Kalidasa’s Kumarasambhavam and the Significance of
Nepal as a Promoter of World Peace
Prof. Dr. K. V. Dominic
(Paper presented at the 37th Annual International
Conference on Mountain Literature held at Lakeside, Pokhara (Nepal) on 1-2
March 2018)
Kalidasa’s Kumarasambhavam
seems to be one of the ancient most classics in Mountain Literature. Mahakavi
Kalidasa is supposed to have lived in the 4th and 5th
century CE. It must be admitted that we have
absolutely no trustworthy information regarding the personal history of
Kalidasa. Where and when was he born?
Who were his parents? When did he
die? etc are unknown to us. The poet has studiously observed utter silence
about himself in his works. He was the least of an egotist that he wanted only
to have his poetical productions stand as an immortal monument. The most popular theory about his period
of life is that he flourished during the reign of Emperor Chandragupta II, and
therefore lived around 4th-5th century CE. He was one of the nine poetic jewels
in the emperor’s court. Kalidasa’s major works are: Aphijnanasakuntalam, Malavikagnimitram, Vikramorvasiyam. They are
all plays. Kumarasambhavam and Raghuvamsham are long epic
poems of Kalidasa. In addition, he
has written the lyric poems Meghadutam and Ritusamharam.
All his works were written in Sanskrit.
Kumarasambhavam talks about
the birth of Kumara, the first son of Lord Shiva and Parvati. The abode of Lord
Shiva was Himavan or Himalaya, and this country Nepal is part of it. Thus you
can be proud of living in a divine holy land where Lord Shiva lived with his
wife Parvati. The epic has been divided into seventeen cantos or chapters and
basically talks about the courtship of lord Shiva and Parvati. The majority of
chapters have vast details about the love and romance between Shiva and
Parvati.
The story goes like this: Sati,
the daughter of Daksha and once the wife of Siva, was born as the daughter of
the mountain Himalaya and Mena. On attaining youth, she was sent, at Narada's
advice, to attend upon S'iva who had been practising penance for losing his
wife on one of the Himalayan peaks. In the meanwhile the gods, who were harassed
by the demon Taraka, went, with Indra at their head, to the self-existing God,
Brahma, for counsel. Tarakasura was invincible in his might because of a boon
he got from God Brahma. The gods propitiated Brahma with appropriate prayers
and he revealed himself to them, and suggested them a way to remove Taraka,
their powerful enemy. The only hero to lead the host of Heaven against him and
to destroy him was the son of the Dark-necked God, S'iva. And the gods were told to induce the
Trident-holder to take Parvati to wife. Indra, the leader of the gods, thought
of Kama and the Mind-born presented himself before his master for order. Kama
was entrusted with the mission of shaking the self-restraint of S'iva, who had
been practising austerities on the snow-clad peaks of the Himalaya, ever since
the self-immolation of Sati. The god of the flowery bow started on the mission,
accompanied by his faithful consort Rati and his comrade Vasanta. He appeared
on the peaks of the Himalaya, and all of a sudden trees and plants put out
fresh sprouts, the earth became clad untimely with vernal glory, the beast of
the forest and the fowl of the air showed the influence of Kama. Kama found an
unconscious weapon in Parvati who was there, with the permission of her father,
to attend upon God S'iva, whom she secretly loved and wanted to marry. The God
of love succeeded in disturbing the peace of mind of S'iva for a moment only.
But the fire of anger flashed through his third eye on discovering the cause of
his disturbance and burnt Kama even as he was preparing to strike him. S'iva
then vanished from sight, and Parvati, discomfited at heart, returned home with
her two companions. Rati, on seeing her consort turned into a mere heap of grey
ashes, lamented over the sad loss, and called upon Vasanta to arrange a funeral
pyre, on which she declared her intention of burning herself. The preparations
were being made when suddenly a voice in the air commanded them to desist, as
Rati would be united once more with Kama as soon as the Trident-holder would
lead Parvati to the altar. Parvati, sorely disappointed, cursed her unmatched
beauty and seeing no other way to gain her object resolved to practise penance
and, permitted by her father, resorted to a forest for that purpose, though
much against the wishes of her mother. There she continued mortifying the flesh
by all the known processes and was not daunted by the severest tests of
penance, ever undergone by the ascetics. S'iva at last relented and came to the
penance-forest, disguised as a Sanyasin, to test the strength of Parvati’s
attachment. He found fault with the great God, called him bad names, laughed at
his poverty and declared him altogether unworthy of her hand and of any heroic
attempts at austerities to that end, till at last Parvati could bear it no
longer, and in great anger desired her maid to turn him out. Then the great God
revealed himself to her and declared that he was thenceforward entirely at her
disposal being won over by her penance. Parvati requested him formally to apply
to her father for her which he consented to do. The great God then mentally
summoned the seven sages to his presence and, on their presenting themselves
before him with due respect, he asked them to go to Himalaya and request him on
his behalf to bestow his daughter in marriage on him. The sages praised Siva in
suitable terms and started on their mission. In a short space of time they
reached Oshadhiprastha, the capital of Himalaya, the beauty of which they much
admired and descended into the palace of the Mountain. Himalaya received them
with proper respect and veneration and after praises had been mutually
bestowed—by the Mountain upon the sages and by the sages upon the
mountain—asked them in courteous terms the purpose of their visit and they told
him and the Mountain showed his delight by asking his daughter to salute the
sages as S'iva's bride. They then fixed the date of the marriage for the fourth
day from that day, returned to S'iva, informed him of the success of their
mission and, permitted by him, went back to their celestial abode. Himalaya
made great preparations for the coming marriage in which the townsmen also took
an active part. The city was splendidly decorated and when the auspicious time
came the bride was made to bathe and the marriage decorations were put on her,
an arrow being placed in her hand as enjoined in the case of a Kshatriya
maiden. The bridegroom's party, formed of all the principal divinities, arrived
in due season and was received in great pomp by the bride's party. The ladies
of the town greatly admired the bride and the bridegroom and praised Brahm for
having united two persons so worthy of each other. The marriage was concluded
at the auspicious hour, all the rites attendant upon a Hindu marriage being
duly performed. The newly married couple then saluted Brahma who pronounced a
blessing upon it. The goddess Sarasvati also blessed the two. After the
conclusion of the marriage the guests dispersed, while S'iva lived at the house
of the bride. The first month after marriage was spent by S'iva and Parvati in
the palace of Himalaya in Oshadhiprasttha. After that the happy couple wandered
through various mountain tracts until at sunset they reached the summit of the
mountain Gandhamadana, where, seated on a stone-slab, S'iva described the
sunset to Parvati. There they drank wine brought to them by the guardian deity
of the Gandhamadana grove. S'iva, with Parvati, then entered a house of precious
stones furnished with all luxuries, called into existence by his mental power and
passed twenty five years there enjoying the happy company of his wife.
After sometime, Shiva
and Parvati were blessed with a son whom they named Karthikeya. He grew up and
killed the demon and restored peace and the glory of Lord Indra and the divine world.
Thus ends the beautiful Kumarasambhava written by Kalidasa.
This holy land which gave birth to Karthikeya who
killed the demon Tarakasur or the embodiment of evil, and restored peace in the
divine world, has similar mission in the present world where hundreds of
Tarakasuras dance around us to drag us into the ocean of blood, violence,
terrorism, and war. Thus this holy country Nepal, though a small one, has great
divine potential and can act as an ambassador of peace, love and happiness to
the world. Nepal is such a country which was never conquered by the British
even though they were ruling entire India for more than 100 years. It’s not
that they didn't try to but they couldn't. That shows the divine providence as
well as moral and physical courage of the Nepalese people. True that this country was under the rule of
kingship for 240 years but it was never allowed to be conquered by outsiders.
In the civil war for democracy you had to sacrifice just below twenty thousand
people but several millions of Indians were killed by the British during
India’s 90 years of struggle for independence. Of course your population is
just 30 million whereas ours is 1350 million.
When Kumarasambhavam
remains as a glittering star which showers rays of happiness, love and
peace, there are some tragic episodes regularly occurring on the lap of the
same Himalaya in the Western side which have produced Mountain literature which
itches our minds and grieves our hearts. I am referring to the Siachen Glacier where the Line of Control between India and
Pakistan ends. Siachen is the highest battlefield on earth. More than 4000
soldiers of India and Pakistan have sacrificed their lives, mainly due to
natural calamities of frostbites, avalanches etc. The irony is that those
precious lives have been lost for guarding a place where not even a blade of
grass exists. This Everest, the abode of Lord Shiva and Parvati, where peace
and happiness should prevail always, should not have been made into a
battlefield. As I mentioned earlier, war-mongering, blood-thirsty, anarchist
Tarakasuras still live among us, particularly, among our administrators. It is
the duty of the peace embracing nation like Nepal to dissuade these fighting
countries from their irrational confrontations. I have written two poems about this Siachen
catastrophe. The first one is titled “Siachen Tragedy” published in my book Multicultural Symphony in 2014 and the
second one is named “Tribute to Siachen Martyrs” published in my next
collection Contemporary Concerns and
Beyond in 2016. Now let me read both the poems:
Siachen
Tragedy*
Siachen glacier,
milky white grey
hair of Himalaya.
Seventy kilometers
long
and height
ranging from
four thousand to
six thousand metres
Twinkling by
sun, moon and stars
Rarest beauty on
earth for the heavens
Winter, winter,
winter, forever and ever
Snowfall is
thirty five feet
temperature
minus fifty Celsius
Not a blade of
grass grows
yet world’s
highest battlefield!
Thousands of
soldiers of India and Pakistan
fight with
Nature to secure their frontiers
Billions are
spent for their outposts
Siachen glacier
feeding several rivers
irrationally
axed and dug
inviting
vagaries of harmless Nature
Avalanche lodged
on seventh April
buried hundred
and twenty four soldiers
and eleven
civilians under eighty feet snow
Isn’t it high
time the governments
stopped
challenging benevolent Nature?
*The tragedy took
place on 7 April 2012
Tribute to Siachen Martyrs
What a
heart-bleeding eye-flooding
scene on
the front page of newspaper!
Four
month old daughter Meenakshi
shown
her father’s frozen dead body!
Lance
Naik B. Sudheesh meeting
his
darling lone daughter for the first time!
Alas
neither of them identifies each other!
What a
depressing sobbing sight for mass assembled!
Tsunami
of groans, laments, weeps and sighs!
Youth of
twenty nine, Sudheesh had planned
to visit
home on leave after a month
Could
come a month before immersing all in tears!
Married
Shalu, degree student three years back
Thus
sacrificed his life for the nation along with
nine
others in Siachen Glacier at Indo-Pak border
Were
buried under thirty feet huge avalanche
Bodies
could be recovered only after seven days
Thousands
are still patrolling there
ready to
die for their nation any moment
Siachen
Glacier highest battle field on earth
Twenty
thousand feet above sea level
Lowest
temperature minus fifty degree
Average
winter snowfall thousand cubic meters
Nothing
lives there except Indo-Pak soldiers
Indian
army controls area since 1984
More
than two thousand soldiers
sacrificed
precious lives for India and Pakistan
When
hundred and fifty crores people
cozily
sleep with family in both the countries
thousands
of young lives are compelled to leave their family
to fight
with merciless climate for no reason or gain
When
thousands die of hunger everyday on either side
hundreds
of millions are spent on this vulnerable place
Whose
craze it is? For whom it is? People’s welfare?
People
aren’t iron-hearted to see their patriots
suffer
so sorely and sacrifice their precious lives
Let dove
of peace fly over Indo-Pak borders
nay,
borders of each and every nation
God,
kindly sow seeds of peace, love and
compassion
in the minds of all nations’ heads
Let me wind up my
paper reinstating Nepal’s role as a promoter of world peace. As a member of
United Nations Organization, Nepal has been helping the UNO in maintaining
peace by sending its troops to UN Peace Keeping Force. The Nepalese Army and
Nepal Police have been deployed in many conflicting areas of the world by the
UNO as a peacekeeping force. Nepalese troops played a vital role to maintain
peace in Kosovo, Lebanon, Somalia, Congo, Sierra Leone, East Timor and so on.
Nepal has diplomatic relation with many countries of the world. Foreign policy
plays an important role in making such relations. Nepal has made a substantial
contribution to the UN peacekeeping operations since 1958 AD. The performance
of Nepalese army in peacekeeping operations has earned a good reputation in the
world. Nepal has made its identity as a peace-loving. It doesn't attack other
but maintains friendly relation and follows the principle of neutrality with
the countries of the world. It wants to establish a good relationship with
every country and promotes world peace.
