{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/sha/sha16.htm","path":"hin/sha/sha16.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/sha/sha16.htm","text":"The Birth of the War-god is an epic poem in seventeen cantos. It consists of 1096 stanzas, or about 4400 lines of verse. The subject is the marriage of the god Shiva, the birth of his son, and the victory of this son over a powerful demon. The story was not invented by Kalidasa, but taken from old mythology. Yet it had never been told in so masterly a fashion as had been the story of Rama's deeds by Valmiki. Kalidasa is therefore under less constraint in writing this epic than in writing The Dynasty of Raghu. I give first a somewhat detailed analysis of the matter of the poem.\nFirst canto. The birth of Parvati.--The poem begins with a description of the great Himalaya mountain-range.\nWhose countless wealth of natural gems is not\n \u00a0\u00a0Too deeply blemished by the cruel snow;\n One fault for many virtues is forgot,\n \u00a0\u00a0The moon's one stain for beams that endless flow.\nWhere demigods enjoy the shade of clouds\n \u00a0\u00a0Girding his lower crests, but often seek,\n When startled by the sudden rain that shrouds\n \u00a0\u00a0His waist, some loftier, ever sunlit peak.\nWhere bark of birch-trees makes, when torn in strips\n \u00a0\u00a0And streaked with mountain minerals that blend\n To written words \u2019neath dainty finger-tips,\n \u00a0\u00a0Such dear love-letters as the fairies send. p. 158\nWhose organ-pipes are stems of bamboo, which\n \u00a0\u00a0Are filled from cavern-winds that know no rest,\n As if the mountain strove to set the pitch\n \u00a0\u00a0For songs that angels sing upon his crest.\nWhere magic herbs that glitter in the night\n \u00a0\u00a0Are lamps that need no oil within them, when\n They fill cave-dwellings with their shimmering light\n \u00a0\u00a0And shine upon the loves of mountain men.\nWho offers roof and refuge in his caves\n \u00a0\u00a0To timid darkness shrinking from the day;\n A lofty soul is generous; he saves\n \u00a0\u00a0Such honest cowards as for protection pray.\nWho brings to birth the plants of sacrifice;\n \u00a0\u00a0Who steadies earth, so strong is he and broad.\n The great Creator, for this service' price,\n \u00a0\u00a0Made him the king of mountains, and a god.\n[paragraph continues] Himalaya marries a wife, to whom in course of time a daughter is born, as wealth is born when ambition pairs with character. The child is named Parvati, that is, daughter of the mountain. Her father takes infinite delight in her, as well he may; for\nShe passes through a happy childhood of sand-piles, balls, dolls, and little girl friends, when all at once young womanhood comes upon her.\nSuppose a blossom on a leafy spray;\n \u00a0\u00a0Suppose a pearl on spotless coral laid:\n Such was the smile, pure, radiantly gay,\n \u00a0\u00a0That round her red, red lips for ever played.\nAnd when she spoke, the music of her tale\n \u00a0\u00a0Was sweet, the music of her voice to suit,\n Till listeners felt as if the nightingale\n \u00a0\u00a0Had grown discordant like a jangled lute.\n[paragraph continues] It is predicted by a heavenly being that she will one day become the wife of the god Shiva. This prediction awakens her father's pride, and also his impatience, since Shiva makes no advances. For the destined bridegroom is at this time leading a life of stern austerity and self-denial upon a mountain peak. Himalaya therefore bids his daughter wait upon Shiva. She does so, but without being able to divert him from his austerities.\nSecond canto. Brahma's self-revelation.--At this time, the gods betake themselves to Brahma, the Creator, and sing a hymn of praise, a part of which is given here.\nThree various forms and functions three\n Proclaim thy living majesty;\n Thou dost create, and then maintain,\n And last, destroyest all again.\nThy slow recurrent day and night\n Bring death to all, or living light.\n We live beneath thy waking eye;\n Thou sleepest, and thy creatures die.\nSolid and fluid, great and small,\n And light and heavy--Thou art all;\n Matter and form are both in thee:\n Thy powers are past discovery. p. 160\nThou art the objects that unroll\n Their drama for the passive soul;\n Thou art the soul that views the play\n Indifferently, day by day.\nThou art the knower and the known;\n Eater and food art thou alone;\n The priest and his oblation fair;\n The prayerful suppliant and the prayer.\n[paragraph continues] Brahma receives their worship graciously, and asks the reason of their coming. The spokesman of the gods explains to Brahma how a great demon named Taraka is troubling the world, and how helpless they are in opposing him. They have tried the most extravagant propitiation, and found it useless.\nThe wind blows gently as it can\n To serve him as a soothing fan,\n And dare not manifest its power,\n Lest it should steal a garden flower.\nThe seasons have forgotten how\n To follow one another now;\n They simultaneously bring\n Him flowers of autumn, summer, spring.\nSuch adoration makes him worse;\n He troubles all the universe:\n Kindness inflames a rascal's mind;\n He should be recompensed in kind.\nAnd all the means that we have tried\n Against the rogue, are brushed aside,\n As potent herbs have no avail\n When bodily powers begin to fail. p. 161\nWe seek a leader, O our Lord,\n To bring him to his just reward--\n As saints seek evermore to win\n Virtue, to end life's woe and sin--\nThat he may guide the heavenly host,\n And guard us to the uttermost,\n And from our foe lead captive back\n The victory which still we lack.\n[paragraph continues] Brahma answers that the demon's power comes from him, and he does not feel at liberty to proceed against it; \"for it is not fitting to cut down even a poison-tree that one's own hand has planted.\" But he promises that a son shall be born to Shiva and Parvati, who shall lead the gods to victory. With this answer the gods are perforce content, and their king, Indra, waits upon the god of love, to secure his necessary co-operation.\nThird canto. The burning of Love.--Indra waits upon Love, who asks for his commands. Indra explains the matter, and asks Love to inflame Shiva with passion for Parvati. Love thereupon sets out, accompanied by his wife Charm and his friend Spring. When they reach the mountain where Shiva dwells, Spring shows his power. The snow disappears; the trees put forth blossoms; bees, deer, and birds waken to new life. The only living being that is not influenced by the sudden change of season is Shiva, who continues his meditation, unmoved. Love himself is discouraged, until he sees the beauty of Parvati, when he takes heart again. At this moment, Shiva chances to relax his meditation, and Parvati approaches to do him homage. Love seizes the lucky moment, and prepares to shoot his bewildering arrow at Shiva. But the great god sees him, and before the arrow is discharged, darts fire from his eye, whereby Love is consumed. Charm falls in a swoon, Shiva vanishes, and the wretched Parvati is carried away by her father.\nFourth canto. The lament of Charm.--This canto is given entire.\nHer opening eyes were fixed with anxious thought\n \u00a0\u00a0On every spot where he might be, in vain,\n Were gladdened nowhere by the sight she sought,\n \u00a0\u00a0The lover she should never see again.\nShe rose and cried aloud: \"Dost thou yet live,\n \u00a0\u00a0Lord of my life?\" And at the last she found\n Him whom the wrathful god could not forgive,\n \u00a0\u00a0Her Love, a trace of ashes on the ground.\nWith breaking heart, with lovely bosom stained\n \u00a0\u00a0By cold embrace of earth, with flying hair,\n She wept and to the forest world complained,\n \u00a0\u00a0As if the forest in her grief might share.\n\"Thy beauty slew the pride that maidens cherish;\n \u00a0\u00a0Perfect its loveliness in every part;\n I saw that beauty fade away and perish,\n \u00a0\u00a0Yet did not die. How hard is woman's heart!\nWhere art thou gone? Thy love a moment only\n \u00a0\u00a0Endured, and I for ever need its power;\n Gone like the stream that leaves the lily lonely,\n \u00a0\u00a0When the dam breaks, to mourn her dying flower.\nThou never didst a thing to cause me anguish;\n \u00a0\u00a0I never did a thing to work thee harm;\n Why should I thus in vain affliction languish?\n \u00a0\u00a0Why not return to bless thy grieving Charm?\nOf playful chastisements art thou reminded,\n \u00a0\u00a0Thy flirtings punished by my girdle-strands,\n Thine eyes by flying dust of blossoms blinded,\n \u00a0\u00a0Held for thy meet correction in these hands? p. 163\nI loved to hear the name thou gav\u2019st me often\n \u00a0\u00a0'Heart of my heart.' Alas! It was not true,\n But lulling phrase, my coming grief to soften:\n \u00a0\u00a0Else in thy death, my life had ended, too.\nThink not that on the journey thou hast taken\n \u00a0\u00a0So newly, I should fail to find thy track;\n Ah, but the world! The world is quite forsaken,\n \u00a0\u00a0For life is love; no life, when thee they lack.\nThou gone, my love, what power can guide the maiden\n \u00a0\u00a0Through veils of midnight darkness in the town\n To the eager heart with loving fancies laden,\n \u00a0\u00a0And fortify against the storm-cloud's frown?\nThe wine that teaches eyes their gladdest dances,\n \u00a0\u00a0That bids the love-word trippingly to glide,\n Is now deception; for if flashing glances\n \u00a0\u00a0Lead not to love, they lead to naught beside.\nAnd when he knows thy life is a remembrance,\n \u00a0\u00a0Thy friend the moon will feel his shining vain,\n Will cease to show the world a circle's semblance,\n \u00a0\u00a0And even in his waxing time, will wane.\nSlowly the mango-blossoms are unfolding\n \u00a0\u00a0On twigs where pink is struggling with the green,\n Greeted by ko\u00efl-birds sweet concert holding--\n \u00a0\u00a0Thou dead, who makes of flowers an arrow keen?\nOr weaves a string of bees with deft invention,\n \u00a0\u00a0To speed the missile when the bow is bent?\n They buzz about me now with kind intention,\n \u00a0\u00a0And mortify the grief which they lament.\nArise! Assume again thy radiant beauty!\n \u00a0\u00a0Rebuke the ko\u00efl-bird, whom nature taught\n Such sweet persuasion; she forgets her duty\n \u00a0\u00a0As messenger to bosoms passion-fraught. p. 164\nWell I remember, Love, thy suppliant motion,\n \u00a0\u00a0Thy trembling, quick embrace, the moments blest\n By fervent, self-surrendering devotion\n \u00a0\u00a0And memories like these deny me rest.\nWell didst thou know thy wife; the springtime garland,\n \u00a0\u00a0Wrought by thy hands, O charmer of thy Charm!\n Remains to bid me grieve, while in a far land\n \u00a0\u00a0Thy body seeks repose from earthly harm.\nThy service by the cruel gods demanded,\n \u00a0\u00a0Meant service to thy wife left incomplete,\n My bare feet with coquettish streakings banded--\n \u00a0\u00a0Return to end the adorning of my feet.\nNo, straight to thee I fly, my body given,\n \u00a0\u00a0A headlong moth, to quick-consuming fire,\n Or e\u2019er my cunning rivals, nymphs in heaven,\n \u00a0\u00a0Awake in thee an answering desire.\nYet, dearest, even this short delay is fated\n \u00a0\u00a0For evermore a deep reproach to prove,\n A stain that may not be obliterated,\n \u00a0\u00a0If Charm has lived one moment far from Love.\nAnd how can I perform the last adorning\n \u00a0\u00a0Of thy poor body, as befits a wife?\n So strangely on the path that leaves me mourning\n \u00a0\u00a0Thy body followed still the spirit's life.\nI see thee straighten out thy blossom-arrow,\n \u00a0\u00a0The bow slung careless on thy breast the while,\n Thine eyes in mirthful, sidelong glance grow narrow,\n \u00a0\u00a0Thy conference with friendly Spring, thy smile.\nBut where is Spring? Dear friend, whose art could fashion\n \u00a0\u00a0The flowery arrow for thee? Has the wrath\n Of dreadful Shiva, in excess of passion,\n \u00a0\u00a0Bade him, too, follow on that fatal path?\" \nHeart-smitten by the accents of her grief\n \u00a0\u00a0Like poisoned darts, soothing her fond alarm,\n Incarnate Spring appeared, to bring relief\n \u00a0\u00a0As friendship can, to sore-lamenting Charm.\nAnd at the sight of him, she wept the more,\n \u00a0\u00a0And often clutched her throat, and beat her breast;\n For lamentation finds an open door\n \u00a0\u00a0In the presence of the friends we love the best.\nStifling, she cried: \"Behold the mournful matter!\n \u00a0\u00a0In place of him thou seekest, what is found?\n A something that the winds of heaven scatter,\n \u00a0\u00a0A trace of dove-grey ashes on the ground.\nArise, O Love! For Spring knows no estranging,\n \u00a0\u00a0Thy friend in lucky hap and evil lot;\n Man's love for wife is ever doubtful, changing;\n \u00a0\u00a0Man's love for man abides and changes not.\nWith such a friend, thy dart, on dainty pinion\n \u00a0\u00a0Of blossoms, shot from lotus-fibre string,\n Reduced men, giants, gods to thy dominion--\n \u00a0\u00a0The triple world has felt that arrow sting.\nBut Love is gone, far gone beyond returning,\n \u00a0\u00a0A candle snuffed by wandering breezes vain;\n And see! I am his wick, with Love once burning,\n \u00a0\u00a0Now blackened by the smoke of nameless pain.\nIn slaying Love, fate wrought but half a slaughter,\n \u00a0\u00a0For I am left. And yet the clinging vine\n Must fall, when falls the sturdy tree that taught her\n \u00a0\u00a0Round him in loving tenderness to twine.\nSo then, fulfil for me the final mission\n \u00a0\u00a0Of him who undertakes a kinsman's part;\n Commit me to the flames (my last petition)\n \u00a0\u00a0And speed the widow to her husband's heart. p. 166\nThe moonlight wanders not, the moon forsaking;\n \u00a0\u00a0Where sails the cloud, the lightning is not far;\n Wife follows mate, is law of nature's making,\n \u00a0\u00a0Yes, even among such things as lifeless are.\nMy breast is stained; I lay among the ashes\n \u00a0\u00a0Of him I loved with all a woman's powers;\n Now let me lie where death-fire flames and flashes,\n \u00a0\u00a0As glad as on a bed of budding flowers.\nSweet Spring, thou camest oft where we lay sleeping\n \u00a0\u00a0On blossoms, I and he whose life is sped;\n Unto the end thy friendly office keeping,\n \u00a0\u00a0Prepare for me the last, the fiery bed.\nAnd fan the flame to which I am committed\n \u00a0\u00a0With southern winds; I would no longer stay;\n Thou knowest well how slow the moments flitted\n \u00a0\u00a0For Love, my love, when I was far away.\nAnd sprinkle some few drops of water, given\n \u00a0\u00a0In friendship, on his ashes and on me;\n That Love and I may quench our thirst in heaven\n \u00a0\u00a0As once on earth, in heavenly unity.\nAnd sometimes seek the grave where Love is lying;\n \u00a0\u00a0Pause there a moment, gentle Spring, and shower\n Sweet mango-clusters to the winds replying;\n \u00a0\u00a0For he thou lovedst, loved the mango-flower.\"\nAs Charm prepared to end her mortal pain\n \u00a0\u00a0In fire, she heard a voice from heaven cry,\n That showed her mercy, as the early rain\n \u00a0\u00a0Shows mercy to the fish, when lakes go dry:\n\"O wife of Love! Thy lover is not lost\n \u00a0\u00a0For evermore. This voice shall tell thee why\n He perished like the moth, when he had crossed\n \u00a0\u00a0The dreadful god, in fire from Shiva's eye. p. 167\nWhen darts of Love set Brahma in a flame,\n \u00a0\u00a0To shame his daughter with impure desire,\n He checked the horrid sin without a name,\n \u00a0\u00a0And cursed the god of love to die by fire.\nBut Virtue interceded in behalf\n \u00a0\u00a0Of Love, and won a softening of the doom:\n 'Upon the day when Shiva's heart shall laugh\n \u00a0\u00a0In wedding joy, for mercy finding room,\nHe shall unite Love's body with the soul,\n \u00a0\u00a0A marriage-present to his mountain bride.'\n As clouds hold fire and water in control,\n \u00a0\u00a0Gods are the fount of wrath, and grace beside.\nSo, gentle Charm, preserve thy body sweet\n \u00a0\u00a0For dear reunion after present pain;\n The stream that dwindles in the summer heat,\n \u00a0\u00a0Is reunited with the autumn rain.\"\nInvisibly and thus mysteriously\n \u00a0\u00a0The thoughts of Charm were turned away from death;\n And Spring, believing where he might not see,\n \u00a0\u00a0Comforted her with words of sweetest breath.\nThe wife of Love awaited thus the day,\n \u00a0\u00a0Though racked by grief, when fate should show its power,\n As the waning moon laments her darkened ray\n \u00a0\u00a0And waits impatient for the twilight hour.\nFifth canto. The reward of self-denial.--Parvati reproaches her own beauty, for \"loveliness is fruitless if it does not bind a lover.\" She therefore resolves to lead a life of religious self-denial, hoping that the merit thus acquired will procure her Shiva's love. Her mother tries in vain to dissuade her; her father directs her to a fit mountain peak, and she retires to her devotions. She lays aside all ornaments, lets her hair hang unkempt, and assumes the hermit's dress of bark. While she is spending her days in self-denial, she is visited by a Brahman youth, who compliments her highly upon her rigid devotion, and declares that her conduct proves the\ntruth of the proverb: Beauty can do no wrong. Yet he confesses himself bewildered, for she seems to have everything that heart can desire. He therefore asks her purpose in performing these austerities, and is told how her desires are fixed upon the highest of all objects, upon the god Shiva himself, and how, since Love is dead, she sees no way to win him except by ascetic religion. The youth tries to dissuade Parvati by recounting all the dreadful legends that are current about Shiva: how he wears a coiling snake on his wrist, a bloody elephant-hide upon his back, how he dwells in a graveyard, how he rides upon an undignified bull, how poor he is and of unknown birth. Parvati's anger is awakened by this recital. She frowns and her lip quivers as she defends herself and the object of her love.\nThey search for wealth, whom dreaded evil nears,\n \u00a0\u00a0Or they who fain would rise a little higher;\n The world's sole refuge neither hopes nor fears\n \u00a0\u00a0Nor seeks the objects of a small desire.\nYes, he is poor, yet he is riches' source;\n \u00a0\u00a0This graveyard-haunter rules the world alone;\n Dreadful is he, yet all beneficent force:\n \u00a0\u00a0Think you his inmost nature can be known?\nAll forms are his; and he may take or leave\n \u00a0\u00a0At will, the snake, or gem with lustre white;\n The bloody skin, or silk of softest weave;\n \u00a0\u00a0Dead skulls, or moonbeams radiantly bright.\nFor poverty he rides upon a bull,\n \u00a0\u00a0While Indra, king of heaven, elephant-borne,\n Bows low to strew his feet with beautiful,\n \u00a0\u00a0Unfading blossoms in his chaplet worn.\nYet in the slander spoken in pure hate\n \u00a0\u00a0One thing you uttered worthy of his worth: p. 169\n How could the author of the uncreate\n \u00a0\u00a0Be born? How could we understand his birth?\nEnough of this! Though every word that you\n \u00a0\u00a0Have said, be faithful, yet would Shiva please\n My eager heart all made of passion true\n \u00a0\u00a0For him alone. Love sees no blemishes.\n[paragraph continues] In response to this eloquence, the youth throws off his disguise, appearing as the god Shiva himself, and declares his love for her. Parvati immediately discontinues her religious asceticism; for \"successful effort regenerates.\"\nSixth canto. Parvati is given in marriage.--While Parvati departs to inform her father of what has happened, Shiva summons the seven sages, who are to make the formal proposal of marriage to the bride's parents. The seven sages appear, flying through the air, and with them Arundhati, the heavenly model of wifely faith and devotion. On seeing her, Shiva feels his eagerness for marriage increase, realising that\n[paragraph continues] Shiva then explains his purpose, and sends the seven sages to make the formal request for Parvati's hand. The seven sages fly to the brilliant city of Himalaya, where they are received by the mountain god. After a rather portentous interchange of compliments, the seven sages announce their errand, requesting Parvati's hand in behalf of Shiva. The father joyfully assents, and it is agreed that the marriage shall be celebrated after three days. These three days are spent by Shiva in impatient longing.\nSeventh canto. Parvati's wedding.--The three days are spent in preparations for the wedding. So great is Parvati's unadorned beauty that the waiting-women can hardly take their eyes from her to inspect the wedding-dress. But the preparations are complete at last; and the bride is beautiful indeed.\nWhen wide-eyed glances gave her back the same\n \u00a0\u00a0Bright beauty--and the mirror never lies--\n She waited with impatience till he came:\n \u00a0\u00a0For women dress to please their lovers' eyes.\n[paragraph continues] Meanwhile Shiva finishes his preparations, and sets out on his wedding journey, accompanied by Brahma, Vishnu, and lesser gods. At his journey's end, he is received by his bride's father, and led through streets ankle-deep in flowers, where the windows are filled with the faces of eager and excited women, who gossip together thus:\n[paragraph continues] Shiva and his retinue then enter the palace, where he is received with bashful love by Parvati, and the wedding is celebrated with due pomp. The nymphs of heaven entertain the company with a play, and Shiva restores the body of Love.\nEighth canto. The honeymoon.--The first month of marital bliss is spent in Himalaya's palace. After this the happy pair wander for a time among the famous mountain-peaks. One of these they reach at sunset, and Shiva describes the evening glow to his bride. A few stanzas are given here.\nUpon the very tree-tops sway\n \u00a0\u00a0The peacocks; even yet they hold p. 171\n And drink the dying light of day,\n \u00a0\u00a0Until their fans are molten gold.\nThe water-lily closes, but\n \u00a0\u00a0With wonderful reluctancy;\n As if it troubled her to shut\n \u00a0\u00a0Her door of welcome to the bee.\nThe steeds that draw the sun's bright car,\n \u00a0\u00a0With bended neck and falling plume\n And drooping mane, are seen afar\n \u00a0\u00a0To bury day in ocean's gloom.\nThe sun is down, and heaven sleeps:\n \u00a0\u00a0Thus every path of glory ends;\n As high as are the scal\u00e8d steeps,\n \u00a0\u00a0The downward way as low descends.\n[paragraph continues] Shiva then retires for meditation. On his return, he finds that his bride is peevish at being left alone even for a little time, and to soothe her, he describes the night which is now advancing. A few stanzas of this description run as follows.\nAnd vision fails above, below,\n \u00a0\u00a0Around, before us, at our back;\n The womb of night envelops slow\n \u00a0\u00a0The world with darkness vast and black.\nMute while the world is dazed with light,\n \u00a0\u00a0The smiling moon begins to rise\n And, being teased by eager night,\n \u00a0\u00a0Betrays the secrets of the skies.\nMoon-fingers move the black, black hair\n \u00a0\u00a0Of night into its proper place,\n Who shuts her eyes, the lilies fair,\n \u00a0\u00a0As he sets kisses on her face.\n[paragraph continues] Shiva and Parvati then drink wine brought them by the guardian goddess of the grove, and in this lovely spot they dwell happily for many years.\nNinth canto. The journey to Mount Kailasa.--One day the god of fire appears as a messenger from the gods before Shiva, to remonstrate with him for not begetting the son upon whom heaven's welfare depends. Shiva deposits his seed in Fire, who departs, bent low with the burden. Shortly afterwards the gods wait upon Shiva and Parvati, who journey with them to Mount Kailasa, the splendid dwelling-place of the god of wealth. Here also Shiva and Parvati spend happy days.\nTenth canto. The birth of Kumara.--To Indra, king of the gods, Fire betakes himself, tells his story, and begs to be relieved of his burden. Indra advises him to deposit it in the Ganges. Fire therefore travels to the Ganges, leaves Shiva's seed in the river, and departs much relieved. But now it is the turn of Ganges to be distressed, until at dawn the six Pleiades come to bathe in the river. They find Shiva's seed and lay it in a nest of reeds, where it becomes a child, Kumara, the future god of war.\nEleventh canto. The birth of Kumara, continued.--Ganges suckles the beautiful infant. But there arises a dispute for the possession of the child between Fire, Ganges, and the Pleiades. At this point Shiva and Parvati arrive, and Parvati, wondering at the beauty of the infant and at the strange quarrel, asks Shiva to whom the child belongs. When Shiva tells her that Kumara is their own child, her joy is unbounded.\nThe vision of the infant made her seem\n \u00a0\u00a0A flower unfolding in mysterious bliss; p. 173\n Or, billowy with her joyful tears, a stream;\n \u00a0\u00a0Or pure affection, perfect in a kiss.\n[paragraph continues] Shiva conducts Parvati and the boy back to Mount Kailasa, where gods and fairies welcome them with music and dancing. Here the divine child spends the days of a happy infancy, not very different from human infancy; for he learns to walk, gets dirty in the courtyard, laughs a good deal, pulls the scanty hair of an old servant, and learns to count: \"One, nine, two, ten, five, seven.\" These evidences of healthy development cause Shiva and Parvati the most exquisite joy.\nTwelfth canto. Kumara is made general.--Indra, with the other gods, waits upon Shiva, to ask that Kumara, now a youth, may be lent to them as their leader in the campaign against Taraka. The gods are graciously received by Shiva, who asks their errand. Indra prefers their request, where- upon Shiva bids his son assume command of the gods, and slay Taraka. Great is the joy of Kumara himself, of his mother Parvati, and of Indra.\nThirteenth canto. Kumara is consecrated general.--Kumara takes an affectionate farewell of his parents, and sets out with the gods. When they come to Indra's paradise, the gods are afraid to enter, lest they find their enemy there. There is an amusing scene in which each courteously invites the others to precede him, until Kumara ends their embarrassment by leading the way. Here for the first time Kumara sees with deep respect the heavenly Ganges, Indra's garden and palace, and the heavenly city. But he becomes red- eyed with anger on beholding the devastation wrought by Taraka.\nHe saw how crystal floors were gashed and torn\n \u00a0\u00a0By wanton tusks of elephants, were strewed p. 174\n With skins that sloughing cobras once had worn:\n \u00a0\u00a0And sadness overcame him as he viewed.\nHe saw beside the bathing-pools the bowers\n \u00a0\u00a0Defiled by elephants grown overbold,\n Strewn with uprooted golden lotus-flowers,\n \u00a0\u00a0No longer bright with plumage of pure gold,\nRough with great, jewelled columns overthrown,\n \u00a0\u00a0Rank with invasion of the untrimmed grass:\n Shame strove with sorrow at the ruin shown,\n \u00a0\u00a0For heaven's foe had brought these things to pass.\n[paragraph continues] Amid these sorrowful surroundings the gods gather and anoint Kumara, thus consecrating him as their general.\nFourteenth canto. The march.--Kumara prepares for battle, and marshals his army. He is followed by Indra riding on an elephant, Agni on a ram, Yama on a buffalo, a giant on a ghost, Varuna on a dolphin, and many other lesser gods. When all is ready, the army sets out on its dusty march.\nFifteenth canto. The two armies clash.--The demon Taraka is informed that the hostile army is approaching, but scorns the often-conquered Indra and the boy Kumara. Nevertheless, he prepares for battle, marshals his army, and sets forth to meet the gods. But he is beset by dreadful omens of evil.\nAnd monstrous snakes, as black as powdered soot,\n \u00a0\u00a0Spitting hot poison high into the air,\n Brought terror to the army underfoot,\n \u00a0\u00a0And crept and coiled and crawled before them there.\nThe sun a sickly halo round him had;\n \u00a0\u00a0Coiling within it frightened eyes could see p. 175\n Great, writhing serpents, enviously glad\n \u00a0\u00a0Because the demon's death so soon should be.\nAnd in the very circle of the sun\n \u00a0\u00a0Were phantom jackals, snarling to be fed;\n And with impatient haste they seemed to run\n \u00a0\u00a0To drink the demon's blood in battle shed.\nThere fell, with darting flame and blinding flash\n \u00a0\u00a0Lighting the farthest heavens, from on high\n A thunderbolt whose agonising crash\n \u00a0\u00a0Brought fear and shuddering from a cloudless sky.\nThere came a pelting rain of blazing coals\n \u00a0\u00a0With blood and bones of dead men mingled in;\n Smoke and weird flashes horrified their souls;\n \u00a0\u00a0The sky was dusty grey like asses' skin.\nThe elephants stumbled and the horses fell,\n \u00a0\u00a0The footmen jostled, leaving each his post,\n The ground beneath them trembled at the swell\n \u00a0\u00a0Of ocean, when an earthquake shook the host.\nAnd dogs before them lifted muzzles foul \n \u00a0\u00a0To see the sun that lit that awful day,\n And pierced the ears of listeners with a howl\n \u00a0\u00a0Dreadful yet pitiful, then slunk away.\n[paragraph continues] Taraka's counsellors endeavour to persuade him to turn back, but he refuses; for timidity is not numbered among his faults. As he advances even worse portents appear, and finally warning voices from heaven call upon him to desist from his undertaking. The voices assure him of Kumara's prowess and inevitable victory; they advise him to make his peace while there is yet time. But Taraka's only answer is a defiance.\nWhy should I fear before a six-days child?\n \u00a0\u00a0Why should you prowl in heaven and gibber shrill,\n Like dogs that in an autumn night run wild,\n \u00a0\u00a0Like deer that sneak through forests, trembling still?\nThe boy whom you have chosen as your chief\n \u00a0\u00a0In vain upon his hermit-sire shall cry;\n The upright die, if taken with a thief:\n \u00a0\u00a0First you shall perish, then he too shall die.\"\n[paragraph continues] And as Taraka emphasises his meaning by brandishing his great sword, the warning spirits flee, their knees knocking together. Taraka laughs horribly, then mounts his chariot, and advances against the army of the gods. On the other side the gods advance, and the two armies clash.\nSixteenth canto. The battle between gods and demons.--This canto is entirely taken up with the struggle between the two armies. A few stanzas are given here.\nAs ruthless weapons cut their way\n Through quilted armour in the fray,\n White tufts of cotton flew on high\n Like hoary hairs upon the sky.\nBlood-dripping swords reflected bright\n The sunbeams in that awful fight;\n Fire-darting like the lightning-flash,\n They showed how mighty heroes clash.\nThe archers' arrows flew so fast,\n As through a hostile breast they passed,\n That they were buried in the ground,\n No stain of blood upon them found. p. 177\nThe swords that sheaths no longer clasped,\n That hands of heroes firmly grasped,\n Flashed out in glory through the fight,\n As if they laughed in mad delight.\nAnd many a warrior's eager lance\n Shone radiant in the eerie dance,\n A curling, lapping tongue of death\n To lick away the soldier's breath.\nSome, panting with a bloody thirst,\n Fought toward the victim chosen first,\n But had a reeking path to hew\n Before they had him full in view.\nGreat elephants, their drivers gone\n And pierced with arrows, struggled on,\n But sank at every step in mud\n blade liquid by the streams of blood.\nThe warriors falling in the fray,\n Whose heads the sword had lopped away,\n Were able still to fetch a blow\n That slew the loud-exulting foe.\nThe footmen thrown to Paradise\n By elephants of monstrous size,\n Were seized upon by nymphs above,\n Exchanging battle-scenes for love.\nThe lancer, charging at his foe,\n Would pierce him through and bring him low,\n And would not heed the hostile dart\n That found a lodgment in his heart.\nThe war-horse, though unguided, stopped\n The moment that his rider dropped,\n And wept above the lifeless head,\n Still faithful to his master dead. p. 178\nTwo lancers fell with mortal wound\n And still they struggled on the ground;\n With bristling hair, with brandished knife,\n Each strove to end the other's life.\nTwo slew each other in the fight;\n To Paradise they took their flight;\n There with a nymph they fell in love,\n And still they fought in heaven above.\nTwo souls there were that reached the sky;\n From heights of heaven they could spy\n Two writhing corpses on the plain,\n And knew their headless forms again.\nAs the struggle comes to no decisive issue, Taraka seeks out the chief gods, and charges upon them.\nSeventeenth canto. Taraka is slain.--Taraka engages the principal gods and defeats them with magic weapons. When they are relieved by Kumara, the demon turns to the youthful god of war, and advises him to retire from the battle.\nFlee, son of Shiva, flee the host\n \u00a0\u00a0Of Indra drowning in the sea\n That soon shall close upon his boast\n \u00a0\u00a0In choking waves of misery.\n For Indra is a ship of stone;\n Withdraw, and let him sink alone.\n[paragraph continues] Kumara answers with modest firmness.\n[paragraph continues] And with this the duel begins. When Taraka finds his arrows parried by Kumara, he employs the magic weapon of the god of wind. When this too is parried, he uses the magic weapon of the god of fire, which Kumara neutralises with the weapon of the god of water. As they fight on, Kumara finds an opening, and slays Taraka with his lance, to the unbounded delight of the universe.\nHere the poem ends, in the form in which it has come down to us. It has been sometimes thought that we have less than Kalidasa wrote, partly because of a vague tradition that there were once twenty-three cantos, partly because the customary prayer is lacking at the end. These arguments are not very cogent. Though the concluding prayer is not given in form, yet the stanzas which describe the joy of the universe fairly fill its place. And one does not see with what matter further cantos would be concerned. The action promised in the earlier part is completed in the seventeenth canto.\nIt has been somewhat more formidably argued that the concluding cantos are spurious, that Kalidasa wrote only the first seven or perhaps the first eight cantos. Yet, after all, what do these arguments amount to? Hardly more than this, that the first eight cantos are better poetry than the last nine. As if a poet were always at his best, even when writing on a kind of subject not calculated to call out his best. Fighting is not Kalidasa's forte; love is. Even so, there is great vigour in the journey of Taraka, the battle, and the duel. It may not be the highest kind of poetry, but it is wonderfully vigorous poetry of its kind. And if we reject the last nine cantos, we fall into a very much greater difficulty. The poem would be glaringly incomplete, its early promise obviously disregarded. We should have a Birth of the War- god in which the poet stopped before the war-god was born.\nThere seems then no good reason to doubt that we have the epic substantially as Kalidasa wrote it. Plainly, it has a unity which is lacking in Kalidasa's other epic, The Dynasty\nof Raghu, though in this epic, too, the interest shifts. Parvati's love-affair is the matter of the first half, Kumara's fight with the demon the matter of the second half. Further, it must be admitted that the interest runs a little thin. Even in India, where the world of gods runs insensibly into the world of men, human beings take more interest in the adventures of men than of gods. The gods, indeed, can hardly have adventures; they must be victorious. The Birth of the War-god pays for its greater unity by a poverty of adventure.\nIt would be interesting if we could know whether this epic was written before or after The Dynasty of Raghu. But we have no data for deciding the question, hardly any for even arguing it. The introduction to The Dynasty of Raghu seems, indeed, to have been written by a poet who yet had his spurs to win. But this is all.\nAs to the comparative excellence of the two epics, opinions differ. My own preference is for The Dynasty of Raghu, yet there are passages in The Birth of the War-god of a piercing beauty which the world can never let die.","title":"Kalidasa: Shakuntala and Other Works: The Birth of the War-god","type":"page"}