that overcomes the day,
Is scattered by the moon.
Take your bow at once, enter my heavenly chariot, and set forth for victory.
King. I am grateful for the honour which Indra shows me. But why did you act thus toward Madhavya?
Matali. I will tell you. I saw that you were overpowered by some inner sorrow, and acted thus to rouse you. For
The spurnèd snake will swell his hood ”

“ The windows are filled with the faces of eager and excited women, who admire the beauty of the young prince and the wisdom of the princess's choice. When the marriage ceremony has been happily celebrated, the disappointed suitors say farewell with pleasant faces and jealous hearts, like peaceful pools concealing crocodiles. They lie in ambush on the road which he must take, and when he passes with his young bride, they fall upon him. Aja provides for the safety of Indumati, marshals his attendants, and greatly distinguishes himself in the battle which follows. ”

“ The cuckoo's eggs are left to hatch and rear
By foster-parents, and away she flies.
Shakuntala (angrily) . Wretch! You judge all this by your own false heart. Would any other man do what you have done? To hide behind virtue, like a yawning well covered over with grass!
King (to himself) . But her anger is free from coquetry, because she has lived in the forest. ”

“ Thy rainbow, paintings, and thy height, cloud-licking towers.
II
where the flowers which on earth blossom at different seasons, are all found in bloom the year round.
Where the autumn lotus in dear fingers shines,
And lodh-flowers' April dust on faces rare,
Spring amaranth with winter jasmine twines
In women's braids, and summer siris fair,
The rainy madder in the parting of their hair.
III
Here grows the magic tree which yields whatever is desired. ”

“ It was a new and daring thought—to present on the stage a long lyrical monologue addressed to the creatures of the forest and inspired by despairing passion. Nor must it be forgotten that this play, like all Indian plays, is an opera. The music and the dancing are lost. We judge it perforce unfairly, for we judge it by the text alone. If, in spite of all, the Urvashi is a failure, it is a failure possible only to a serene and mighty poet. ”

“ Is hardly less to woman's heart than lovers' meeting.
XXXVIII
The message itself.
Thus too, my king, I pray of thee to speak,
Remembering kindness is its own reward;
"Thy lover lives, and from the holy peak
Asks if these absent days good health afford—
Those born to pain must ever use this opening word.
XXXIX
With body worn as thine, with pain as deep,
With tears and ceaseless longings answering thine,
With sighs more burning than the sighs that keep
Thy lips ascorch—doomed far from thee to pine,
He too doth weave the fancies that thy soul entwine. ”

“ Anusuya. Priyamvada, that is why Shakuntala waters the spring-creeper so lovingly.
Shakuntala. She is my sister. Why shouldn't I give her water? (She tips her watering-pot.)
King. May I hope that she is the hermit's daughter by a mother of a different caste? But it must be so.
Surely, she may become a warrior's bride;
Else, why these longings in an honest mind?
The motions of a blameless heart decide
Of right and wrong, when reason leaves us blind.
Yet I will learn the whole truth.
Shakuntala (excitedly) . Oh, oh! A bee has left the jasmine-vine and is flying into my face. ”

“ The loves of Agnivarna.—After the twenty-one kings just mentioned, there succeeds a king named Agnivarna, who gives himself to dissipation. He shuts himself up in the palace; even when duty requires him to appear before his subjects, he does so merely by hanging one foot out of a window. He trains dancing-girls himself, and has so many mistresses that he cannot always call them by their right names. It is not wonderful that this kind of life leads before long to a consuming disease; and as Agnivarna is even then unable to resist the pleasures of the senses, he dies. ”

“ Clown. You have got rid of the vermin. Now be seated on this flat stone, over which the trees spread their canopy of shade. I can't sit down till you do.
King. Lead the way.
Clown. Follow me. (They walk about and sit down.)
King. Friend Madhavya, you do not know what vision is. You have not seen the fairest of all objects.
Clown. I see you, right in front of me.
King. Yes, every one thinks himself beautiful. But I was speaking of Shakuntala, the ornament of the hermitage.
Clown (to himself) . I mustn't add fuel to the flame. (Aloud.) But you can't have her because she is a hermit-girl. ”

“ Sweet friend, drink where those holy waters shine
Which the plough-bearing hero—loath to fight
His kinsmen—rather drank than sweetest wine
With a loving bride's reflected eyes alight;
Then, though thy form be black, thine inner soul is bright.
L
The Ganges River, which originates in heaven. ”

“ Kumara is consecrated general.—Kumara takes an affectionate farewell of his parents, and sets out with the gods. When they come to Indra's paradise, the gods are afraid to enter, lest they find their enemy there. There is an amusing scene in which each courteously invites the others to precede him, until Kumara ends their embarrassment by leading the way. Here for the first time Kumara sees with deep respect the heavenly Ganges, Indra's garden and palace, and the heavenly city. But he becomes red-eyed with anger on beholding the devastation wrought by Taraka. ”

“ Aja commits the body of his beloved queen to the flames. A holy hermit comes to tell the king that his wife had been a nymph of heaven in a former existence, and that she has now returned to her home. But Aja cannot be comforted. He lives eight weary years for the sake of his young son, then is reunited with his queen in Paradise. ”

“ King (looking at the girls) . It is delightful to see your friendship. For you are all young and beautiful.
Priyamvada (aside to ANUSUYA) . Who is he, dear? With his mystery, and his dignity, and his courtesy? He acts like a king and a gentleman.
Anusuya. I am curious too. I am going to ask him. (Aloud.) Sir, you are so very courteous that I make bold to ask you something. What royal family do you adorn, sir? What country is grieving at your absence? Why does a gentleman so delicately bred submit to the weary journey into our pious grove?
Shakuntala (aside) . Be brave, my heart. ”

“ No other poet in any land has sung of happy love between man and woman as Kalidasa sang. Every one of his works is a love-poem, however much more it may be. Yet the theme is so infinitely varied that the reader never wearies. If one were to doubt from a study of European literature, comparing the ancient classics with modern works, whether romantic love be the expression of a natural instinct, be not rather a morbid survival of decaying chivalry, he has only to turn to India's independently growing literature to find the question settled. ”

“ Shakuntala. I am going to tell Mother Gautami that Priyamvada is talking nonsense. (She rises.)
Anusuya. My dear, we hermit people cannot neglect to entertain a distinguished guest, and go wandering about.
(SHAKUNTALA starts to walk away without answering.)
King (aside) . She is going! (He starts up as if to detain her, then checks his desires.) A thought is as vivid as an act, to a lover. ”

“ Aja's lament.—As soon as King Aja is firmly established on his throne, Raghu retires to a hermitage to prepare for the death of his mortal part. After some years of religious meditation he is released, attaining union with the eternal spirit which is beyond all darkness. His obsequies are performed by his dutiful son. Indumati gives birth to a splendid boy, who is named Dasharatha. One day, as the queen is playing with her husband in the garden, a wreath of magic flowers falls upon her from heaven, and she dies. The stricken king clasps the body of his dead beloved, and laments over her. ”