in poetry; to the Tamil poets who lived the life of the people, love, war, and ethical conduct were the commonest themes.7 Cankam poetry which has Nature as its sympathetic background is greater in bulk than the classical Nature poetry in Sanskrit. Kālidāsa may be taken as representative of the classical period. His dramas and kaavyas ought to be compared with later Tamil poetry, with epics like the Cilappatikaaram, the Maṇimeekalai, and the Cintaamaṇi. In time, he came two or three centuries later than the majority of Cankam poets. His exquisite use of Nature similes, the abundant use made of flowers and leaves by his characters, his feeling for mountains, the striking resemblances his Nature poetry has with Cankam Nature poetry makes one wonder if he may not have been acquainted with the ancient Tamil literature which was then the only literature besides Sanskrit and Pali available for study in India.8 It should not have been difficult for a genius of his calibre. Besides, the lines from Sakuntalā (Act IV): "I am torn from my father's breast like a vine stripped from a sandal tree on the Malabar hills" sounds as if he knew the South not by reputation alone. On the other hand, his fundamental concept of Nature is more in harmony with what are exclusive features of Sanskrit poetry. There is an absence of any very great feeling for the sea. His mountains, rivers, and trees have according to Professor Ryder a "conscious individuality", a feature absent in Cankam literature. Each canto of Kālidāsa's Ritu-Samhāra should be studied side by side with a few poems of the corresponding season in Cankam literature, and it will be seen how early and how far Tamil poetry advanced in its interpretation of the seasons. Kālidāsa seems young in his concept of the seasons when confronted with the Cankam poets. The poem is accepted by critics as a juvenile effort of the poet, and if the poem is considered here at all, it is only as illustration of the difference in outlook. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 7 On the differences between Aryan and Dravidian religions, see P. T.SRINIVAS IYENGAR, Pre-Aryan Tamil Culture, passim and H.T., pp. 102-115. 8 The erotic poetry of Hala in Prakrit does not use Nature as a regional background. See SUSHIL KUMAR DE, Ancient Indian Erotics and Erotic Literature, Calcutta, 1959. |