Poetry's Afterthought: Kalidasa and the Experience of Reading Shiv
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Poetry’s Afterthought: Kalidasa and the Experience of Reading Shiv Subramaniam Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy on the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2019 © 2019 Shiv Subramaniam All rights reserved ABSTRACT Poetry’s Afterthought: Kalidasa and the Experience of Reading Shiv Subramaniam This dissertation concerns the reception of the poet Kalidasa (c. 4th century), one of the central figures in the Sanskrit literary tradition. Since the time he lived and wrote, Kalidasa’s works have provoked many responses of different kinds. I shall examine how three writers contributed to this vast tradition of reception: Kuntaka, a tenth-century rhetorician from Kashmir; Vedantadesika, a South Indian theologian who lived in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries; and Sri Aurobindo, an Indian English writer of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries who started out as an anticolonial activist and later devoted his life to spiritual exercises. While these readers lived well after Kalidasa, they were all deeply invested in his poetry. I wish to understand why Kalidasa’s poetry continued to provoke extended responses in writing long after its composition. It is true that readers often use past literary texts to various ends of their own devising, just as they often fall victim to reading texts anachronistically. In contradistinction to such cases, the examples of reading I examine highlight the role that texts themselves, not just their charisma or the mental habits of their readers, can have in constituting the reading process. They therefore urge us to formulate a more robust understanding of textual reception, and to reconsider the contemporary practice of literary criticism. Table of Contents List of Transliterations ii List of Abbreviations iii Acknowledgments iv Chapter 1 Introduction 1 1. Dramatis Personae 2 2. Kalidasa’s Reception: An Overview 10 3. Reading Kalidasa in the Present 17 Chapter 2 Kuntaka’s Kalidasa: Poet of the Court 24 1. The Pleasure of Kalidasa: Kuntaka’s Account of the Delicate Style 25 2. Learning from Kalidasa: Kuntaka on the Educative Function of Poetry 43 3. Kalidasa and the Pedagogy of Pleasure 65 A Note on Kuntaka’s Theory of Literature 68 Chapter 3 Vedantadesika’s Kalidasa: Poet of Daydreams 71 1. The Presence of Kalidasa in Vedantadesika’s Writing 73 2. On Devotional Meditation: Vivid Remembering in Ramanuja and Vedantadesika 87 3. On Daydreaming: Vivid Remembering in Kalidasa 95 4. Daydreaming as Meditation: Imaginative Exercises in the Messenger Poems 103 5. Reading as Meditation: Vedantadesika’s Performance of Devotion 114 Chapter 4 Aurobindo’s Kalidasa: Poet of the Earth 121 1. “The Seasons” and Kalidasa’s Poetry of the Senses 122 2. Sensuousness and the History of Art 127 3. Beyond Sensuousness: Two Ascetic Ideals 139 4. The Poet-King: Aurobindo’s Character Sketch of Pururavas 144 5. Kalidasa and the Future Poetry 160 Chapter 5 Conclusion: Sanskrit Literature and the Present 165 1. The Trouble with Presentist Reading 166 2. Poetry’s Afterthought: A Practice of Literary Criticism 172 Bibliography 194 i List of Transliterations I have used diacritical marks in the titles of all works composed in Indian languages. The names of authors and characters, as well as certain words, are not always given in diacritics: sometimes I have used diacritics only in a name’s first appearance, and sometimes not at all. Here is a list of some names and words that appear in the main text, together with their diacritical variants: Alvar Āḻvār Manipravala Maṇipravāḷa Andal Āṇṭāḷ Maricha Mārīca apsara apsaras Mena Menā Anandavardhana Ānandavardhana Nanda Nanda Anasuya Anasūyā Nandi Nandin Arunagirinatha Aruṇagirinātha Nandini Nandinī Aushinari Auśinarī Narayana Nārāyaṇa Asvaghosha Aśvaghoṣa Nipunika Nipuṇikā Bana Bāṇa Nishadha Niṣādha Bhamaha Bhāmaha Parvati Pārvatī Dandin Daṇḍin Pelava Pelava Dasharatha Daśaratha Priyamvada Priyaṃvadā Dharini Dhāriṇī Pururavas Purūravas Dilipa Dilīpa Purushottama Puruṣottama Durvasa Durvāsas Pushpaka Puṣpaka Dushyanta Duṣyanta Rama Rāma Galava Gālava Ramanuja Rāmānuja Ganadasa Gaṇadāsa Ravana Rāvaṇa Goda Godā Samskara Saṃskāra Godavari Godāvarī Sanumati Sānumatī Hamsapadika Haṃsapadikā Shakuntala Śakuntalā Hanuman Hanumat Shankara Śaṅkara Harsha Harṣa Shiva Śiva Kaikeyi Kaikeyī Sita Sītā Kalidasa Kālidāsa Srivaishnava Śrīvaiṣṇava Kama Kāma Taraka Tāraka Kamandaki Kāmandakī Uma Umā Kanva Kaṇva Urvashi Ūrvaśī Kartikeya Kārttikeya Valmiki Vālmīki Keshava Ḱeśava Vasishta Vasiṣṭha Krishna Kṛṣṇa Varuni Vāruṇī Lakshmi Lakṣṃī Visvakarma Viśvakarman Lavangika Lavaṅgikā Vedantadesika Vedāntadeśika Madhavya Mādhavya Vishnu Viṣṇu Malati Mālatī Vyasa Vyāsa Mallinatha Mallinātha yaksha yakṣa Manavaka Māṇavaka yakshini yakṣiṇī Mandanamishra Maṇḍanamiśra Yashoda Yaśodā ii List of Abbreviations I have used abbreviations only when the section number and verse number are sufficient for locating the passage I am referencing. For example, the opening verse of Kalidasa’s Raghuvaṃśa would be given as R 1.1. In all other cases, I have provided in a footnote the full title of the work, the page number of the passage I am referencing, and (if applicable) the section and verse numbers for the text being commented on in the passage. For example, the citation for Kuntaka’s remarks on the educative function of poetry would be given as follows: 1Kuntaka, Vakroktijīvita, ed. K. Krishnamoorthy (Dharwad: Karnatak University, 1977), 3–4, commentary on 1.3. A Abhijñānaśākuntala H Haṃsasandeśa HC Harṣacarita K Kumārasaṃbhava KĀ Kāvyādarśa MA Mālavikāgnimitra MD Meghadūta MM Mālatīmādhava R Raghuvaṃśa RS Ṛtusaṃhāra S Saṅkalpasūryodaya SN Saundarananda VJ Vakroktijīvita VŪ Vikramorvaśīya Y Yādavābhyudaya iii Acknowledgments I couldn’t have asked for a better guide over the past seven years than my adviser, Sheldon Pollock. He never discouraged me from pursuing an idea I came to him with, however premature it was, but showed me again and again how to take an idea and follow through on it with determination. More than this, he has modeled for me a commitment to thinking about what matters, and to doing so as part of a community. Jack Hawley has been a constant source of insights, encouragement, and genuine care. In so many conversations with him, his approachability led me to express thoughts which, had I remembered I was talking to a scholar of the highest caliber, I might have kept to myself; in this, perhaps unsurprisingly, he reminds me of Krishna. Meeting Branka Arsić was one of the great surprises of my graduate studies. She opened up to me whole new ways of thinking, and taught me that reading well has as much to do with rigor as with courage. Her generosity has meant so much to me. I am grateful to Rachel McDermott and Sudipta Kaviraj, who graciously agreed to join this committee in my project’s final stages. I have been privileged over the years to study works of Sanskrit rhetoric with Dr. K. Srinivasan, a scholar as brilliantly erudite as he is committed to teaching. Ever since I came to Erik Gray’s office several years ago with questions about British Romanticism, he has been supportive of my work and generous with his vast knowledge about poetry. Dr. S. Padmanabhan offered me invaluable guidance in thinking about the connections between Kalidasa and Vedantadesika, and Dr. S. S. Mukundan tirelessly helped me understand how Vedantadesika thinks about thinking. I have the deepest affection and admiration for the students in my section of Literature Humanities, who week after week bravely staked their perceptions, values, and judgments in countless close readings, and helped me more than they know as I tried to formulate my concluding arguments. iv Judith Galas, Don Schawang, and Matt Patterson were the best English teachers anyone could ask for, and I continue to learn so much from them. My friendships sustained me during my time at Columbia, both the ones I made along the way and those that have deepened over the years. I would especially like to express my gratitude to Mark Balmforth, Justin Ben-Hain, Alex Elnabli, Yagna Nag Chowdhuri, Amanda Culp, Aditi Deshmukh, Meghan Hartman, Mridu Perima, Eric Gurevitch, Sarah Hawas, Nell Hawley, Zoë Woodbury High, Manpreet Kaur, Mininder Kaur, Shruti Krishnamoorthy, Aman Kumar, Guy Leavitt, Roopa Mahadevan, Padma Maitland, Nabanjan Maitra, Taarini Mookherjee, Andrew Ollett, Jay Ramesh, Anusha Rao, Sujata Rajpurohit, Kristina Rogahn, Guy St. Amant, Ramya Sampath, Aditi Sriram, Anusha Sriram, Aparaajit Sriram, Sruti Sarathy, Yogi Trivedi, Janet Um, Sheila Vatan, Anand Venkatkrishnan, Vidhya Chithi, Barbara Vinck, and Vivek Yadav. Hamsa and Arun, my sister and brother-in-law, were unstinting in their love and patience as I tried to finish writing. Their daughter Savitri Lalita recently came along; she seems to have a remarkable sense of humor, and I am excited to learn it. My parents, Aruna and Bala Subramaniam, have given me more than the world. I love them so much, and dedicate this dissertation to them. v for appa and amma vi Poetry’s Afterthought: Kalidasa and the Experience of Reading Chapter 1: Introduction This dissertation concerns the reception of the poet Kālidāsa (c. 4th century), one of the central figures in the Sanskrit literary tradition. Since the time he lived and wrote, Kalidasa’s works have provoked a number of responses of many kinds, including commentaries, literary critical essays, poems, tributes, apocryphal verses, and biographical legends. I shall examine how three