THE NATURE OF AESTHETICS AND ETHICS IN

CLASSICAL LITERATURE OF INDIA – A Study of

Kalidasa’s Plays Malavikagnimitram,
Abhijnanasakuntalam and Vikramorvasiyam
Dr. Jayshree Singh, Assist. Prof. in English, B.N.P.G.Girls’ College, Udaipur.
[email protected]/[email protected]

The study of the plays of Kalidasa explicates the inward and

outward expressions and impressions of the stage representations
that are enacted and experienced by the characters on the stage.
Their predicament under the trance of artha and kama signifies the
helplessness and suffering. The analyses of the situations,
emotional upheaval during crisis in context of psychological
feelings in face of the classical concept of the purusarthas state the
performance of one’s duty inspite of duality in life. Dramatically
this condition indicates the assimilation in context of the ultimate
truth of life even when the earthly circumstances cause adversities
due to delusions or misfortunes.. This dichotomy is so well
interplayed with the ethics and aesthetics, that the characters’
nature and emotions in face of chance and divine providence,
sometimes delineates their psyche or sometimes depicts their entity
or sometimes describes poetic sensibility of the dramatist. The
presentation of illusion against the representation of svadharma is
actually the skill of dramaturgy that makes the study of the plays
inexhaustible. These plays have been since ages all over the world
just like Shakespeare, Geothe, Tennessee Williams’s leave a
universal appeal of classical literary creativity, undestroyed by
time and space. Moreover as readers, not only we extract
information on the traditional literary historiography but also
enable us to explore the paradigm shift in the Rasas and Bhavas
that reflect the cultural cognitive dynamics against the biological
cognitive desires in the theoretical text.

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The great ancient Indian classical literature poet and dramatist
Kalidasa was neither the reformist nor the humanist, he was
basically a perceiver and an artist whose imagination and creativity
in his dramas manifest diversity and oscillation i.e. there is the
conglomeration of the poet’s theatrical self, the outline of the
individual self of the character on the stage and the spectator’s self.
All beings realized in one universal soul, where mind versus matter
struggle is juxtaposed so exquisitely that on one hand there seems
to be parallel role-formation and action and reaction in the form of
“Bhavas” (character’s emotions on the stage) and “Rasas” (poetic
delight) that is savoured by spectators from the “Bhavas” (state of
being of the character).
Amidst these two faculties of the process of artistic creation, the
performance of the poet, comprised of dhavani (suggested sense),
alamkara (word and sense of the poetry) and gunas (the attributes)
interplay with eclecticism such as ethics and aesthetics,
metaphysics and mystics, mythic and skeptics. As a result of this
sequential development in the imitation(creative writing), the three
variables – poet < actor < spectator/reader/audience semantically
as well as contextually as regards space and time have similar co-
relation and assimilation of their compassion and identity, but
when the issue of phenomenological existence arises we find that
the institutional conditions of that period in the theoretical text
reflect the differentiation of the cultural cognitive dynamics from
the biological cognitive desires. Subsequently the facts and fiction
reveal the representation of dichotomy in culture versus passions
as well as the interplay of ethics and aesthetics in the stage
representation of human emotions and human nature (prakarti).

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The Indian classical literary dramas have been renowned for the
canonical contribution of Kalidasa, the ancient poet and dramatist
of 6th century B.C. His historical sense, his deep reverence to
Indian ethos, his imaginative artistic language and harmonious
representation of profound sanctity of cultural heritage of his
times, his insight to render aesthetic rapture is well illustrated in
the dialogues of three above mentioned plays. The magnanimity of
the King Agnimitra in Malavikagnimitram, is metaphorically
explained in these lines:
Haradatta: Ah! How forbidding the aura of Royal Glory!
No Stranger is he to me, nor unapproachable;
Even so, as I draw near, I began to tremble.
Like the surging ocean changing each moment,
Though he is the very same, I still see him anew.1

Kalidasa creates illusion, a pleasant dissimulation with his capacity

to construct word-play in poetic verse with the help of
mythological references to delineate the continuous intensity of the
emotions in order to express erotic feelings of love which are
uttered in the play Vikramorvasiyam in this way:
Puruvara (getting up): O, glorious breeze from the south! Friend and dear companion of
Spring!

If it is fragrances that are luring you,

Then waft away the scented pollen
That spring gathers to lavish
On the blossoming vines.
Why stoop to carry off this thing?
A paltry birch bark, noble Sir?
On it some tender words of love
Inscribed in her own hand by my beloved…..
A miserable person pining for love
Sustains his life on a hundred trifles……
Such as this, to ease his heartache,
As you well know, my gallant friend;
For did you not press your suit, Sir
To win beautiful Anjana’s love? 2

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In these lines the dramatist has drawn imagery from the old myths
of Indian classic scriptures. In this play the king Puruvara who gets
bewitched with the unbelievable beauty of an Apsara Urvasi, a
dancer in Indra’s court (Lord of Devas) in Svarga. Puruvara
rescues Urvasi from Danvas while their attack on Indra’s Svarga.In
consequence of this event, the beauty of Urvasi and the bravery of
Puruvara attracted them to each other. So in reference to this the
author does not mention the outcome of their attraction directly
rather he presents a beautiful deception of the words to build that
sort of illusion to explain the truth of which they are unaware of if
they fall into love. Urvasi too has to meet the same fate like Anjana
who was an Apsara cursed to become a monkey. She was very
beautiful and one day Vayu (The Wind God) blew her robe up and
became infatuated with her beauty. Vayu pleaded earnestly for her
love and was successful in his suit. Hanuman was the son born of
this union. Secondly the dramatist aims to depict his sensitivity to
vicissitudes of life and its metaphysics as regards to the existence
of being as a subject or as an object when it is surrounded in the
midst of delusions resulting into misery, yet there is passion to
reach to the desired feelings. Thirdly the dramatist portrays the
ardent passion with poignant symbols to explain the tenderness of
love that influences the wretched heart burning in pangs of
affection for the loved one.

In the universal context also Kalidasa is unrivalled to exihibit his

conformity to nature’s laws and divine intervention in one’s
destiny. In the play Abhijnanasakuntalam when Misrakesi, an
Apsara, friend of Meneka, mother of Sakuntala finds King
Dushanta being consoled and bucked up by one of his attendants
Caturika, because the king was in grave sorrow due to his guilt of

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repudiation for he did not recognize his wife Sakuntala, who
pleaded him in his court that she is conceiving his own child, and it
is the king Dushanta who married her in the Ashram of Kanva rishi
(sage). Then Misrakesi elicits to herself that only divine
intervention can free Dushanta from his anguish:

Misrakesi: Should I not free him now from his grief? No, I had better
not. For I have heard the mother of Gods speak of this when
consoling Sakuntala- heard from her own lips that the gods
themselves in their concern for the continuity of the
sacrifices and to secure their own share in them,
would see to it that before long, her lord welcomes
Sakuntala as his lawful wedded wife. Well, I should not
really linger here any more; let me go and acquaint my
dear friend with the
happy turn of events. That should cheer up. (She ascends
into the sky and flies away.)3

The dialogue delivers here the sense of pain not only on the part of
the afflicted i.e. Dushanta but also on the part of the perceiver i.e.
Misrakesi. The sentiments of Karuna i.e. compassionate feelings
imagined by the dramatist in respect of ethics of the cultural and
social norms of code of conduct signify the author’s higher
sensibility to make the sinner feel guilty as well as it amounts to
the poet’s aesthetic ability to picture the pity and fear that a
character undergoes due to his transgression. It also points to the
predicament of the characters who in adverse circumstances of
their life do not deviate but repent with sorrow, penance and
patience to overcome their misfortune that befalls upon them by
fate or by their own act and they rebuff their own past deeds that
drive them into illusions and then disillusions.

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Since ages the efficacy of Kalidasa is popularly based on the
musings of the seers recorded in Upanishads or the Bhagavad-Gita
professing the realization of truth is the ultimate goal of liberation
(moksha) of self (atman) from desires.
The male and female characters of the selected plays of Kalidasa –
Malavikagnimitram, Vikramorvasiyam and Abhijnanasakuntalam
traditionally do represent the goals of life as the four purusarthas,
these are identified with dharma (moral life/duty), artha (wealth
and political power), kama (sensual pleasure) and moksha (a
lifetime of selfless performance of one’s dharma) and the four
asramas (brahmacharya, garhasthya, vanaprastha and samnyasa)
which were the features of ideal life for the man/woman of nobility
and royalty. Kalidasa has transcended these real truths into the
poetic truth by his ability of fusion of emotions into a scene, that
they not only magnify and mesmerize the audience’s emotional
experience with the character on the stage but such interaction
feeds the (sahrdaya) spectator’s prime of life with human cognition
(jnana) and aesthetics response/experience (sadharanikarana),
which can be called as “poetic syllogism”. It is apt to quote the
appreciation of one of the famous German poets Goethe, he broke
out into a song of praise for the play Abhijnanasakuntalam:-
Wouldst thou the young year’s blossoms
And the fruits of its decline,
And all by which the soul is charmed,
Enraptured, feasted, fed
Wouldst thou the earth, and heaven itself
In one sole name combine?
I name thee, O Sakuntala!
And all at once is said. 4

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In the plays of Kalidasa the key center of the noblemans or
noblewoman’s life used to be svadharma i.e to do the appointed
duty that integrates relationship and balance in body, mind and life
for the development of unified consciousness. The common mass
looks to the king as a deify of didactic life which we find in the
poetic verse recited in the glory of the king Dushanta.
First Bard: Unmindful of your own ease, you toil
Each day for the world’s sake-such is your way of life;
The tree bares its crown to the blazing heat
While it refreshes those who shelter in its shade.

Second Bard: Grasping the rod of justice,

You bring to heel those set on evil paths;
You bring calm where contentipon rages,
Affording your subjects protection.
Kinsmen come flocking where wealth abounds.
But in you. O king, all find kinship’s perfect pattern. ( Sakuntalam 297)

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The svadharma is indispensable without the four goals of life i.e.
purusarthas. One’s being involved in the organic function of the
society integrates one’s senses to work for the realization of the
ultimate truth i.e. pure consciousness. It means that the actions that
one’s body performs are just to complete the good and evil part of
the mortal life and the soul that is enmeshed in the circumstances
faced by the body is in reality the unit of the Supreme Soul i.e. the
creator of the universe.
But the irony of nobleman’s life that he too represents the same
emotional urges of passions comprising pains/happiness and he
wishes for its fulfillment. This duality of the earthly life creates
illusions in which is embedded the desire, the chance, the curse,
the destiny or the divine intervention. For instance if we read into
the predicament of the characters like Dushanta, Puruvara and
Agnimitrain the given lines:
Dushanta:

(To himself): That song I just heard….a restless, yearning sadness steals into
my heart….though I am not separated from someone I love deeply. Or….can
it be that:
When a sadness ineffable falls
Suddenly like a shadow over the heart
-----even while one is wrapped in happiness-
The mind trills spontaneous, unknown to itself, to an imitation from the past
Quickened by some fleeting loveliness
Or haunting sounds of exquisite music heard:
Lasting impressions of love’s rememberance
Live on in us from former lives. Perhaps,
Clinging like fragrance to our migrant soul. (Sakuntalam 299)

Here unconsciously the desire is aroused to relive the facts at

conscious level from the subconscious memories by way of
audible musical lyrics. But these are restrained by the intervention
of superego i.e. by the social duties and norms. It signifies
Dushanta’s repressive feeling for suppressed desires. Again in the
other soliloquy Dushanta seems to be tempted with bondage of

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desire and with the disillusion of its fulfillment. His misery
increases his illusory fantasy when he waits for Sakuntala in the
forest:
Dushanta (returning to his former seat and sighing deeply): O misery! Many
a hindrance lies between desire and its fulfillment:
She turned aside that lovely face
With beautifully-lashed eyes;
……………………………..
………………………………
After much gentle persuasion
I raised her face to mine-
But could not kiss it, alas!

He says when he cherishes her beauty all by himself in his

thoughts:
Where, where shall I go now? No, I shall stay right here; here in the bower of creepers
where my beloved rested. (looks around)
………………………………………………..
my eyes cling to each object that I see;
How then can I leave this arbour of reeds
All of a sudden, deserted though it be.
Then (reflecting) Alas! It was surely a mistake on my part to have delayed and
wasted time once I had won my beloved.
But he is interrupted by (a voice in the air) O king!
Dushanta (listens, then speaks resolutely): Ho there! Ascetics, do not fear….here I am…I
am coming.(282)

The poet Kalidasa is very natural and spontaneous. Whatever

impressions he gathers from external world, he through his visual
imagination turns that experience into an imitation. There is
realistic image of his creative art, lyricist quality and visceral
power that conveys metaphysical struggle metaphorically.

The poet with his poetic capacity even involves nature to be part of
the protagonist’s emotions of misery, joy, love, pain and
enchantment, departure, accompaniment etc. When the celebrated
sage Kanva, the guardian of Sakuntala sees off Sakuntala in order
to send to Dushanta’s palace, the poet Kalidasa personifies the
beauteous objects of nature as the companions of Sakuntala;

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 Kanva speaks: Hear, O hear, all you noble trees of the holy Grove with indwelling
divinities:
She who never had a drink of water
Before you had all drunk your fill;
She who never plucked your tender buds
For love of you though bond of adorning herself;
She to whom it was a joyous festival
When you first burst into bloom, she Sakuntala,
Leaves us today for her husband’s home:
All grant her leave to go.(291)

That same Sakuntala who had been admired, loved, fantasized by

Dushanta rejected her to accept her as his wife and even cold-
bloodly entertained her plea of recognition in his court, he says
vehemently under the state of trance.

Dushanta (stopping his ears): Perish the sinful thought.

Why are you out to sully your family’s honour,

And to make me fall; you are like a river
That crumbles its banks to muddy its crystal stream
And uproot the tree growing by its edge. (304)

That same king when discovers the truth of his mistake, he at once
realizes his sin and transgression and he undergoes the pain. He
does not defend himself for his sin nor he makes anybody else
responsible for this, rather he surrenders his senses and his body to
face the penitence, the retribution in order to redeem himself from
his cruel act. He utters remorsely to Misrakesi, an angel friend of
Sakuntala’s mother, Meneka:
Dushanta (sighing)

Once when she stood before my eyes, I spurned her;

And now I adore her painted in a picture;
Having passed by a full flowing stream,
I paint after a mirage, my friend. (319)

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The repudiation or the realization/recollection and this all occurs
through the different phases of life, yet they follow svadharma and
do not allow their body, through the outrageous temptations of
outward circumstances to overpower the intricate structure of the
goals of life, fulfilling the principles of purusartha. In the act VII of
Abhijnanasakuntalam, a conversation takes place between
Dushanta and Matali, because former is invited by lord Indra
in the celestial regions located at Hemkuta on account of his
being famous as savior of devas:
Dushanta : Matali, although I have carried out the mission entrusted to me by Indra, the
Munificent, I feel that I have rendered him too slight a service to merit that special
welcome he accorded me. (329)

Their earthly life is related with dharma (moral life/duty), artha

(wealth and political power), kama (sensual pleasure) and moksha
(a lifetime of selfless performance of one’s dharma) and the four
asramas (brahmacharya, garhasthya, vanaprastha and samnyasa).
All these used to be the feature of ideal life for the man/woman of
nobility and royalty.
When king Dushanta apologises his wrong-doing and falls at the
feet of Sakuntala, she says:
Sakuntala: O my Lord, rise. It must be that I had to reap the consequences of some
wrongdoing on my part in a former birth; otherwise how could my noble lord, so
compassionate by nature, have acted in such an unfeeling manner towards me.

Kalidasa has transcended these real truths into the poetic truth by
his ability of fusion of emotions into the drama and they not only
magnify and mesmerize the audience’s emotional experience with
the character’s performances on the stage but such interaction
feeds the (sahrdaya) spectator’s prime of life with human
cognition (jnana) and aesthetics response/experience
(sadharanikarana), which can be called as “poetic syllogism”
(poetic imitation comprising of truth/logic and sensibility).

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The play Malvikagnimitram begins with the ardent love and with
the madness of Agnimitra, ruler of Vidisa, who wants to have a
glimpse of Malvika, Princess of Vidharbha, she has taken refuge in
the royal court at Vidisa, in disguise, as one of the Queen Dharini’s
retinue. His passionate soliloquies and his conversation with
Gautama, the court-jester or vidusaka to his close friend and
companion from childhood manifest his ecstasy in the form of
sringara rasa. That is additionally intimated with the scene of
dance–debut and love-lyrics performed by Malvika under the
guidance of her guru Ganadasa, dance instructor in the royal court
of Vidisa. Malavika’s unconscious erotic creative urge assimilates
with Agnimitra’s conscious instinctive urge. His sensuality towards
an object of beauty expressed in soliloquy:
Agnimitra: My heart sends that very same message,
My friend …..Can there be any doubt?
Constrained by Dharini’s presence,
unaware of my own feeling for her,
not finding a way to disclose hers,
she chooses a maiden’s tender plaint
addressed to her handsome young lover
to conceal and convey her love for me.1
(ActII: 5, Malvikagnimitram)

This is basically the projection of passion. His inherent wish-

fulfillment is his imagination, therefore he relishes the song sung
by Malavika and thinks that it was directed to him. The lines of the
song are:
“Know this, my Lord, that this poor girl
burns with passion for you:
She danced, miming the words of the song,
Pointing to various parts of her body;
I knew at once;
Her plaint had me and me alone for its objects.
(Act ii: 5, Malvikagnimitram)

The above lyric is not mere expression of poetic verse but there is
fine amalgamation of sringara rasa and adbhut rasa in her
presentation. Subsequently the king here imagines himself as the
object of desire and love. In response to the dance and lyrics debut,

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performed by Malavika in front of him and his queen-consort
Dharini, Agnimitra speaks aside to Vidusaka:

Agnimitra: Despite all my efforts to keep calm and collected

The pulsing passion of the beating drum hurries me on,
As if it were the sound of the chariot of my heart
Coming down on the path of fulfillment.
(Act I: 22, Malvikagnimitram)

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These lines manifest diversity and oscillation (different ideas of
poetic creation) i.e. the feelings of heroic and love are denoted and
revealed. The king Agnimitra inspite of his self-control over his
sensuousness is unable to restrain himself to express his innermost
secret pangs of love to Vidusaka. The poet metaphorically
compares his being/soul burnt in passion of love for Malavika.
This mental state of the king is similar to the impatience of a
warrior to get ready for the war on hearing ‘the pulsing passion of
the beating drum’. The king’s desire to have an exchange of glance
with the Malavika makes him desperate, similarly the sound of the
chariot for a warrior reverberates his desire to advance on the path
of conquest.
In this context it is apt to quote a critic who suggests how an
imitation of the artists presents the object or the men in action on
the stage:
If we analyse this thought of Agnimitra from rasa-dhavni point of view,
there is possibility of escapism because there is nothing in aesthetic
experience itself to guarantee against a life of self-centered
satisfaction. There is art experience, self-forgetfulness rather than self-
realization which is more often the hallmark of art experience as
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commonly pursued.

Here the King Agnimitra’s anxiety, profoundly in view of the

sanctity of the cultural heritage of his nobility and royalty, follows
dharma outwardly but it also exposes his desire, his doubts, his
flight for his wish-fulfillment. The most important thing is to note
here the existential reality of the earthly life contradicts with the
cosmological context and the dramatist Kalidasa integrates the
king’s doubts and illusions with the world of art and ethos.

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Such stage representations differentiates conventional conformity
and reality against the inherent urge, the inner psyche, the
impulsive inclination, the instinctive agility, the introspective
ingenuity and imaginative insight of the character on the stage . Yet
there is an awakening and an aesthetic pleasure from this delusion
that is presented by the artist on stage, because these psychological
determinants trancendentalise universality of human nature in the
circumstances irrespective of the cultural and social limits of the
ancient traditional pattern of life that represent the goals of life as
the four purusarthas.
In the end when the King Agnimitra came to know that Malavika is
the princess of Vidharbha and the sister of Madhavsena, who is
mistakenly imprisoned by the soldiers of Vidisa, because he was on
his way to Vidharbha to propose her sister’s marriage with
Agnimitra. She has been living there at his palace in disguise of a
maid in the Queen’s retinue, he apologetically expresses his guilt,
his impropriety towards a woman just like a noble man who
follows dharma:
Agnimitra: Alas! How indignity upon indignity is heaped
On those struck by misfortune!
This poor girl who deserves no less
Than the exalted title of ‘queen’
Was reduced to being a serving girl
At everyone’s beck and call;
Like a piece of woven silk used as a scrap of cloth,
Fit only to wrap round oneself during an oil bath.
(ActV: 12, Malvikagnimitram)

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Here again the character Agnimitra delves into introspection. The
madness for wish-fulfillment is replaced by svadharma. This
situation is ironically in contrast to the beginning of the play. After
the spectacle of discovery, king’s gaze ecstatically
transcendentalises Malavika as the subject, not the object of desire.
She now holds respect in the eyes of king. Thus in two situations
we perceive the binary of human interaction with his emotions and
his nature from the point of Indian classical thought. The
imaginative situation and the matter-of –fact representation imply
the interplay of ethics and aesthetics indeed, but it also conveys the
compensation for all the trouble and the exertion involved in
attaining it.
If we probe into detail the role and responsibility of Queen
Dharini, we find first the queen Dharini’s role as a wife whose sole
responsibility is to respect the command and the pleasure of the
King Agnimitra, who always wants his wife to appear before him
bright, ignoring other woman as a rival in her life. Her behaviour
should not show irresponsibility to the code of nobility and royal
blood. If the king desires for other woman, it is simply the artha
and kama of the purusarthas. Infact Purusarthas insinuates
patriarchy, yet the dramatist Kalidasa has remarkably incorporated
the phenomenal world of art and ontology(nature of existence) and
epistemology (morality) in the contemporary practice. Dharini
leads Malavika to the groves of Ashoka to celebrate the
ceremonious festivity of the Golden Ashoka’s blossoming
splendour, Agnimitra on seeing both together utters with joy to
Vidusaka:
Agnimitra: My queen over there rises and comes forward
to welcome me with all due honour;
My beloved, by her side, deferential; a picture
Of the goddess, Earth, Bearer of Riches, it seems,
attended by Royal Glory, a Lakshmi.
Who has forgotten to hold a lotus in her hand.
(ActV: 6, Malvikagnimitram)

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As readers we share aesthetics and ethics assimilation, even though
there is differentiation in the nature of existence of Dharini as a
wife; Malavika as a princess and Agnimitra as a king. Similarly
Kausiki, who is the sister of the Chief Minister of Vidharbha and
guardian of Malavika; She has also taken refuge in the court of
King Agnimitra, disguised as an ascetic lady and forms part of
queen’s retinue, symbolically unites the fantasy of the king and the
destiny of Malavika by her persona . The poet Kalidasa through
her interlinks the intrinsic (svatah) and extrinsic (pratah) first by
dissimulation and then by enunciation. On one hand it is a
perceptual human cognition and on the other hand it is mystic
experience .She discloses the reason of hiding Malavika’s royal
parentage a secret all this time due to the prophecy that would let
Malavika live a life of servitude. She says to Agnimitra and
Dharini about Malavika’s past:
Once when her father was still alive, a holy man walking in a procession
accompanying a deity carried ceremonially from place to place in
pomp and splendoue saw the princess.He was a seer with special
powers; whatever he prophesied always come true.And in my
presence he had this to say about her future:”One whole year has to pass
for this girl in servitude;only then will she obtain a husband worthy of
her”. When I saw that this period of servitude at your feet, my lady,
had begun for her, I knew that the prophecy was fulfilling itself. I
therefore felt that it should take its own course. I kept silent waiting for
the right moment to speak. (ActV, Malvikagnimitram).

Her reasoning explicates the intervention of mystic influence in the

destiny of Malavika as well as the predicament due to the illusions
that cause doubts in the mind of the readers and the other
characters on the stage. But deep inside the surface presentation of
the surreal images to depict human predicament, the structure of
the plot suggests the spiritual insight mingled with purusarthas and
svadharma against the good and evil side of the mortal life.

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Agnimitra’s last dialogue in the end of the play provides
subjectivity to the history and the literary historiography, he utters
in

Benediction
I now fervently pray that my subjects
Will not be subjected to calamities,
Natural or created by man;
That no traids, invasions of enemies
And other such disasters fall upon them
While Agnimitra remains their protector.
(Act V, Malvikagnimitram).

Kalidasa has expounded totality and wholeness through the

historical –cultural references to evoke and evolve the self-
contradiction and self-consciousness of legendry characters, for
example another junior queen Iravati, who was against king’s
advances towards Malavika, in the end send respects in her
message to His Majesty:
Iravati: “By stepping over the limits of propriety it is true that I gravely
offended my Lord, behaving with discourtesy and
disregarding his wishes. Now that my Lord enjoys the
complete fulfillment of his cherished desires, I pray that he will
honour me by extending his favour towards me.” (Act V,
Malvikagnimitram).

Thus as readers following conclusions can be drawn out of the

whole study that inspite of duality in life, despite of suppressions
of desires; nevertheless there are repressive emotions, but the spirit
of endurance, acceptance, to take life as it goes on even in
adversity or misfortune while performing one’s daily worldly
duties finally lead the men in action to remain away from self-
denial or negation or being fugitive in illusory liberation. The
characters of the plot do not find their situations/predicament/as
curse or bondage rather they find solace in their suffering or
penance by searching some visionary illusion in art or painting or
music, so that they may release their illusory bondage into it but it

18
is not illusory liberation or advancing to destructive side. When
they realize the cause of their misfortune or suffering, they
transcendentalise their mind with body to suffer for one’s own
crisis. They seem to take it test of providence in order to reach to
spiritual goal of life and do not shirk their daily work that includes
also their pain and sorrow.
Besides that there are a number of contrasts – tradition seems to be
implied on metaphysics, myths appears to be dedicated to ethics,
illusions or mystical experience in opposition to skeptical thoughts
against one’s predicament, goodness against evil, culture versus
human nature or the nature itself, pure-consciousness of soul in
contrast to desires of the senses, truth versus sin or dharma in
contrast to one’s being or identity, patriarchal tradition opposing
women’s freedom of expression. Inspite of all these dichotomies in
the stage representations, purusarthas vis-à-vis to the svadharma
convey lifetime self-less service to follow one’s dharma towards
other beings of the universe. Thus Kalidasa’s plays have poetic
truth and sensibility to delineate:
His creative poetry as a spiritual discipline, tapasaya, that gives
not only the most exalted consciouness with which to comprehend
the metaphics of truth,existence and reality, but also the
external paradigms of unity, identity and freedom.6

Notes Cited:
1. Rajan, Chandra, trans. The Complete Works of Kalidasa
(Vol.2) (New Delhi: Sahitya Academi, 2002). Rpt.2007, p. 97
2. Ibid., 184
3. Ibid., 325
4. Mirashi, Vasudev Vishnu and NarayanRaghunath Navlekar, Kalidasa-
Date, Life and Works, (Bombay:Popular Prakashan, 1969) p. 249
5. Rao. Valli, ‘Suggestive Taste of Theory: Rasa and Dhavni in
Hiriyanna’s Art Experience”, Indian Literary Criticism in
English(Critics, Texts, Issues)(Ed.) P.K. Rajan (New Delhi: Rawat
Publications,2004)62.

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6. Verma, K.D., ‘ Sri Aurobindo as a Critic”, Indian Literary Criticism
in English(Critics, Texts, Issues)(Ed.) P.K. Rajan (New Delhi: Rawat
Publications,2004)34.

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