{"id":2392,"date":"2013-07-13T01:41:19","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:41:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=2392"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:41:19","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:41:19","slug":"26-kalidasa-the-spirit-of-the-times-vol-01-early-cultural-writings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/03-cwsa\/01-early-cultural-writings\/26-kalidasa-the-spirit-of-the-times-vol-01-early-cultural-writings","title":{"rendered":"-26_Kalidasa – The Spirit of the Times.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tThe Spirit of the Times
\n<\/span>
\n<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tThe life & personality of Kalidasa, the epoch in which he lived
\nand wrote, the development of his poetical genius as evidenced by the order of his works, are all lost in a thick cloud of uncertainty and oblivion. It was once thought an established fact
\nthat he lived & wrote in the 6th
\ncentury at the court of Harsha
\n.. Vikramaditya, the Conqueror of the Scythians. That position is
\nnow much assailed, and some would place him in the third or
\nfourth century; others see ground to follow popular tradition in
\nmaking him a contemporary of Virgil, if not of Lucretius.
\n<\/span>
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tThe exact date matters little. It is enough that we find in
\nKalidasa’s poetry the richest bloom and perfect expression of
\nthe long classical afternoon of Indian civilisation. The soul of
\nan age is mirrored in this single mind. It was an age when the Indian world after seeking God through the spirit and through
\naction turned to seek Him through the activity of the senses, an age therefore of infinite life, colour and splendour, an age of brilliant painting and architecture, wide learning, complex culture, developing sciences; an age of great empires and luxurious
\ncourts and cities; an age, above all, in which the physical beauty
\nand grace of woman dominated the minds and imaginations of
\nmen.
\n<\/span>
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tThe spirit of the times pulses through all Kalidasa’s poetry.
\nHis pages are often ablaze with its light & colour, often pregnant, sometimes indeed overweighted with its rich and manifold learning, its keen pleasure in every phase and aspect of life fills
\nthem with a various vividness and infinite richness of matter.
\nLanguage & verse thrill with the rustling of woman’s raiment,
\nthe heavy scent of her cosmetics, the tinkling and lustre of her ornaments; they are sinuous with the swaying grace of her motion or subtle with the delicate charm of her ways and words; the
\nbeauty & pleasure of her body possesses & besieges the poet’s  
\n<\/span>
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\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\timagination. And behind the luxurious ease and sensuousness of court life we hear the clash of arms and glimpse the great &
\nenergetic motions of statesmanship and diplomacy. The variety of his genius specially fits Kalidasa for the interpretation of a rich
\n& complex national life. From pages heavy with the obsession of the senses, the delight of the eye and the lust of the flesh
\nwe turn to others sweet and gracious with the virgin purity of the woodlands; the same poem which gives us a glowing
\npicture of the luxurious voluptuousness of courts gives us also
\nthe sternest philosophy and the most vigorous expression of the
\nnoble, aspiring morality proper to an active and heroic age. His
\nwonderful visualising power turns whole cantos into a series of almost physically vivid pictures. All his senses are on the alert, his
\near for music and the sweetness of words and laughter, thunder,
\nthe cries of birds; his sense of smell for the scent of flowers,
\nincense, the perfumes in women’s attire, his sense of touch for
\nevery tactual pleasure, his mind for all subtlety of knowledge
\nand all possible delicacies, richnesses, grandeurs in the world of thought. He will miss nothing; lose no joy of sense or intellect,
\nthrow away no chance of feeling himself alive.
\n<\/span>
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tAnd he has the touch of the perfect artist, turning all he
\nhandles to gold. Among his achievements we number the most
\nexquisite, tender and delicately lovely of romantic dramas; the
\nmost varied and splendid panorama of human life; the noblest
\n& most grandiose epic of our classical literature; and its one
\nmatchless poem of passionate love and descriptive beauty.
\n<\/span>
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tIn Europe the Shacountala is the one poem of Kalidasa
\nuniversally known and appreciated. In India the Cloud has gone
\neven nearer home to the national imagination. For this there is
\ngood reason. It is, essentially and above all, the poem of India,
\nthe poem of the country, its soil and its scenes, its thoughts & its
\natmosphere. No one who has not lived the life of India, till it has
\nbecome part of his breathing and woven in with every thread of
\nhis imagination, can fully appreciate the poem. If one does not
\nknow the charm of its hills, the scent of its flowers, the beauty of
\nits skies, [the] flowing sacredness of its rivers with all the phases
\n& emotions of an Indian river’s life, if one cannot distinguish  
\n<\/span>
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

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\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t& thrill to the touch of its various winds, if one cannot clothe
\nits local places with ancient historic & mythical association or
\npeople them with the strange host of beautiful & weird figures & faces which the imagination of its people has created, if one
\ndoes not recreate for himself the ancient splendours of its cities, the sense of peace & infinity in its temples & hermitages and the
\nsimple sweetness of its rural life, for him the Meghaduta offers
\nonly its shell. But all these, everything that is redolent of India,
\nthe visible, material, sensuous India has been fused and poured
\ninto one perfect mould by the genius of this supreme artist.
\n<\/span>
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tAnd then as if more utterly to ensnare the imagination of
\nhis race, after showing them the beautiful scenes, sights, sounds,
\nscents, the sacred & cherished places, the historic cities of their
\ncountry as they are \u2014  or alas as they were \u2014  he lifts these cherished things into a magic world, bathes them in an immortal
\nbeauty. Ullaca, the city without death, is but Kalidasa’s beloved Ujjaini taken up into the clouds & transformed into a seat of
\nideal bliss & loveliness. In the same moment he strikes straight
\nhome at one of the most deep-seated feelings in human nature, its repining at the shortness of life & the more tragic shortness
\nof youth, and imaginative dream of an eternal beauty, youth &
\njoy. These he satisfies and turns from a source of unrest into a
\nnew source of pleasure & joy, showing himself the great poet as
\nwell as the delicate artist.
\n<\/span>
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tThe human interest which gives the breath of life to the
\npoem, is exquisitely treated. A faery attendant of Cuvere, God
\nof Wealth, banished for a year from his home & wife sends his imagination travelling on the wings of the northward-bound cloud over the sacred places, the great cities & rivers of India to
\nthe snowbound Himaloy and the homes of the Gods. There his mind sees his wife, breathes to her all its sorrow & longing and
\nprays for an answering message. The love described may not be
\non the highest altitudes, but it is utterly real & human, full of
\nenduring warmth, tenderness & passion, of strife & joy, tears
\n& kisses, the daily food of love.  
\n<\/span>
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

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