Kavyas:
The Five Great Epic Kavyas
by Dr. V.C. Govindarajan
There
are five great Epic poems in Sanskrit.
They are
1)
Raghuvamsa of Kalidasa
2)
Kumarasambhava of Kalidasa
3)
Kiratarjuniya of Bharavi
4)
Sisupalavada of Sri Maagha and
5)
Naishadham of SriHarsha (not
the King Harsh).
Raghuvamsa: This is work of Kalidasa. It describes the lives of the kings of the
solar dynasty beginning with Dilip. It
consists of 19 cantos. The Rama’s story
also described in this. But the list of
ancestors was not followed as mentioned in Valmiki Ramayana. The life history of King Dilip, Raghu, Ajay,
Dasaratha, Rama and his three descendants are described in detail. He gives the list of kings of solar dynasty
till Agnivarna, who died without a child.
Later one of his wife, who was pregnant was made as the queen. The work stopped here. The description of greatness of Solar
dynasty, Dilip’s journey to Vasista’s ashram, Nandi, Raghu Digvijaya, Indumathi
swayamvara are very interesting for the readers.
Kumarasambhava: Kalidasa also composed this. This work consists of 17 cantos. It deals with the birth of the war God Kumara
or Subhahmanya and killing the enemy Taraka.
There was a controversy in this work.
Some say that Kalidasa composed upto 7 cantos only and some accept 8th
also. But some more strongly argue that
Kalidasa himself composed the full work.
Every canto is unique in this work.
Readers can enjoy this work. The
descriptions of Parvathi, her panance, Siva’s Penance, Manmatha’s death, Siva
Stuthi by the the 7 sages, conversation of Siva Parvathi, Their marriage are
very interesting.
my word: Since I have done research on this work in the
view of names of Siva used, This work
was composed by Kalidasa upto 8 cantos only.
(Those who want can get a copy of this from me).
Kiratharjuniyam: Bharavi composed this in 18
cantos. It describes the story of Arjuna
cquiring the Pasupatha Asthra from Siva.
At the end of the penance Siva in the disguise of a hunter (Kiratha)
tested the strength ad ability of Arjuna in an encounter. This is narrated in Vanaparva of
Mahabharata. Bharavi is transformed it
in a beautiful Kavya. The style of
Bharavai is said ‘Bharaveh Arthagauravam’.
His date was somewhere in the 6th AD. The 15th
canto contains a number of stanzas illustrating all kinds of puns and
alliterations. The descriptions of forest and mountains create brilliant images
before our eyes.
Only one sloka from Kiratha-Arjuniyam is enough
to describe the great of Bharavi says that “if someone does the work in
hurry becomes fool and the wealth which follow good characters reach a person
one who acts wise.”
There
are two interesting incident available in the life history of Bharavi.
When
he was a student he stood first in education and he was very wise. He was very famous among scholars. Everybody praised him. But his father was away from praising
him. Bharavi was upset and decided to
kill his father. Oneday he was sitting
with a big rock on the wooden beam, under which his father used to take
food. While serving food mother asked
her husband about his view over their son.
Then father replied that he was very much happy about the performance of
their son and proud of him. Due to the
interest of their son’s progress he was not praising. Listening that Bharavi climbed down and said
his mistake and requested for apology.
The
second incident was that when he was searching for job, he was roaming here and
there. One day he was sitting near a
pool, plucked some lotus leaves and wrote some of his compositions over those
leaves. Then he left them there and went
away. Afterwards a king came there for
water on the way of his hunting. He was
upset seeing the lotus leaves and became happy to read slokas over them. One among them was the sloka, which meaning
is given above. He was very much impressed
with the gist, carved it in a golden plate and placed it in his bedroom. He ordered his soldiers to find the
Poet. At last they found Bharavi and he
was made as the head of poet of the Royal Court. Once the king, as usual, went for hunting and
did not come back for many years since he lost his way in the forest. After few years he returned in the mid night
to the palace and wanted to meet his wife in the same condition. That time the queen was sleeping and beside
there was a man sleeping. He was upset
and became angry. So he decided to kill
her. He raised his sward and made a
blow. But the sward hit somewhere and it
made a huge noise. Everyone got up and
also the queen. The queen was very much
happy to see her husband back and told the person next to her “my dear son!
look at your father, he had returned from hunting”. Now the king realised his great mistake and
noticed that the blow of sward hit the golden plate.
Sisupalavadham: Magha composed this in 8th AD. A
simple incident from Mahabharath where Krishna kills Sisupala, the king of
Chedi during the Yudhishtira’s Rajasuya Yajna.
It is said Magha is also a remarkable poet. There is a proverb which
says that the life of a person will end by reading Magha’s work
(Sisupalavadham) and Kalidasa’s Meghadoot.
Magha excels Bharavi in the artificiality of his style. He imitates Bharavi I many respects. Bharavi used the word Lakshmih in the
last verse of each canto whereas Magha used Srih. Magha is admired for his delightful style,
profound thoughts and beautiful similies.
His vocabulary is very vast and his knowledge of grammar is deep. Also it is said “if one studies the 9th
canto of this work and there will be no new word for him to study.”
Naishadiya Charitam: Sriharsha (not king Harshvardhana)
composed this in 12th AD. He
was the son of Hira and Maamalla devi.
He was patronised by the kings Vijayachandra and Jayachandra of
Kanauj. We come to know that he had
composed many works. He composed this
work in 60 cantos but only 22 cantos are available now and the work is
incomplete. The theme of this work was
taken from Nalopakyanam (story of Nala & Damayanti) of Mahabharatha. The style of Harsha is called “Narikela
Pakam” like the coconut. The praise of
the book is that “this work is the medicine for Scholars”. He also describes that his work is not for
fools to play with. He had written other
works called Khandana Khanda Khadya, Vijaya Prasasti and Gowdorvisa Prasasthi.
The
Five great epic Kavyas are finished. (6-12-03)
Next other Kavyas.
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