KALIDASA AND RABINDRANATH TAGORE: A COMPARATIVE STUDY
Drama in Sanskrit literature is covered under the broad umbrella of ‘rupaka' which means depiction of life in its various aspects represented in forms by actors who assumes various roles The Indian drama has its roots in remote past. Bharatmuni’s Natyashastra is the earliest and great dramaturgy. The drama has its origin in Natyashastra and the sacred Vedas. The Natyashastra followed by various talented playwrights in ancient India like Kalidasa, Harsha, Sudrka and Bhavbhuti. They brought out their dramatic creations dealing with godly events and the poetics of theatre. The most renowned and talented dramatists of the ancient era are Ashwaghosh, Bhasa, Shudraka, Kalidas,
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“The Mandasor” inscription by one Vatsabhatti exposes some indebtedness to Kalidasa’s poem Ritusamharam” (Rajan 307). Abhijnanasakuntalam is the crown of Kalidass poetic excellence. He tells the story of King Dushyanta’s love for the hermit girl Shakuntala. The story moves from love at first sight to secret marriage. Later rishi Durvasa’s curse falls upon heroine. She is forgotten by the king. Finally there is reunion in Kasyapa’s hermit age. The dramatic skills and poetic diction heighten the pathos and a tender emotion of the heroine. Vikramorvasiya is composed in five acts. Kalidasa has borrowed the theme from the Rigveda. He blends it with events both earthly and celestial. Kalidasa’s works are outstanding for their poetic excellence. But it may be pointed out that Malavikagnimitra is more …show more content…
Tagore’s poetry and imagination were radically secular.He was translated as a public figure into the realm of mythology and mysticism, partly because of this reason, and partly through his own connivance. Yet the nature of his engagement with Kalidasa informs a very different concern, a different agenda, which also brings him much closer to the modernist preoccupation (prevalent in Europe at the time) with exactness, concreteness, and sensory perception than one would ordinarily think. The reasons for Tagore more or less ignoring, as a practising poet, the influence of his immediate as well as not-too-distant precursors in Bengal, such as the devotional poets Chandidas and Vidyapati (except in a youthful pastiche he did of the latter’s work), and turning to a North Indian Sanskrit poet of antiquity are manifold. In claiming Kalidasa as a precursor, Tagore is seeing him as a proto-modern, as someone whose primary subject was the physical universe, unmediated by religion, and whose primary concern was language itself, and its ability to convey and enrich ways of seeing. The devotional poets of India referred to the physical world — to the landscape and to the weather — in stock images that circulated in their work; one would expect, then, that Tagore learnt to ‘look’ at the real world from the English Romantics he admired. Tagore is aware of this, and is at pains to
Poetry’s role is evaluated according to what extent it mirrors, shapes and is reshaped by historical events. In the mid-19th century, some critics viewed poetry as “an expression of the poet’s personality, a manifestation of the poet’s intuition and of the social and historical context which shaped him” ( Preminger, Warnke, Hardison 511). Analysis of the historical, social, political and cultural events at a certain time helps the reader fully grasp a given work. The historical approach is necessary in order for given allusions to be situated in their social, political and cultural background. In order to escape intentional fallacy, a poet should relate his work to universal
In his preface to "Kubla Khan," Samuel Taylor Coleridge makes the claim that his poem is a virtual recording of something given to him in a drug-induced reverie, "if that indeed can be called composition in which all the images rose up before him as things . . . without any sensation or consciousness of effort." As spontaneous and as much a product of the unconscious or dreaming world as the poem might seem on first reading, however, it is also a finely structured, well wrought device that suggests the careful manipulation by the conscious mind.
The Romantic form of poetry gained its popularity in the late 18’th century. "Romanticism can be seen as a rejection of the precepts of order, calm, harmony, balance, idealization and rationality that typified Classicism in general and late 18’th...
These are some of various dance forms throughout the world today. Most individuals are familiar with these forms of dancing, since they are the most prominent and most widely used forms of dances in modern society. Throughout history, dance has been a main source of entertainment, from early tribes to modern day theaters. Interestingly though, somewhere between the transition from tribes to theater, dance has played a role from temple to theater as well. The one form of dance that has made a progression from temple to theater is familiar to India. This form of dance is known as "Bharata Natyam." (Pronounced: "Baaratha Naatyum").
This English Course explored different poets’ poetry. Throughout this course a wide range of different poems was presented for analytical purpose to understand the history during those times. This course helped bring to light on the meanings behind of each poet 's poems. For me taking this course I was not interested in poetry at all but now after taking this class I have learned to appreciate the beautiful poets that express their beliefs in many of their poetry, yet the stimulating moment when my mind engaged with an author 's thought. As William Blake once said “As a man is, so he sees. As the eye is formed, such are its powers” means that we can see only what we are prepared to see or expect to see. As a student, I wanted to understand
The world is changing and evolving at an astounding rate. Within the last one hundred years, the Western community has seen advances in technology and medicine that has improved the lifestyles and longevity of almost every individual. Within the last two hundred years, we have seen two World Wars, and countless disputes over false borders created by colonialists, slavery, and every horrid form of human suffering imaginable! Human lifestyles and cultures are changing every minute. While our grandparents and ancestors were growing-up, do you think that they ever imagined the world we live in today? What is to come is almost inconceivable to us now. In this world, the only thing we can be sure of is that everything will change. With all of these transformations happening, it is a wonder that a great poet may write words over one hundred years ago, that are still relevant in today’s modern world. It is also remarkable that their written words can tell us more about our present, than they did about our past. Is it just an illusion that our world is evolving, or do these great poets have the power to see into the future? In this brief essay, I will investigate the immortal characteristics of poetry written between 1794 and 1919. And, I will show that these classical poems can actually hold more relevance today, than they did in the year they were written. Along the way, we will pay close attention to the style of the poetry, and the strength of words and symbols used to intensify the poets’ revelations.
There are people bustling, merchants selling, Anglo-Indians watching, and birds flying overhead. How many perspectives are there in this one snippet of life? They are uncountable, and that is the reality. Modernist writers strive to emulate this type of reality into their own work as well. In such novels, there is a tendency to lack a chronological or even logical narrative and there are also frequent breaks in narratives where the perspectives jump from one to another without warning. Because there are many points of view and not all of them are explained, therefore, modernist novels often tend to have narrative perspectives that suddenly shift or cause confusion. This is because modernism has always been an experimental form of literature that lacks a traditional narrative or a set, rigid structure. Therefore, E. M. Forster, author of A Passage to India, uses such techniques to portray the true nature of reality. The conflict between Adela, a young British girl, and Aziz, an Indian doctor, at the Marabar Caves is one that implements multiple modernist ideals and is placed in British-India. In this novel, Forster shows the relations and tension between the British and the Indians through a series of events that were all caused by the confusing effects of modernism. E.M. Forster implements such literary techniques to express the importance or insignificance of a situation and to emphasize an impression of realism and enigma in Chandrapore, India, in which Forster’s novel, A Passage to India, takes place.
The history of tribal oppression in India is an old one. “The Sanyasi Revolt”, “The Wahabi Movement”, and “The Naxalbari Rebellion”, are evidence of the tribal outcry that appropriately foregrounds their requirement for fundamental rights as citizens of the country. Even after sixty six years of independence, India’s rural poor and tribals are lamenting under the curbing effects of destitution, unemployment, undernourishment, illiteracy and human trafficking. For these people, the notions of liberty, equality and democracy have no meaning at all. Though the country is free from the bondage of foreign rule, their repression and prejudices still continue leaving them dependent on their new masters.
Coleridge successfully illustrates the qualities of imagination in his poem, Kubla Khan, through the sound of words, the creative content and his ability to create and recreate. Coleridge turns the words of the poem into a system of symbols that are suspended in the reader’s mind. Coleridge uses creative powers to establish the infinite I AM, a quality of the primary imagination. Coleridge mirrors his primary and secondary imagination in the poem by taking apart and recreating images. The qualities of imagination discussed in the poem exist independently but also work together to create an imaginative world. It is important to understand how the poem works to achieve these qualities, but also how the poem works to bring the reader back to reality. The powers and qualities of imagination are present in Kubla Khan and it is through Coleridge’s extraordinary writing that the reader is able to experience an imaginative world, in which we alternate between reality and imagination.
Drama according to the Wikipedia free encyclopedia is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance, which comes from a Greek word (drao) meaning action. A dramatic production depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes, it put the characters in conflict with themselves, others, society and even natural phenomena. According to Learning Stream, “drama is a literary composition involving conflict, action crisis and atmosphere designed to be acted by characters on a stage before an audience.”
The Romantic Period is known as a transformative era that brought forth fresh perspectives and unique ways of thinking, flourishing through the 1800s. As a reaction to the Age of Enlightenment that hailed scientific reason and logic in Europe, Romanticism instead celebrated man’s ability to feel and express various emotions, praising aesthetics over rationality. In the preface of The Penguin Book of Romantic Poetry, this period’s focus is defined as the “valuing of emotion, of imagination, a belief in human potential taken beyond its ordinary limits” (xxiii). The artists of this period often explored their imaginations, depicting new ways of perceiving the world around them through their various forms of art. Romantic poets were famous for sharing common themes throughout their poetry. Many of these poems drew parallels regarding extensive outdoor landscapes and the individuals that inhabited these settings. The Romantic poets used vivid imagery and imagination to describe certain elements of nature and the impact these elements had on the human mind.
A word that is very closley linked to drama is the word theatre. Unlike drama, theatre must have three basic properties; a space to perform, actors, and an audience. In the 'space' a drama is brought to life by the ideas of a dramatist, or playwirght, the ideas of a director, and the actors' skill which combine to make an audience believe that what is happening on stage -the drama- is real.
In “Kubla Khan,” Coleridge expresses his desire to use the inspirations from nature to create his own “Paradise” of poetry (54, p.1634). In the first stanza, Coleridge creates an exotic oriental garden, where the trees, gardens, hills, and the “Alph” river, together present the beauty of Mother Nature (3, p.1633). Here, the poet carefully observes his surroundings, as the nature will serve as the source of inspiration for his poetry. The “pleasure dome” (2, p.1633) in line two has two functions, one representing the creation of human beings on earth, and the other being the foundation of Coleridge’s poetic paradise. As the clash between nature and humans takes place in the second stanza with a “woman wailing for her demon-lover” (16, p.1633) the poet calls upon nature for his inspiration, represented by the powerful activity of nature. The energy of nature is released in forms of “a might fountain” (19, p.1633), “rebounding hail” (21, p.1633), or “dancing rocks” (23, p.1633) and eventually the natural disasters will accompanied by man-made destruction as “Kubla heard from far Ancestral voices prophesying war” (29-30, p.1634)! Coleridge on one hand reinforces that man and nature are inseparable and one the other uses the energy of nature to represent the spontaneous spurring of emotions in the poet’s mind.
Swann, Darius L. "Indian and Greek Drama: Two Definitions." Comparative Drama 3.2 (1969): 110-9. Web. 5 Apr. 2014.
A Bengali mystic and artist, Rabindranath Tagore was a great poet, philosopher, music composer and a leader of Brahma Samaj who became a prominent voice of the Indian heritage. Best known for his poems and short stories, essays, novels articles etc., Tagore largely contributed to the Bengali literature in the late 19th and early 20th century and created his masterpieces such as Ghare- Baire, Yogayog, Sandhya Sangeet, Naibedya, Gitanjali and Gitimalya. As a Bengali polymath, he redesigned his region’s literature and music and became the first Non- European to win the Nobel Prize for literature for “Gitanjali” the book of poems.