Kṣemīśvara, also called Kṣemendra, is the author of a play called Caṇḍa-kauśika. The introductory segments of his play reveal to us his place and period to some extent. Kṣemīśvara was the great-grandson of Vijaya-prakoṣṭha; he penned the play upon the request of King Mahī-pāladeva. It is said that Mahī-pāladeva was Candra-gupta (Maurya) in his previous life and was responsible for the elimination of the Nanda dynasty. The Nandas of the past were now the kings of Karnataka, and it was important to eliminate them; Mahī-pāladeva was born for this purpose.
It appears that Mahī-pāladeva ruled between 910 and 940 CE from Kannauj and was the patron of Rājaśekhara. The king of Karnataka mentioned here is probably Indra, one of the kings of the Rāṣṭrakūṭas. It is said that he fought a battle against Mahī-pāladeva in 916 CE. Kṣemīśvara probably lived in times contemporary to the war, and thus must belong to the early part of the 10th Century CE.
It is hard to say who Vijaya-prakoṣṭha was. He must have been quite a famous person in his time; Kṣemīśvara mentions the name of his great-grandfather and not his father or grandfather. However, thanks to the fame of the great-grandson, Vijaya-prakoṣṭha has remained in our memory.
We learn that Kṣemīśvara had also authored another play named Naiṣadhānanda. It must have been a retelling of the story of Nala.
Caṇḍa-kauśika is a nāṭaka in five acts. The following is its summary:
Hariścandra, who had observed all the stringent regulations recommended by the kulapati in order to circumvent challenging times, comes to see his wife. He was awake all night to practise the prescribed rituals. The wife, who hadn’t seen her husband all night, was disheartened and suspicious. By the time Hariścandra learns the reason behind his wife’s unsettled state, a tāpasa sent by the kulapati arrives there with mantrodaka. The queen repents for having unnecessarily suspected her husband. A tribal man comes there to report troubles caused by wild boars (Act 1).
As Kauśika was performing tapas to gain mastery over vidyā-traya – three branches of knowledge, Vighneśvara takes the form of a wild boar to interrupt his endeavour (Viṣkambhaka); upon hearing the painful cries of the vidyās, the king mistakes Kauśika for a pāṣāṇḍa and reviles him; this disturbs Kauśika’s tapas and the vidyās he was about to master slip away from him. As it is the duty of the kṣattriyas to protect dāna and punish the wicked, the king tries to console Kauśika and begs pardon for his misdeed. Kauśika asks, “What will you offer as dāna to me?” The king is pleased and says, “The entire earth will be yours.” Kauśika then asks what the king will offer as dakṣina along with the dāna. And to this, Hariścandra seeks a month’s time and promises that he will earn a lakh varāhas in Kāśī; Kāśī was not a part of the land the king had promised Kauśika. However, Kauśika gets further enraged and makes up his mind that he would make the king devoid of honesty, just as he was now devoid of his kingdom (Act 2).
The scene changes to the city of Kāśī; Pāpa-puruṣa and Bhṛṅgiriṭi inform (the audience) the arrival of Hariścandra to the city. Hariścandra reaches Kāśī on the last day of the deadline of a month that he had set for himself; he prepares to sell himself to earn one lakh varāhas. When he is about to do so, his wife Śaibyā comes forward to sell herself. ‘Upādhyāya,’ who watches their acts, comes forth and offers fifty thousand varāhas to buy one of them – he says that one of them may come to him for the amount. Śaibyā receives the money from him, ties it to her husband’s upper garment and goes away with her son. (In the meantime, Viśvedevatās, out of their compassion for Hariścandra, try to drive sense into Kauśika; however, Kauśika curses them in return.) Hariścandra, unable to bear Kauśika’s torture, sells himself as a caṇḍāla to fulfil his vow; he offers the money he thereby earns to Kauśika. (Act 3). Hariścandra stands guard in the crematorium. Vidyās that are now pleased come to him, but he sends them to Kauśika. A kāpālika overcomes vighnas with Hariścandra’s help; he earns a few siddhis and brings a huge treasure for Hariścandra. However, as the latter was in dāsya, i.e., servitude, he offers the treasure to his ‘owner’ (Act 4).
(Rohitāśva, who was on his way to gather flowers and darbhā for the purohita is stung by a snake, and dies.) The mother Śaibyā carries the mortal remains of her son to the crematorium and laments there; Hariścandra, who was the keeper of the crematorium, asks for funeral fees from the lady. The husband and wife recognise each other and are inconsolable. They couldn’t end their lives upon will as they were in dāsya, and they had no say over their own selves; they lament, wondering if dharma would protect them at all. Dharma-puruṣa appears there, consoles them and brings Rohitāśva back to life. Viśvāmitra is now happy, for he procures the vidyās. He tells them that the ministers were taking care of the kingdom and declares that he caused trouble to Hariścandra and his family only to test their honesty. It is then revealed that the purohita was actually Maheśvara and the caṇḍāla was Dharma. Hariścandra offers all the puṇya he had gathered to his subjects and attains puṇya-loka with them.
Though the play is based on Hariścandra’s life, the poet has named it Caṇḍa-kauśika, because the emphasis is more on Kauśika’s anger than on Hariścandra’s honesty. The poet shows through the play that though Kauśika was celebrated as a brahmarṣi, he had not overcome his desires and anger; an honest person like Hariścandra had to suffer under him like an insect that is caught in a spider’s web. When the king says, “I erred out of ignorance,” Kauśika asks, “Don’t you know me?” When he says, “I protected the weak as it is dharma to do so,” Kauśika questions, “What is your dharma then?” As soon as Hariścandra utters the words dāna and rakṣaṇa, Kauśika demands, “What are you donating to me then?” The former declares, “The world is yours,” and the latter demands, “Alright, where is the dakṣiṇa?” When Hariścandra promises that he will earn the required dakṣiṇa in a month, Kauśika says, “The entire earth is mine; you cannot earn in my territory!” It takes a month for the king to travel to the city of Kāśī, which does not give him much time to earn the required amount. Kauśika then commands him to earn the dakṣiṇa by selling his wife and child. When Hariścandra says that it is difficult for him to work as a dāsa to a caṇḍāla and would rather serve another person, Kauśika insists that he serve a caṇḍāla only. As it was close to the deadline he had set for himself to offer dakṣiṇa to Kauśika, Hariścandra was forced to do the activity as per the latter’s demand. Such was his anger and demands, devoid of all empathy. Let alone Hariścandra lament for his own fate, even the Viśvedevatās who utter a cry for sympathy for him are cursed. Even with his adamance, finally Kauśika was defeated. Hariścandra does not make use of the vidyās that come to him of their own accord and sends them to Kauśika (Viśvāmitra); the latter then cools down a little and puts the kingdom under the care of the ministers. The Dharma-puruṣa says that he subjected Hariścandra to such troubles only to test his honesty and commitment; this wipes away the tears from Hariścandra’s eyes and helps him regain composure. (When we look at the play from this perspective, we will be able to make sense of its theme, characters, and rasas; it will help us see the underlying aucitya.)
To be continued ...
The current series of articles is an enlarged adaption of Prof. A. R. Krishnasastri's Kannada treatise Saṃskṛta-nāṭaka. They are presented along with additional information and footnotes by Arjun Bharadwaj.
