Scan barcode
akshay_rupnawar's review
emotional
lighthearted
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
seldias's review
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
sookieskipper's review
3.0
3.5 stars
Kumarasambhavam is arguably Kalidasa's finest works to survive. The mahakavya narrates the origins of Kumara/Subramanya/Murugan starting with birth of Uma/Parvati, his mother and Uma's courtship with Shiva, his father, that leads to their nuptials. As is the tradition in Indian mythology, there is no great event without a divine hand progressing the fate.
The Backstory:
Taraka, an asura (a malevolent being), has defeated demi Gods because of a boon granted to him - he could be only defeated by son of Shiva (who is doing tapas), and also has to be a yogi. Some texts also say that the son should be exactly seven days old. Shiva has lost his consort, Sati, who immolates herself in the holy pyre after she had her husband are insulted by her father, Daksha.
The story:
Uma/Parvati is incarnation of Sati born to Himavan (or Parvata, thus deriving her name Parvati), who is personification of the Himalayas. This epic poem consists of eight cantos starting from birth of Uma and ending with Uma spending her days happily with Lord Shiva as his consort.
In the first cantos, Lord of the mountain is blessed with a daughter. She is named Parvati and is also called Uma. She is loved by her family and is adored by everyone else. In Kailasa, Shiva meditates.
In second cantos, Lord Shiva visits the mountains where Uma offers prayers and respects to the God. Kamadeva, the Lord of Love, awaits to shoot Shiva with a flower arrow so potent that it would disturb the ascetic state of mind of the Lord Shiva himself.
In third cantos Kamadeva is successful with his mark. Lord Shiva notices the shift in his mind as he watches Uma perform her duties and experiences intense attraction towards her. Being the Lord Supreme, he sees Kamadeva hiding behind a boulder and directs his third eye at him. Kamadeva is burnt on the spot.
The Fourth Cantos is dedicated to Rati, Kamadeva's consort and Goddess of sexual delight. She is lost with out her husband and bemoans the position she is in.
In Fifth Cantos, Uma dedicates her time selflessly helping Shiva perform his daily duties. She finds herself cornered after Kamadeva's death and performs her actions with all the affection she could muster to a God who is relentless in his tapas. Uma wins him over in the end with her relentless faith.
Uma is married to Shiva in sixth and seventh cantos. In the final eighth cantos, Kalidasa describes their married life.
Technical aspects of the poem:
Sanskrit poems boasts of technical excellence. With metres playing as a clue to the emotion of the sarga (cantos) or using euphemisms to trip the listener or using a stanza simply as a homage to the geography. Having studied first half of this poem in school, importance was given to Kalidasa's excellent technical ability to hold the fort with perfect words. When it comes to Uma, he uses words that when recited are soft, nasal and gentle while with Shiva (in the beginning), the words sound harsher, throaty and are clipped. As these poems were recited in those days, Kalidasa gave special consideration to the tone of the poem. Emotional moments had words that evoked sympathy or anger; be it a husky drag or a high pitched nasal sound.
The translator Hank Heiftez notes the change in metre in the ending stanzas. Traditionally the number of lines in the final stanza of a cantos had more (sometimes even lesser) sentences. But Kalidasa had a signature style of changing the metre that marked as both ending of the cantos and its tone served as a premonition to the upcoming story.
There are works dedicated to his style, techniques, word usage, the exaggerated metaphors and his innovative way of mixing metres in his poetry.
About the translation:
There is a note to 6:3 that says "There is a beautiful echo (and pun) here which I cannot reproduce in English." This is unfortunately true not for just this stanza but several others. Sanskrit is a layered language where words change their meaning with context and some words exists for specific contexts only. While there are words that describe body parts sensually, in English they sound vulgar or obscene or technical. Since Kalidasa spends an half of a cantos explaining Uma's physical attributes, Heifetz struggles to retain Kalidasa's beauty. It isn't the short coming of the translator but the language itself.
Heiftez refers to commentaries made by Sanskrit scholars which is definitely an added bonus. Since this is a poem deep rooted in mythological tales, he gives as many references as possible to some of the outstanding words that seem out of place but are present just to make an impact or emphasize an event. And as far as translation goes, this is pretty good.
I must confess. There are handful of stanzas that are quite flat. To Heiftez's credit, the misses are few and far between, and whenever something goes amiss, Heiftez confesses in notes.
Interestingly, the eighth cantos was cut off from our school books because it had references to sex and smut. Since sex wouldn't be discovered by us fourteen year olds till the age of 18 or whatever, school boards provided summaries only for the first seven cantos even thought the spoiler is there right in the title: Kumarasambhavam - birth/origin of the young God. Right.
In conclusion, Kumarasambhavam is a must read to anyone who is interested in reading Sanskrit classics with its innovative and creative ways of expression and humanizing Gods for a little period of time.
Kumarasambhavam is arguably Kalidasa's finest works to survive. The mahakavya narrates the origins of Kumara/Subramanya/Murugan starting with birth of Uma/Parvati, his mother and Uma's courtship with Shiva, his father, that leads to their nuptials. As is the tradition in Indian mythology, there is no great event without a divine hand progressing the fate.
The Backstory:
Taraka, an asura (a malevolent being), has defeated demi Gods because of a boon granted to him - he could be only defeated by son of Shiva (who is doing tapas), and also has to be a yogi. Some texts also say that the son should be exactly seven days old. Shiva has lost his consort, Sati, who immolates herself in the holy pyre after she had her husband are insulted by her father, Daksha.
The story:
Uma/Parvati is incarnation of Sati born to Himavan (or Parvata, thus deriving her name Parvati), who is personification of the Himalayas. This epic poem consists of eight cantos starting from birth of Uma and ending with Uma spending her days happily with Lord Shiva as his consort.
In the first cantos, Lord of the mountain is blessed with a daughter. She is named Parvati and is also called Uma. She is loved by her family and is adored by everyone else. In Kailasa, Shiva meditates.
In second cantos, Lord Shiva visits the mountains where Uma offers prayers and respects to the God. Kamadeva, the Lord of Love, awaits to shoot Shiva with a flower arrow so potent that it would disturb the ascetic state of mind of the Lord Shiva himself.
In third cantos Kamadeva is successful with his mark. Lord Shiva notices the shift in his mind as he watches Uma perform her duties and experiences intense attraction towards her. Being the Lord Supreme, he sees Kamadeva hiding behind a boulder and directs his third eye at him. Kamadeva is burnt on the spot.
The Fourth Cantos is dedicated to Rati, Kamadeva's consort and Goddess of sexual delight. She is lost with out her husband and bemoans the position she is in.
In Fifth Cantos, Uma dedicates her time selflessly helping Shiva perform his daily duties. She finds herself cornered after Kamadeva's death and performs her actions with all the affection she could muster to a God who is relentless in his tapas. Uma wins him over in the end with her relentless faith.
Uma is married to Shiva in sixth and seventh cantos. In the final eighth cantos, Kalidasa describes their married life.
Technical aspects of the poem:
Sanskrit poems boasts of technical excellence. With metres playing as a clue to the emotion of the sarga (cantos) or using euphemisms to trip the listener or using a stanza simply as a homage to the geography. Having studied first half of this poem in school, importance was given to Kalidasa's excellent technical ability to hold the fort with perfect words. When it comes to Uma, he uses words that when recited are soft, nasal and gentle while with Shiva (in the beginning), the words sound harsher, throaty and are clipped. As these poems were recited in those days, Kalidasa gave special consideration to the tone of the poem. Emotional moments had words that evoked sympathy or anger; be it a husky drag or a high pitched nasal sound.
The translator Hank Heiftez notes the change in metre in the ending stanzas. Traditionally the number of lines in the final stanza of a cantos had more (sometimes even lesser) sentences. But Kalidasa had a signature style of changing the metre that marked as both ending of the cantos and its tone served as a premonition to the upcoming story.
There are works dedicated to his style, techniques, word usage, the exaggerated metaphors and his innovative way of mixing metres in his poetry.
About the translation:
There is a note to 6:3 that says "There is a beautiful echo (and pun) here which I cannot reproduce in English." This is unfortunately true not for just this stanza but several others. Sanskrit is a layered language where words change their meaning with context and some words exists for specific contexts only. While there are words that describe body parts sensually, in English they sound vulgar or obscene or technical. Since Kalidasa spends an half of a cantos explaining Uma's physical attributes, Heifetz struggles to retain Kalidasa's beauty. It isn't the short coming of the translator but the language itself.
Heiftez refers to commentaries made by Sanskrit scholars which is definitely an added bonus. Since this is a poem deep rooted in mythological tales, he gives as many references as possible to some of the outstanding words that seem out of place but are present just to make an impact or emphasize an event. And as far as translation goes, this is pretty good.
I must confess. There are handful of stanzas that are quite flat. To Heiftez's credit, the misses are few and far between, and whenever something goes amiss, Heiftez confesses in notes.
Interestingly, the eighth cantos was cut off from our school books because it had references to sex and smut. Since sex wouldn't be discovered by us fourteen year olds till the age of 18 or whatever, school boards provided summaries only for the first seven cantos even thought the spoiler is there right in the title: Kumarasambhavam - birth/origin of the young God. Right.
In conclusion, Kumarasambhavam is a must read to anyone who is interested in reading Sanskrit classics with its innovative and creative ways of expression and humanizing Gods for a little period of time.
More...