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A History of Sanskrit Literature c11.s7: 7. The Raghuvaṁça

A History of Sanskrit Literature c11.s7

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7. The Raghuvaṁça

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Though inferior in some slight degree to the *Kumārasambhava*, the *Raghuvañça* may rightly be ranked as the finest Indian specimen of the Mahākāvya as defined by writers on poetics. Daṇḍin⁴ lays down that the subject should be taken from old narratives or traditions, not therefore invented; the hero should be noble and clever; there should be descriptions of towns, oceans, mountains, seasons, the rising and setting of the sun and the moon, sport in parks or the sea, drinking, love-feasts, separations, marriages, the production of a son, meeting of councils, embassies, campaigns, battles, and the triumph of the hero, though his rival's merits may be exalted. It should not be too compressed, and it should be replete with sentiments (*rasa*) and the emotions which underlie them (*bhāva*). It should have effective transitions (*sandhi*), an allusion to the five stages of action recognized by the writers on drama, by which from its opening the movement advances after a halt to the central moment, pauses, and reaches the *dénouement*. The metres must be charming, and each Canto, which should not be too long, should end with a change of metre. The poem should begin with a prayer, paying homage or in addition invoking a blessing, or an indication of the subject-matter. It should promote the ends of Dharma, conduct, Artha, worldly success, Mokṣa, final release, and Kāma, love.

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⁴ i. 23 ff.

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The *Raghuvaṇça*¹ is true to the type, for the central figure is Rāma, though in accord with the title the poem first sketches the history of the dynasty of the sun-born kings, descendants of the Ikṣvāku whose name occurs in the *Ṛgveda*, and whose family is renowned in the epic and the Purāṇas. This wide theme gives the poet full space to exercise his power of description; war and the coronation of a king, the choosing of her mate by a young princess at a Svayaṁvara, the marriage rite, the loss of a darling life and the grief of the bereaved husband, town and country, the seasons, the incidents of a great Digvijaya, the triumphal progress of a king who seeks to conquer the earth, all form occasions for the poet's skill. The poem carries us at once into an atmosphere strange to us; Dilīpa is king but childless; he learns that by chance when returning from a visit to Indra he has failed to show reverence to his sacred cow, who has cursed him; to make amends he determines to follow in worship the movements of her daughter, Nandinī, on earth; dutifully he carries out his vow, saves her from a lion by offering his own body in exchange, and Nandinī accords him the wish of his heart. Soon the father gazes, with eyes as still as lotus blossoms shielded from the wind, on the lovely face of his son, his heart overflows as the sea at the sight of the moon. The young Raghu waxes fast, is given the rank of Crown Prince and bidden guard the horse that must wander for a year before his father can perform the sacred horse sacrifice; the steed disappears, but with Nandinī's aid Raghu's eyes are opened until he can see where in the east Indra has taken the horse. Vainly he strives against the god, but pleased by his valour he accords him every wish save the return of the horse, and the gallant youth demands that his father shall have the full fruit of the sacrifice. The offering performed, Dilīpa gives to his son the white parasol, emblem of sovereignty, and, true to his family's rule, retires to the life of an ascetic in the forest (i-iii). Canto iv recounts the knightly adventures of Raghu as conqueror of India; he advances against the Suhmas, defeats the princes of Bengal, and erects pillars of victory on the islands of the Ganges; neither the elephants nor the arrow hail of Kaliṅga stay his course, Mahendra yields, the Kāverī is crossed, the south invaded, the Pāṇḍyas pay tribute of pearls. Thence the hero bends his path north, through the Malaya and Dardura hills, the sea of his host covers the long slopes of the Sahya mountain, the dust of the army clings to the hair of the ladies of Kerala, the Muralā river, the Trikūṭa hill witness his fame. Thence by land, as a pious king, not by the polluting sea, he advances against the Persians and the Yavanas, Greeks; the dust of the conflict hides the warring hosts whose presence is revealed by the twang of their bows alone, the bearded foemen cover thick the ground, those who escape death cast off their helms in token of submission; the victors wearied slake their thirst with wine. Next Raghu bids his steeds roll in the Indus—a variant has Oxus—sands, overthrows Hūṇas and Kāmbojas; the winds of the Himālaya set the reeds hymning his victories. The mountain folk feel his power, fire flashes from the mountain-sides beneath the rain of spears and arrows, and the folk of the Utsavas lose for ever their joy in festivals (*utsava*). The Lauhityā is crossed, Prāgjyotiṣa subdued, and Kāmarūpa yields tribute of wild elephants.

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¹ Ed. S. P. Pandit, BSS. 1869-74; Nandargikar, Bombay, 1897; trans. Walter, Munich, 1914.

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In this spirited and martial narrative we may justly see the reflex in the poet’s mind of Samudragupta’s great conquests,¹ and with customary skill the subject changes in Canto v to a very different theme. Raghu’s generosity impoverishes him; when a Brahmin Kautsa begs him to aid him to meet the vast demands of his teacher, he resolves to storm the treasure-house of Kubera, god of wealth, but a rain of gold saves him from impiety. The Brahmin’s gratitude secures him a son, Aja, who soon equals his father. Bidden to take part in the Svayaṁvara, at which the sister of a kingly neighbour will choose her mate, he sets forth; on the way he boldly attacks a monstrous wild elephant, which under his stroke changes to a Gandharva, condemned by a curse to wear this shape until released by the blow of an Ikṣvākuid’s arrow, who gives him in reward a magic weapon. Canto vi presents us with a brilliant picture of the Svayaṁvara; the princess, with her companion Sunandā beside her, passes by prince after prince as they stand eager before her;

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¹ This fact renders it far more probable that his Açvamedha is that present to Kālidāsa’s mind than that of Kumāragupta, of whom we have no record of great military achievements.

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none please her, one is a dicer, therefore bad as a man; in vain Sunandā presses on her Aṅga's lord; he has all merits, but tastes vary. In revenge she bids Indumatī pass on, when she notes that her heart is won by Aja, but the maiden lays shame aside, and accords to him the coronal which marks him as her spouse. The marriage ceremony is performed, the young pair set out home, but the shamed princes have planned revenge, and resolved to take away by force the princess. Aja wages fierce battle with them, in the end the Gandharva's gift prevails, and he takes from his foes their honour, though he spares their lives (vii). His reign is fortunate; while Raghu as a hermit tames the senses, Aja destroys the foes of his realm, and, when Raghu dies, he pays him all the honours of a Yogin's funeral. But a fatal misfortune awaits him; a garland from the sky blown by the wind falls on Indumatī's breast and slays her, though in truth for her death means release from her mortal bondage imposed on her, in reality an Apsaras, through a curse. No consolation is this thought to Aja; in vain is he reminded of the folly of mourning for the dead who are burnt by the tears of the living; in vain every consolation regarding the shortness of life and the duty of kings is urged on him; broken-hearted, he dies and Dasharatha reigns in his place. Of him Canto ix has no concrete facts to tell us, until after a brilliant description of spring we are told of the fatal hunt, when, after displaying equal prowess and pity, Dasharatha in pursuit of an elephant mortally wounds a Brahmin boy; he bears the dying youth to his aged parents, and hears the curse of a like doom. In Canto x we leave the realities of life to learn of the magic incarnation of Viṣṇu in the sons born to Dasharatha; in xi Rāma's youth, his visit to Viçvāmitra's hermitage where he slays the demon Tāḍakā, his journey to Janaka's court, where he wins at the Svayaṁvara the hand of Sītā, and his overthrow of Paraçurāma, who recognizes in him the godhead, are rapidly recounted. The banishment of Rāma by Kaikeyī's device, the life of Rāma and Sītā in the forest, her capture by Rāvaṇa, the search for Laṅkā,¹ the crossing of the ocean with the monkey horde, and the great battle between Rāma and Rāvaṇa, described in vivid colours, bring us to Canto xii in which Kālidāsa's descriptive powers find congenial subject-matter in describing the sights of India as seen from the aerial car on which Rāma and Sītā return to Ayodhyā.

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¹ Cf. for its situation M. V. Kibe, *Ravana's Lanka Discovered* (1920). Hopkins (*Great Epic*, p. 80) appears to accept Ceylon as Laṅkā.

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Then follows a series of brilliant sketches; Rāma and Sītā visit the widows of the king, who scarce can see them for their tears, which speedily change to joy. Sītā alone weeps for the trouble her beauty has brought her husband, a foreboding of woe. For the moment all is brightness; the glorious ceremonial of the royal consecration follows. But disaster is at hand; malicious voices reproach the king whose one wife has stayed so long in Rāvaṇa's home. Rāma places duty above love; he bids Lakṣmaṇa take Sītā—now pregnant—to Vālmīki's hermitage, and there break to her the truth of her fate; overwhelmed, she deplores her lot but utters no reproach. Rāma rules in solitude, her sculptured form his companion in his sacrifices (xiv). From his sorrow he is awakened to overthrow demon foes on the Yamunā banks, while in the hermitage Sītā bears two boys who, taught by Vālmīki the tale of their father's deed, console her sorrowing heart by reciting it. The day comes when Rāma determines to perform the horse sacrifice; he rests in a hut beside the golden statue of his wife; he hears from the boys the song of his deeds; the people, Rāma himself recognize them for his own, Vālmīki begs reinstatement for the queen. Rāma asks only that her stainless purity be made clear; she comes before him, swears to her truth as she drinks the holy water; the earth goddess appears and takes her in her bosom to bear her to the realm below. Rāma transfers to his sons the burdens of the state, saddened by the restoration of Sītā only to be lost forthwith; in due course, followed by all the people, he goes forth from the town and is caught up in a heavenly chariot.

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The effective and pathetic picture of Sītā's end and the return to heaven of Rāma might well have closed the poem, but Canto xvi is not without merit. Kuça, Rāma's son, reigns at Kuçāvatī; in a dream Ayodhyā appears to him in the guise of a woman whose husband is afar, reproaches him with her fallen condition, and bids him return. Kuça obeys, Ayodhyā once more is glorious, and a description of the delights of summer rivals, but fails to equal, that of spring in Canto ix. For the rest the poem sinks in interest, as Kālidāsa has nothing to tell us but names of worthless kings whose harems supplied their sole interest in life. We cannot deny¹ his authorship of Cantos xviii and xix; no ancient authority questions them, and they are cited, if rarely, by writers on poetics. But their brevity and the utter abruptness of the end, when the widow of Agnavarman, a worthless debauchee, is awaiting the birth of her child, suggest that we have no more than a rough draft. Yet we would gladly assign to a poetaster meaningless puns on names of kings, as when Pāriyātra is merely said to have exceeded in height the Pāriyātra mountains, or the incredible tastelessness of the action of a king who hangs his foot out of the window for the people to kiss.

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¹ As does Hillebrandt, *Kālidāsa*, pp. 42 f. They seem known to the Aihole inscr. (EI. vi. 8 f.) of Ravikīrti who boasts his rivalry with Kālidāsa and Bhāravi. For unevenness in great poets cf. *Aeneid* v as criticized by Tyrrell, *Latin Poetry*, pp. 153 f.

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Vālmīki, of course, is the chief creditor² of Kālidāsa in this poem. Here and there one certainly surpasses the other; though normally the advantage lies with the younger poet, yet there are exceptions. Fine as is Kālidāsa's picture of Rāma's meeting with the sons who know him not, it yet is still more affecting in the leisurely march of the epic, and Kālidāsa has failed to improve on the scene of Sītā's vindication. But his merit shines out in such cases as his description of the return to Ayodhyā; future poets were to imitate it, but not one to equal it.

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² On alleged use of the *Padma Purāṇa*, see H. Śarmā, *Calc. Or. Series*, 17.

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No other epic of Kālidāsa has come down to us, and the relation in time of his epics to his dramas is insoluble. The suggestion that he is responsible for the *Setubandha*,³ which relates the tale of Rāma from the advance against Rāvaṇa and the building of the bridge to Laṅkā down to Rāvaṇa's death, is excluded by the style, with its innumerable plays on words, alliterations, recondite similes, exaggeration, and its enormous compounds. Its date is uncertain, as of Pravarasena of Kashmir⁴ its author or patron we know nothing definite. Still more ludicrous is the suggestion that the *Nalodaya*⁵ is his; that rimed poem of intolerable affectation is perhaps not the production of Ravideva, author of the *Rākṣasakāvya*, of equal demerit, before the seventeenth century, but the work of Vāsudeva, protégé of Kulaçekhara and Rāma.

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³ Ed. and trans. S. Goldschmidt, 1880-4. Date before Bāṇa, perhaps late 6th cent., Stein, *Rājataraṅgiṇī*, i. 66, 84 f.

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⁴ That the Vākāṭaka Pravarasena had anything to do with the poem seems quite unproved.

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⁵ Ed. and trans. W. Yates, Calcutta, 1844; Bhandarkar, *Report*, 1883-4, p. 16; A. R. S. Ayyar, *JRAS.* 1925, pp. 263 ff., who ascribes Vāsudeva as author also of the *Yudhiṣṭhiravijaya*, *Tripuradahana*, and *Çaurikathodaya*, all rimed, to the 9th cent. The date is improbable; ZII. iv. 226 f.

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