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First Person Singluar

The Simmer of Summer – Indian summer captured by poets and moghuls

Aroon Sharma
Jun 2009

Summer is upon us. Just when I sat down to sum it up, a complex of inferiority crept in. I took a conscience call! That I can not surpass Kalidasa (5th Century). That my observations would be allegorical. His were apt. That mine would be euphoric. His were the ultimate. That mine would be a single season-specific. His were reason-specific.

A treasured possession, passed down my generations, is a book, the only on Kalidasa of its kind. It's in English and has 200 hundred subjects Summer being one culled by late N.B. Sen, who resided in Pusa Road, from the poet's complete works in Sanskrit. His “Glorious Thoughts of Kalidasa” was published by New Book Society of India in 1966.

Balanced it would be, if I give in to the temptation to turn to a descriptive masterpiece on Indian summer in “Baburnama” by a non-Indian -- the first Mughal Emperor Zahir-ud-Din Mohammad Babur in “The Imam And The Indian” ( reviewed by Amitav Ghosh ). His version stamps confirmation on the conclusions of a native, an Indian Kalidasa.

In the chapter “Disaffection Among My Generals”, Babur laments how his Nobles, after the plunder of India, longed to retreat to the cooler climes of Hindukhush and beyond in Afghanistan. The Emperor, descendant of Genghis Khan and Timur countered that having won the territory by the sword, as a Timurid prince, it was his duty to rule.

But his ablest General -- Khwaja Kalan, unable to take the Delhi Summer left. The twist in the tale is that before bidding adieu to the sun scorched land, resulting in sweat soaked limbs, the General had his abject surrender

To the summer of Delhi -- calligraphed in Persian on the walls of his residential splendour of nobility, adjacent to The Emperor.

“If Safe And Sound I Cross The River Sind

Blacken My Face Before I Wish For Hind”

Babur seethed with rage. A soldier of scholarship he was. He shot back:

“Give A Hundred Thanks to Babur, the Generous Pardoner

Has Given You Sind And Many A Kingdom There ;

If You Have Not The Strength for Their Heat,

If You Say 'Let Me Feel The Cold', Ghazni is There !”

The more focused Babur was on war and warriors braving the Sun; on territory and treasures as a trophy, the more of a wanderer Kalidasa was on how summer made the wildlife co-exist; on how Sun heightened the urge in men and women to cohabit. Some of the stanzas on women do; some do not make a family reading. I'll be an Indian -- a purist.

In the epic 'Mahavikagnimitra' he observes swans ( not extinct as yet but neither too sightable ), pigeons and peacocks.

“On account of extreme heat,

in the shades of leaves or lotus plants

in the artificial lakes,

are resting the swans with their eyes half closed ;

the mansions have the pigeons hating

close association with the sloping roofs;

desirous of drinking the drops of water flung out,

rushes on the peacock to the revolving water-wheel;

complete with all his rays,

blazes up the Sun having seven horses to his chariot !”

In 'Rtusamhara', Kalidasa eyes the mighty two -- lion and the elephant.

“The lord of the beast ( lion ),

deprived of his valour and endeavour

by the incessant thirst,

with quivering mane-lolling tongue,

with yawning mouth and breathing hurriedly,

does not kill the elephant though not far away.”

(Pray tell us what the tuskers did in 'Ritusamhara' !) Kalidasa is lyrical:

“The tuskers, who have oozed out

water-drops through the thirsty trunks,

tormented by the rays of the Sun,

worried by intense thirst,

while in quest of water,

do not fear even the lions.”

In the same epic, he heightens the effect with a lion's easy prey cow ?

“Tormented in body by the fire,

the tuskers, cows and the lords of beasts, lions,

discarding their mutual hostility

as if they were friends before,

out of incessant pain of the fire,

emerging from the caverns

repair to the rivers with sandy-region.”

Savour this too from 'Rtusamhara' ! It surpasses Shakespeare's imagery:

“By the sun-rays

like fire fed by oblations,

the peacocks, deprived of their sense

and fatigued in body,

do not kill the nearby serpent,

who have sheltered the hood

under the parasol of plumes.”

1 Comments >>

Buddy

06 Aug 2011 (06:56:21)

That's not just the best answer. It's the btesset answer!

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