Chapter 15.3 - Introduction to Lyric Poetry

Glimpses of History of Sanskrit Literature / 257 Lyric poem is smaller in size than a Mahakavya and resembles it partially: khandakavyam bhavet kavyasyaikadesanusari yat (Sahityadarpana, VI. 329). In it the poet is free from poetic conventions and is in a position to give full play to his imagination which makes his work rather attractive. Since it is short, the reader can go through it in short time with full grasp of its diction. Generally love in all its varied ramifications has been the subject matter of the lyrics in Sanskrit but there is no dearth in it of those where matters metaphysical, spiritual and didactic have found expression. In the love lyrics poets have made nature the handmaid of man which plays on his emotion. The flowers, the waters, the trees, the mountains, the clouds all in union of lovers play as the incentives and increase the pain in separation. It is not only Sanskrit, even Prakrit literature is rich in lyrics. The most well-known work in this category is the Gathasaptasati of Hala, also called Satavahana which gives expression to love in its varied forms in its seven hundred verses and finds mention in the Harsacarita of Bana. If its author Hala or Satavahana were to be taken to be identical with the king of that name of the Andhra country, the work then goes over to the early centuries of the Christian era. In line with his prominence in drama and poetry is the prominence of Kalidasa in lyric. Two of the most famous lyrics of Sanskrit literature, the Meghaduta and the Rtusamhara, are by him. The Meghaduta takes for description the condition of a Yaksa who is exiled from his abode in the Alaka city by the curse of his master Kubera for lapse of duty on his part (explained by the commentator Mallinatha as the gathering by him of lotuses the prevous evening, not intending to be away from his newly-married wife in the early hours, instead of the morning as evidenced by a bee enclosed in one of them coming

out in the morning when it opened up and biting him) to the far away Ramagiri mountain on the earth. The forlorn Yaksa spots a cloud clinging to the mountain peak and oblivious of the fact that it is an inanimate object decides to send a message to his beloved through it. He describes to it the route that it has to follow in its journey to Alaka and the message that it is to deliver to her. The supposed forlorn condition of both the lovers, the Yaksa and his wife the Yaksi the poet describes in graphic details that cannot but move the reader or the listener. The 121 verses of the Meghaduta are divided in two parts, the Purvamegha, the first part and the Uttaramegha, the second part. The first part gives the route and the second one the message. The route gives an opportunity to the poet to exhibit his poetic talent in full to describe the mountains, the rivers, the lakes, the ponds, the towns, the countries falling on the way. The theme itself makes him depict in poignant manner what the separation has wrought to the couple. The Yaksa is kanakavalayabhramsariktaprakostha, with his fore-arm bare on account of the golden bracelet having slipped away (because of emaciation). The Yaksi who otherwise is a perfect specimen of beautiful womenhood: tanvi syama sikharidasana pakvabimbadharosthi madhye ksama cakitaharinipreksana nimnanabhih/ sronibharad alasagamana stokanamra stanabhyam ya tatra syad yuvativisaye srstir adyeva dhatuh// (Uttaramegha, 21) "Slim, dark, with pointed teeth, with the nether lip like a ripe bimba fruit, with a slender waist, with glances like those of a frightened doe, with a deep navel, slow in gait, a little weighed down with her buxom bosom-the premier creation of the Creator by way of a young woman", appeared like a lotuscreeper blasted by frost, sisiramathitam padminim vanyarupam;

with her eyes swollen by excessive weeping and nether lip blanched by hot sighs, she resembling the pallar of the moon with her lustre suffered due to a cloud traversing her track. A feel of how nature came to be entwined with a human being can be had from the following verse where the distraught Yaksa sees the various limbs of his lady-love in objects of nature: syamasv angam cakitaharinipreksane drstipatam gever vaktracchayam sasini sikhinam barhabharesu kesan/ cutpasyami pratanusu nadivicisu bhruvilasan hantaikatra kvacid api na te candi sadrsyam astill (Uttaramegha, 43) "I see your form in the Priyangu creepers, your glances in the glances of the startled doe, the beauty of your cheek in the moon, your hair in the plumage of the peacocks, the sport of your eye-brows in the tiny ripples of rivers, but alas! O my dear, nowhere can I see your likeness combined in one place." The Meghaduta has provided inspiration to a number of later poets to adopt the theme of sending message through a messenger with the difference that the messenger is not the same in a majority of cases as in the parent work. A few have retained the Megha, the cloud, as the messenger but many others have let their flight of imagination go off in search of the newer and newer one. Some have the birds like peacock, swan, Cakora, some the insects like bees, some the animals like dog, some a natural object like leaf, some the natural phenomena like the moon and some even the abstract one such as the mind. The recipient of the message is also not necessarily the beloved. It is sometimes Krsna or a preceptor or some other being. The same is with the destination and the route. The result: A big corpus of dutakavya or sandesakavya literature has grown up in Sanskrit over the centuries. Kalidasa had set a trend that had caught on with a host of later poets firing their imagination.

The next lyric of Kalidasa is the Rtusamhara which describes in its 141 verses divided in six cantos the six seasons. The description is so given as to correlate a number of times with the feelings and emotions of lovers, particularly the lovestricken ladies-how they would find the season and what it would do to them. What happens in the autumn season the poet describes: netrotsavo hrdayaharimaricimalah prahladakah sisirasikaravarivarsi/ patyur viyogavisadigdhasaraksatanam cando dahaty atitaram tanum angananam// (3.9) "The moon, the joy of the eyes with her rays captivating the heart, the great delighter, showering water whose spray is cool, excessively parches the body of women, wounded by the poison-coated arrow of the separation from their husbands." A stanza of the Rtusamhara that has attained great popularity in Sanskrit circles with its simple and easy style is as under: drumah sapuspah salilam sapuspam striyah sakamah pavanah sugandhih/ sukhah pradosa divasas ca ramyah sarvam priye carutaram vasante// (6.2) "Everything O dear! gains added beauty in Spring: trees put forth flowers, waters grow lotuses, ladies become passionate, winds blow fragrant, evenings get pleasant and days delightful." It is due to its unembellished style that some critics are prone to consider the Rtusamhara to be the earliest of the writings of Kalidasa, a product of his younger age. Some go even further to not to acknowledge it to be the work of Kalidasa which is hard to accept. The next great writer of note in this genre is Bhartrhari the author of the three collections of Muktakas called the Nitisataka, the Srngarasataka and the Vairagyasataka. According to some

the author of these three works is not the same. According to Itsing, the Chinese traveller, there had been in India a Bhartrhati, a poet and a grammarian, who had wavered six times between the cloistre and home. Trusting his account Bharthari can be placed in the 7 th cen. A.D. upon the In the Nitisataka Bhartrhari describes in chaste verses, the Muktakas, quite a few of which have become current coin, the noble qualities of doing good to others, bravery, courage, exertion, generosity and so on. Along with these he touches cruelty, the heartlessness and insensitivity of the people at large. The wantonness of kings, the arrogance of the rich, the illtreatment by the wicked and the ignoramuses of the good seem to cause him great pain. The verses are so good, so pregnant with meaning, so appealing that we are tempted to reproduce them all here but the limitation of space would not permit that, leaving us with no option but to restrict ourselves to only a few by way of specimen: yada kincijjno 'ham dvipa iva madandhah samabhavam tada sarvajno 'smity abhavad avaliptam mama manah/ yada kincit kincid budhajanasakasad avagatam tada murkho 'smiti jvara iva mado me vyapagatah// (Nitisataka, 8) "When I came to know a little, I, with the feeling that I know everything, became intoxicated like an elephant with rut. When, however, I learnt something bit by bit from the wise, my pride with the impression that I am a fool came down like fever." yesam na vidya na tapo na danam jnanam na silam na guno na dharmah/ te martyaloke bhuvi bharabhuta b manusyarupena mrgas caranti// (Nitisataka, 13) "Those who have neither learning nor austerity, nor charity, nor spiritual knowledge, nor good conduct, nor merit, nor

righteousness are mere burden to the earth, wandering in the mortal world like the wild beasts in human form." mrgaminasajjananam trnajalasantosavihitavrtlinam/ lubdhakadhivarapisuna niskaranavairino jagati// (Nitisataka, 61) "Though the deer, the fish and the good are respectively maintaining their peaceful lives by living upon grass, water and contentment, yet the hunter, the fisherman and the backbiter are inimical to them for no reason." " The Srigarasataka is a description of the enchanting beauty of ladies and their coquettish and amorous gestures and the pull that they have for men. But to describe this is not the aim of the poet. There seems to be gradual transition from attraction to distraction, from attachment to detachment that finds its culmination in the Vairagyasataka where the worldly objects seem to have lost their attraction with equanimity replacing it which makes the poet to proclaim: ahau va hare va balavati ripau va suhrdi va manau va losthe va kusumasayane va drsadi va/ trne va straine va mama samadrso yantu divasah kvacit punyaranye siva siva siveti pralapatah// (Vairagyasataka, 40) "Looking at with equal equanimity a snake or a necklace, a powerful foe or a friend, a jewel or a clod of earth, a flowery bed or a stone, a blade of grass or a bevy of women, I now wish to pass the remaining days of my life in a holy forest continuously chanting the name of Siva." After having drunk deep at all the pleasures of life, the pleasures lose all attraction, phoney as they all are: bhoga na bhukta vayam eva bhuktas tapo na taptam vayam eva taptah/

kalo na yato vayam eva yatas trsna na jirna vayam eva jirnah/ (Vairagyasataka, 12) "It is we who are exhausted, not the pleasures; it is we who it is we who are gone not the time; are done up, not the penance; it is we who have grown old, not the desire to gain". The next great lyric writer of Sanskrit literature is Amaru or Amaruka who has delineated in his work going after his name the Amarusataka the delicate erotic feelings and emotions in an unmatched style in varied metres in a century of verses. However, its four versions available now have verses ranging from ninety to hundred and fifteen with only fifty one of them common to all. His date is uncertain. The only thing certain about him is that he is anterior to 850 A.D. because his Muktakas, have won fulsome praise from the celebrated rhetorician Anandavardhana as of great fame exuding the erotic sentiment, very much like a Prabandha, a continued narrative: Amarukasya kaver muktakah srigararasasyandinah prabandhayamanah prasiddha eva. It is a great tribute to call each of the Muktaka as a Prabandha, a continued narrative: a small stanza may well contain in itself sentiments, ideas and nuances which may need a full work to depict. Amaru's diction is very pleasant and expression fluent, easy and lucid, free as it is from long compounds. Nowhere is there any obscurity in meaning or involved construction. As an instance may be reproduced the stanza composed in question and answer style that makes it one of the most interesting ones: bale, natha, vimunca manini rusam, rosan maya kim krtam, khedo 'smasu, na me 'paradhyati bhavan, sarve 'paradha mayil tat kim rodisi gadgadena vacasa, kasyagrato rudyate? nanv etan mama, ka tavasmi, dayita, nasmity ato rudyate// (Verse, 57)

Husband Wife Husband Wife Husband Wife Husband "O young lady" "My lord" olby an old "Give up your anger, O the offended one" "What have I done by being offended" "Given me pain" "You have not done me any wrong. All the wrongs go with me "Why then are you crying in faltering voice?" "In front of whom am I crying?" "Well, in front of me" Wife Husband Wife "Who am I to you?" Husband "My darling" Wife 2010 bus bribaun el bieb "That I am not, that is why this crying" Dhvani-kavya, suggestive poetry, is considered to be the best in Sanskrit. For illustrating this it is Amaru's verse the rhetoricians cite: nihsesacyutacandanam stanatatam nirmrstarago 'dharo netre duram ananjane pulakita tanvi taveyam tanuh/ mithyavadini duti bandhavajanasyajnatapidagame vapim snatum ito gata si na punas tasyadhamasyantikam// "The expanse of your breasts has all the sandalwood paste gone, your lower lip has its redness rubbed off, the eyes have all but lost the collyrium, this slender frame of yours is in horripilation O you the liar lady-messenger, O you who have no idea as to what pain you have caused to your kin, you had gone from here to take bath in the oblong tank and not to that wretched fellow." Ostensibly a lady is accusing the messenger here with not carrying out her errand of conveying her message to her lover but is cleverly charging her with deceiving her in having sex with her lover herself with the physical condition being the same both in having bath and in having sex, by the clever use

of the word adhama, the wretched fellow, which is more eloquent than any other word in betraying the true feeling of the lady cheated in love by both the messenger and her lover in having sex with each other. dong Popularity was the hallmark of Amaru's poetry. A small work of about a century of verses gained him undying fame. About half a dozen commentaries were written on his work of which the two, Rasikasanjivani of Arjunavarmadeva and the Srngaradipika of Vemabhupala are better known. Another lyric writer of note in Sanskrit is Bilhana, the writer of the historical Mahakavya the Vikramankadevacarita, of the period 1076-1127 A.D. who composed a string of fifty verses called the Caurapancasika, the literal meaning of which is the fifty verses (recited by) a thief, caura. As per tradition the story of the work relates to the poet himself who was secretly in love with a princess. The secret lover is the caura, thief here, it is he who had stolen the heart of the princess. When the king, the father of the princess comes to know of the secret love affair he sentences him to death. As he was being taken to the gallows he describes all the love sports he had enjoyed with his beloved on hearing which the king gets so moved as to not only pardon him but marry his daughter to him. Each stanza of the poem begins with the words adyapi, "even now". Unmindful of his impending fate the lover's mind is engrossed in the thoughts of his beloved, her sight, her touch, her embrace. As an illustration a stanza could well be reproduced here: adyapi tam yadi punah kamalayataksim pasyami pivarapayodharabharakhinnam/ sampidya bahuyugalena pibami vaktram unmattavan madhukarah kamalam yathestam// (verse 3) "If I were to see her again even now who is as wide-eyed as lotuses and is feeling fatigued due to buxom bosoms, I would drink deep (=look on intently at) her face by taking her in tight

embrace with both of my arms like a frenzied do a bee a lotus." person as would d ut brow yodio gus A verse purported from the Caurapancasika and quoted as such but not figuring in the printed edition of the same also bears reproduction here for its sheer force of appeal: adyapi tam bhujalatarpitakanthapasam To show vaksahsthalam mama pidhaya payodharabhyam/ adisannimilitasalilavilocanantam pasyami mugdhavadanam vadanam pibantim// "Even now I see her of innocent face looking intently (lit. drinking) at my face covering my chest with her breasts with arms enclosing my neck in the form of a noose, with the corners of the eyes slightly closed in a sportive spirit." The next great name in the field of lyric is that of Jayadeva, a court-poet of King Laksmanasena of Bengal of 1116 A.D. who composed a twelve-canto Kavya the Gitagovinda of which each canto has to be sung in a particular musical note, Raga, an indication for which he provides himself. It has in it some descriptive verses too to serve as connecting links in the narrative that concerns itself with the love sports of the divine couple Krsna and Radha. It has a gripping description of the various conditions in love of the lovers like hope, despair, longing, jealousy, taunts, sorrow and so on. Replete with alliteration, the style of the poem is very racy, sweet and musical, a quality of which the poet is conscious himself as he says: yadi harismarane sarasam mano yadi vilasakalasu kutuhalam/ madhurakomalakantapadavalim srnu tada jayadevasarasvatim// (1.4) wag imidon "If remembering Hari enriches your heart If his arts of seduction arouse you Listen to Jayadeva's speech In these sweet, soft lyrical songs. "

The lines of Jayadeva that have gained great popularity run as follows: clove laliitalavangalataparisilanakomalamalayasamire madhukaranikarakarambitakokilakujitakunjakutire/ Harir iha viharali sarasavasante nrtyati yuvatijanena samam sakhi virahijanasya durante// (1.27) "Soft sandal mountain winds caress quivering vines of Forest huts hum with droning bees and crying cuckoos When Spring's mood is rich, Hari roams here To dance with young womenfolkA cruel time for separated lovers." 500 M With the help of pun the poet so arranges his words that the names of the heavely nymphs peep out of them Radha, the Lord's consort combining in herself the beauty of all of themthe nymphs Madalasa, Indumati, Manorama, Rambha, Kalavati and Citralekha: drsau tava madalase vadanam indusandipakam gatir janamanorama vijitarambham urudvayam/ ratis tava kalavati ruciracitralekhe bhruvav aho vibudhayauvanam vahasi tanvi prthvigata//(10.14) "Your eyes are lazy with wine, like Madalasa Your face glows like the moonlight like Indumati Your gait pleases every creature, like Manorama Your thighs excel the plantain, like Rambha Your passion is the mystic rite of Kalavati vad brestl Your brows form the sensuous line of Citralekha aplo (no Frail Radha, as you walk on earth, You bear the young beauty of heavenly nymphs." " A contemporary of Jayadeva and like him the court-poet of Laksmanasena of Bengal was another poet Govardhanacarya

who composed on the model of Hala's Gathasaptasati the Aryasaptasati, a collection of seven hundred verses in Arya metre depicting the love sports of the lovers and the beloveds in all their feelings and emotions, their unions and separations and what goes with them. It is this work that provided the inspiration to the Hindi poet Bihari to compose his Satsai (Sanskrit Saptasati). One of the most well-known of the composers of the Gitikavyas, lyrics, in Sanskrit is Panditaraja Jagannatha, a great name in Sanskrit poetry and Poetics. A court-poet of the Mughal Emperor Shahjahan of the 17 th cen. A.D. he has composed the Bhaminivilasa which is a collection of Anyoktis (statements made for one but intended for another, allegories) and other Muktakas depicting Erotics, Pathos and Quietude. The work is divided in four sections called Vilasas. The first one is Prastavikavilasa, the Introductory Vilasa. It is this that has Anyoktis. The second is Srngaravilasa, the third Karunavilasa and the last, the fourth, Santavilasa. The Panditaraja was quite proud of his learning. He thinks he has no match for him in his learning whom he may engage in scholarly disquisition or in poetic competition. This is what he expresses in the very preliminary verse of his work through reference to a lion: digante sruyante madamalinagandah karatinah karinyah karunyaspadam asamasilah khalu mrgah/ idanim loke 'sminn anupamasikhanam punar ayam nakhanam pandityam prakatayatu kasmin mrgapatih// "The elephants whose temples are sullied with rut are heard (to have run away) to the end of the quarters; the female elephants are an object of pity; the deer are indeed not a match. Where then in this world should this lord of the beasts (lion) exhibit the skill of its claws with sharp edges/tips". A stanza that has won rare acclaim in Sanskrit circles is as under:

patira tava patiyan kah paripatim imam urikartum/ yat pisatam apt nrnam tanosi parimalaih pustim// (verse 11) "O sandalwood, who is there wise/clever enough to imbibe this conduct of yours, for you impart delight with your fragrance even to those who grind you (on the stone) . " Through the analogy of the sandalwood a good man is eulogized here who does good to even those who leave no stone unturned in harming him. The poet seems to have been a great devotee of Lord Krsna. This devotion he expresses in a number of verses in the Santasvilasa one of which is reproduced here by way of specimen: patalam vraja yahi va surapurim aroha meroh sirah paravaraparamparam tara tathapy asa na santa tava/ adhivyadhijaraparahata yadi ksemam nijam vanchasi sri krsneti rasayanam rasaya re sunyaih kim anyaih sramaih// (verse 6) "Go to the nether region or to the capital of gods or the Meru mountain, cross several oceans, yet your desires would never come to an end: if you who are overwhelmed with mental and physical troubles and old age, desire for your well being, accustom your tongue to the elixir, viz., the word "Sri Krsna". What is the use of other useless pursuits". It seems it was common in the days of Jagannatha for other poets to pilfer the stray verses of reputed poets and pass them off as their own. To obviate this possibility he prepared a collection of them in the form of the present work as he says in the last verse: durvrtta jarajanmano harisyantiti sankayal madiyapadyaratnanam manjusaisa krta mayall "I have prepared this casket for jewels which are my verses fearing that the vile bastards will plagiarise them (lit.steal them away)." " CC-0. Prof..Satya Vrat Shastri Collection, New Delhi. Digitized by S 3 Foundation USA

Besides the above, there are a few other Gitikavyas, lyrics. The three of them, the Srngaratilaka, the Puspabanavilasa and Rasakakavya are associated with Kalidasa. Damodaragupta, the minister of Kashmir King Jayapida (772-813 A.D.), wrote the Kuttinimata.