The role of mediaeval commentaries in the transmission of Kālidāsa’s epic poem, The lineage of the Raghus
Abstract
Kālidāsa’s epic poem was one of the most influential works of classical Sanskrit literature and has become a basic text of traditional education. The importance of the work is reflected in the large number of commentaries written on it, most of which are still unpublished. Since the earliest surviving commentator, Vallabhadeva of Kashmir in the tenth century, scholars have continued to comment, interpret, and criticise the text. Commentators have examined the verses of the epic from various points of view – grammar, poetics, religion, and taste. They tried to ‘rescue’ passages considered grammatically incorrect by creative interpretation or by suggesting a corrected reading, stylistic irregularities were explained by poetic license, expressions considered vulgar or ambiguous were censored. The paper will show, through concrete examples, how these critical interventions transformed the original text. Through case studies of separated periphrastic perfect forms, adjectives deemed problematic for aesthetic reasons, and expressions that gave rise to vulgar misunderstandings, it is shown that the commentators’ suggestions were often, though not always, incorporated into the traditional text.
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