A 16th century painting based on the Gitagovindam.
Updated: February 28, 2015 1:10 am
Book: Innovations and Turning Points, Toward a History of Kavya Literature
Edited by: Yigal Bronner, David Shulman and Gary Tubb
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Pages: 820
Price: Rs 1295
Review By Bibek Debroy
Sanskrit literature has a gigantic corpus and there are multiple ways to slice it. Much of it is technically in poetry (kavya). Within the kavya genre, as opposed to say plays, biographies or satire, there are mahakavyas, great kavyas. There is a specific definition of what constitutes a mahakavya, but one can ignore that for now. The great poets who composed mahakavyas (there is a list of six mahakavyas) are Kalidasa, Bharavi, Magha, Sriharsha and Bhatti. Unless one has a great interest in Sanskrit poetry, most people would probably choose their favourite poet from this list. Just so that it is clear, Valmiki and Vedavyasa belong to a different era. They are pre-classical. This volume is about kavya, lyrical works that fall short of being mahakavyas, but nevertheless have enough in them to transcend the prosaic. For example, Jayadeva’s Gitagovindam is kavya, not a mahakavya. This edited volume, with an excellent introduction, emerged from a conference in 2003-04. The idea is the following: can one identify poets (and their works) that lead to a breakthrough in innovation? “If… we read Sanskrit kavya with an open mind, we see evidence of tremendous vitality and continuous change. What is more, the notion of innovation is a remarkably consistent topos throughout the classical and medieval literature. The poets themselves very often remark on the novelty of their own work as well as that of particular poets who came before them.”
This is a novel idea and the introduction succinctly explains how “change” can be pinned down and rendered less subjective. The 25 papers are divided into seven heads — ‘Introduction’, ‘Kalidasa and Early Classicism’, the ‘Developing Mahakavya’, ‘Masters of Prose’, ‘Sons of Bana’, ‘Poets of the New Millennium’ and ‘Regional Kavyas’. Each paper then covers a specific theme, work or poet.Though the listing of novelty and innovation is never meant to be exhaustive, I do have a complaint about Jayadeva’s exclusion. On several counts, Gitagovindam also broke new ground. A more serious complaint is about the style of some essays. They are written in a dry, boring and academic style. They might have been excellent, seen through the lens of an academic conference. From the point of view of a book that seeks to generate popular interest in Sanskrit kavya, they should have been substantially rewritten. The ‘Introduction’ is what holds the book together. As I have said, it is excellent, learned without being pedantic, a style all other essays should have followed.
As is perhaps inevitable, three essays in Part 2 are about Kalidasa – specifically Kumarasambhavam and Raghuvamsha, with a more general piece about the taxonomy and structure of a mahakavya. Part 3 is about Bharavi, Magha continued…SEE DETAILS
Edited by: Yigal Bronner, David Shulman and Gary Tubb
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Pages: 820
Price: Rs 1295
Review By Bibek Debroy
Sanskrit literature has a gigantic corpus and there are multiple ways to slice it. Much of it is technically in poetry (kavya). Within the kavya genre, as opposed to say plays, biographies or satire, there are mahakavyas, great kavyas. There is a specific definition of what constitutes a mahakavya, but one can ignore that for now. The great poets who composed mahakavyas (there is a list of six mahakavyas) are Kalidasa, Bharavi, Magha, Sriharsha and Bhatti. Unless one has a great interest in Sanskrit poetry, most people would probably choose their favourite poet from this list. Just so that it is clear, Valmiki and Vedavyasa belong to a different era. They are pre-classical. This volume is about kavya, lyrical works that fall short of being mahakavyas, but nevertheless have enough in them to transcend the prosaic. For example, Jayadeva’s Gitagovindam is kavya, not a mahakavya. This edited volume, with an excellent introduction, emerged from a conference in 2003-04. The idea is the following: can one identify poets (and their works) that lead to a breakthrough in innovation? “If… we read Sanskrit kavya with an open mind, we see evidence of tremendous vitality and continuous change. What is more, the notion of innovation is a remarkably consistent topos throughout the classical and medieval literature. The poets themselves very often remark on the novelty of their own work as well as that of particular poets who came before them.”
This is a novel idea and the introduction succinctly explains how “change” can be pinned down and rendered less subjective. The 25 papers are divided into seven heads — ‘Introduction’, ‘Kalidasa and Early Classicism’, the ‘Developing Mahakavya’, ‘Masters of Prose’, ‘Sons of Bana’, ‘Poets of the New Millennium’ and ‘Regional Kavyas’. Each paper then covers a specific theme, work or poet.Though the listing of novelty and innovation is never meant to be exhaustive, I do have a complaint about Jayadeva’s exclusion. On several counts, Gitagovindam also broke new ground. A more serious complaint is about the style of some essays. They are written in a dry, boring and academic style. They might have been excellent, seen through the lens of an academic conference. From the point of view of a book that seeks to generate popular interest in Sanskrit kavya, they should have been substantially rewritten. The ‘Introduction’ is what holds the book together. As I have said, it is excellent, learned without being pedantic, a style all other essays should have followed.
As is perhaps inevitable, three essays in Part 2 are about Kalidasa – specifically Kumarasambhavam and Raghuvamsha, with a more general piece about the taxonomy and structure of a mahakavya. Part 3 is about Bharavi, Magha continued…SEE DETAILS
