Arts

The Śākuntalopākhyāna of the Mahābhārata has taken the form of an impressive nāṭaka in the skilled hands of Kālidāsa’s. The story in the epic is akin to gold ore; it contains grains and threads of gold caught amidst rugged stone; the raw stone has been cleared away, the gold is put together, and has been converted into a beautiful image in the form of the nāṭaka; the image is polished and embellished; it is placed on a divine pedestal. Kālidāsa has reduced long and pedantic conversations and preachy segments of the original into a few verses.

By the time of Kālidāsa, the role and characteristic features of the vidūṣaka had taken a concrete form. The vidūṣaka in the Vikramorvaśīyam is endowed with quite a few profound qualities. One can see some of his weaknesses as well; he cannot keep a secret. The segments where the clever Nipuṇikā deceives him and the way in which he tries to hide his stupidity before the king are comical. To convince Āyuḥ Kumāra that he need not fear him, the vidūṣaka compares himself to a monkey – this certainly tickles the connoisseur’s bones.

The poet has clearly indicated the difference between the personalities of the queen on the one hand and Urvaśī on the other; their names are suggestive of the difference in their nature – the queen is called Auśīnarī and the apsarā is Urvaśī. The poet has compared Urvaśī to Gaṅgā and lightning, while he says Auśīnarī is like a river flowing in the rainy season and is like the wick of a lamp. The following is the description of the queen who performs the vrata –

sitāṃśukā maṅgala-mātra-bhūṣaṇā

In the Vikramorvaśīyam, the poet has brought in several elements to amplify vipralambha-śṛṅgāra; as mentioned before, Purūrava gets separated thrice from Urvaśī and pines for her company. In no other play do we see the king going mad out of love for his beloved. It is likely that the playwright, Kālidāsa, wanted to provide special scope for elaborate music and enactment in his play and thus designed it to contain many such deeply emotional segments. It is not easy to enact love-madness.

There is quite a lot of difference between the story narrated above and the version that occurs in the Kathāsaritsāgara[1]. According to the Kathāsaritsāgara, Purūrava once spots Urvaśī in the Nandana-vana and falls in love with her. Bhagavān Viṣṇu, who understands Purūrava’s heart, instructs Indra to send Urvaśī to him. Purūrava brings her to his hometown and spends many days in conjugal bliss.

Once, when the precious gem was being brought upon a golden plate, an eagle mistook it for a piece of flesh and flew away with it. The king chased behind the bird and even before he could shoot an arrow at it, it went beyond the bow’s rage. Even as everyone had lost hopes of retrieving the gem, a huntress comes there the gem and also the arrow which had killed the bird. The king is surprised upon seeing the inscription on the arrow – Āyu, the son of Urvaśī and Purūrava.

The Vikramorvaśīyam, like the Mālavikāgnimitram consists of five acts. The following the summary of its plot

Pātra-prāśastya – Excellence of Character

Pātra-viśeṣanyastaṃ guṇāntaraṃ vrajati śilpam-ādhātuḥ!

Jalam-iva samudra-śuktau muktāphalatāṃ payodasya ॥ Act 1, verse 6

The skill of a teacher who imparts his knowledge to a worthy student attains greater excellence, just as a water droplet from a cloud gets, when it falls into a oyster, gets converted into a precious pearl.

Knowledge and Livelihood

yasyāgamaḥ kevalajīvikāyai

In the characters of Queen Dhāriṇī and Irāvatī, we can see the abhinaya of mature and experienced women; there is a difference of flavour in them. Dhāriṇī is the queen and she carries herself with the kind of dignity and majesty expected of the royalty; Irāvatī is probably younger to Dhāriṇī; she is, in a sense, inferior to the queen in the profundity and seriousness of character; she gives herself to pleasure, jealousy, and anger. It appears like Dhāriṇī had kept Mālavikā in prison only to please Irāvatī.

The story so far is a tale of love that takes place in the king’s antaḥpura and the garden. Though there are incidents connected with the politics of the kingdom, release of a captive, and a victorious military conquest, it all happens in the background and we only get to hear about it; none of those incidents are staged; however, they contribute towards enhancing the main plot.