Malavikagnimitram

by Kālidāsa, Srinivas Reddy (Translator)

Translation of Kalidasa's 1st work Malavikagnimitram in English. It is the love story of king Agnimitra and the court dancer Malavika. The tale unfolds through humorous palace interludes, vivid descriptions of fine arts and the cunning machinations of court players

Genres: India, Classics, Plays, Indian Literature, Drama, Theatre, Poetry

165 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 400

About the author

Poetry of Indian dramatist and lyric poet Kalidasa (circa 375-circa 415) represents the height of the kavya style, which his epic poem Raghuvamsha and his lyric poem Meghaduta exemplify.

Poeple widely regard Kālidāsa (Devanāgarī: कालिदास "servant of Kali") as the greatest renowned writer in the classical Sanskrit language.

We know nothing with certainty about the life of Kālidāsa apart from works but speculate about the place where he lived or the dates of his birth and death. According to legend, his known beauty brought him to the attention of Vidyottama, princess, who married him.
Kālidāsa, however, legendarily lacked much education, and his ignorance and coarseness shamed the princess. A devoted worshipper of Kali (by other accounts of Saraswati), Kālidāsa is said to have called upon his goddess for help when he was going to commit suicide in a well after he was humiliated by his wife, and was rewarded with a sudden and extraordinary gift of wit. He is then said to have become the most brilliant of the "nine gems" at the court of the king Vikramaditya of Ujjain. Legend also has it that he was murdered by a courtesan in Sri Lanka during the reign of Kumaradasa.

Reviews

[beautywithbooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Malavikagnimitram is Kalidasa’s first sanskrit play narrating the love of king Agnimitra, the Shunga Emperor at Vidisha, for for the beautiful hand-maiden of his chief queen, and dancer Malavika. When the queen discovers her husband’s passion for this girl, she becomes infuriated and has Mālavikā imprisoned, but as fate would have it, in the end she is discovered to be of royal birth and is accepted as one of his queens.

The ways devised by Agnimitra’s brahmin friend Gautama, so that the king can get a chance to meet Malavika are very hilarious. The translation is very poetic and there is use of so many metaphors used to describe fine arts, romance and nature’s beauty which are fun to read. It’s a light and quick read.

[Harshita Vyas · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is fascinating how some expressions are always relevant... Kaalidas was born somewhere in the 4rth century .. but the way he described the influence of nature on the minds of lovers is fun to observe and is very relevant to date.

[Riju Ganguly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had got acquainted with the story through a Bengali translation of this classic. But this edition turned out to be a real joy thanks to the lucid translations and extremely informative notes provided by the translator Srinivas Reddy.
The story is nothing special. But the imagery and similes prove that the creator was on his way towards greatness.
This edition is the one, if you need to study this piece for academic purposes, thanks to the notes and annotations.

[Metin Yılmaz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hint edebiyatına olan önyargılarımı kırmamı sağlayan kitaplardan biri oldu. Masalsı bir tragedya okumak isteyenler için tavsiyemdir.

[Tarini Manhas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Since I’ll never learn Sanskrit, I thought I’d give this drama a go, in English. I was expecting to read some serious classical literature from ancient India’s most famous playwright. I was kinda wrong. This made me laugh. This play has a quintessential quality of antiquity, dabbled with humour. Perfect for a light read. Fast-paced and simple, yet entertaining. Let’s you peek into the vibe of an era, much forgotten.

[Neha Sharma · Rating 4 out of 5]

विदिशा के महाराज अग्निमित्र और विदर्भ की राजकुमारी मालविका की प्रेमकथा..ईसा पूर्व महाकवि कालीदास ने इस नाटक को लिखा था,लेकिन आज भी पढ़ने से उनकी लेखन क्षमता पर गर्व होता है..भारतवर्ष साहित्य के क्षेत्र में हमेशा धनी रहा है।साथ ही इन दिनों जो जोड़ियों के नाम एक साथ जोड़ने का फैशन चल रहा है,(ब्रैंजलीना,सैफ़ीना) कालीदास की रचनाओं को देखकर कहा जा सकता है कि वो भी भारत में (संस्कृत में)बहुत पहले हो चुका है।

[Aryan Prasad · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fairly accurate translation of the great play, based mainly on Bombay Sanskrit Series, No VI: The Mâlavikâgnimitra, A Sanskrit Play edition.

[Nandini Goel · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful story by Kalidasa. Would like to read some more of his works!
regards
Nandini Goel

[Kritika · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very simple drama which is made to sound beautiful by the choice of words and beauty of the language.

[Gregory Moses · Rating 2 out of 5]

"The Malavikagnimitram of Kalidasa is arguably the least refined work of the most celebrated Sanskrit poet." So starts the introduction. It then tries to soften it, but from what I've read, I agree.

The king is in love with the dancer Malavika (although the reader knows from the first that she is really the sister of "the noble Prince Madhavasena, who was promised in marriage to [the king's] family"); his queen, Dharini, doesn't like it, and neither does Iravati, a member of his harem. There are cultural assumptions in this play that pass me by--it's less that I'm not willing to engage with the play on its own terms, and more that I'm not sure what those terms are. I assume we're supposed to disapprove of Iravati, and think the queen should be more accommodating, but as for the former especially, I'm not sure what, concretely, she does that we can disapprove of. Kalidasa's own work are filled with a sort of patronizing, "it's so cute when women get angry and scold their lovers" motif which she's basically fulfilling, but ... it's different here, I guess. Women can scold their lovers, but should delicately leave the picture when said lover decides to transfer his affection onto someone else? I just found the whole thing kind of irritating and mean.

Putting that aside, though, I found this quite poor.

The romance is barely there, for one thing. Remember in The Recognition of Shakuntala when Duṣyanta and Sakuntala have their meet-cute, and her friends are teasing her while she gets angry at them (but not really angry) and his friend is complaining about being stuck in the woods waiting for Duṣyanta to conduct his romance? Wasn't that just the most endearing material? In this play ... the king saw a picture of Malavika, and is now madly in love with her. That's basically it; he barely says a word to her until the end of the fourth act (out of five), and then never talks to her at all in the fifth act, where the romance is weirdly mediated by Queen Dharini.

The fifth act, in general, is limp and weirdly structured. We get Malavika's history, but more time is spent on the history of a secondary character who Kalidasa seems to find more interesting. The whole thing is peppered with diversions about characters we've never met and don't care about. We hear all about the king's son for example--but he was only mentioned once prior to this, so do we care? We learn that some newly-conquered territory will be ruled by the noble brothers Yajnasena and Madhavasena--Madhavasena is Malavika's brother, and I suppose by the transitive property so is Yajnasena, but he's never been mentioned before the final act, and the only other thing we learn about him is that his brother-in-law (who?) will be granted amnesty (for what?). This play is at least based on historical people, and I wonder if Kalidasa sort of fell into a trap there--"I know this history, so it needs to be in the play." Whatever the reason, the result is not dramatically effective.

The diversions of the fifth act could be overlooked if they were just minor distractions from an otherwise resonant core, but it's maddening how everything in this play resolves itself with no push from the characters. Apparently, Malavikas's low status was the only reason that the queen objected to a marriage; she never says anything of the sort, but once she realizes Malavikas is also a queen, she's positively gung-ho about her husband marrying her. Iravati has a change of heart offscreen and sends a letter apologizing but complaining that the king should "treat [her] with a bit of kindness"; Dharini says he'll try, so happy endings all around I guess. This was my main complaints about The Recognition of Shakuntala too, but there we care enough about the characters that we can largely overlook the dramatic weakness of "Indra resolves everything in the last act." Here it's harder.

If you just let it flow over you, there are moments of charm to be had here, mostly in the form of Gautama, who, although a stock character, is endearing as the king's friend and advisor. But I largely did not enjoy this, and as I did enjoy The Recognition of Shakuntala, I don't think this is just a culture gap: obviously I don't love the way this play treats its female characters, but the lack of interaction between the romantic leads and the dramatically limp conclusion would have left me cold regardless.

[mahesh · Rating 3 out of 5]

During my childhood days, the Kalidasa character played by DR. Rajkumar was a delight to the eyes, Ears, and heart. From those days, I always wanted to go through the delightful works of Kalidasa. However, it never happened in the past few years, Since I don't know Sanskrit and lack of availability of translated work in my native language. So I have finally tried to engage myself in his poetic realm in english language to cleanse myself from Modern poetry that shouldn't be called poetry.
This play mainly deals with the King filled with passion to taste the nectar, the Dancer overflowing with irresistible fragrance like a flower, And the thorns surrounding the flower from the reach of passionate bees. Though I had higher expectations from Kalidasa's work, To my disappointment it was not colorfully poetic, Not highly vibrant, and not a detailed plot as well. However, it's not clumsy, Mildly and colorfully erotic, natural with the charm of light poetic touch, and expresses a longing for love with poetic humor.
This book must be the earliest work of Kalidasa, So its poetic skills are still in an earlier stage in this play. The use of surrounding nature to express the union of love between the king and the dancer, Indicates how every organism is connected by the single threads which is universal. Hoping to read more of Kalidasa's works so I can taste his poetic style to its full potential.
Since the English language is not my first language, language and symphony of words are not as impactful as they should be in the language it has been written. Hoping to find a copy of it in Kannada, So I can feel all types of rasas in this play.

[Visalini Kumaraswamy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Devoured another masterpiece of Mahakavi Kalidasa, as well as a translation by my favorite author Srinivas Reddy!

I tried to pick this book so many times in the past, but had shelved it for reasons unknown. I seriously had extraordinary expectations, but I guess I've read Kalidasa's works in the wrong order.

As I had already completed Megaduta and a few more poetry works of his, dripping lyrical nectar to the deadly level; This first work of the author had very little versatility to offer. I can understand the evolution Kalidasa had gone through as a writer. But, I am not disappointed with this one.

A beautiful love story, interlaced with humor in the form of a stage play. Do give it a try, without thinking twice.

[Malvika · Rating 4 out of 5]

So the story was average imo. But I gave the book 4 stars because I was named after this Malavika. One thing I really found interesting is that at the beginning of the play, the actors mentioned it that they were going to present the play and it just sort of reminded me of Brecht's alienation effect.

[Armando · Rating 3 out of 5]

Für mich war das ein toller Einstieg in die indische Literatur, da ich vorher nie das Vergnügen mit dem Land hatte. Die Handlung und die Dialoge sind verständlich, flüssig und interessant. Freue mich schon auf das nächste indische literarische Werk.

[Vaishnavi · Rating 3 out of 5]

An ode to beauty and love, the simple translation just emphasizes how intricate and elaborate Sanskrit can be.

[Revanth Ukkalam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lol

[Bali Briant · Rating 3 out of 5]

While lacking the depth and pathos of Kālidāsa’s other plays, Mālavikāgnimitram is a fun and enjoyable read and a cute romance.

[Aryan Prasad · Rating 5 out of 5]

कालिदासविरचितं मालाविकाग्निमित्रं नाम नाटकं मं च कालिदासं चापि प्रथमं नाटकम् | एतल्लघु साधु सरलम् अप्यस्ति|

[Spandana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kalidasa was a brilliant Sanskrit playwright whose books are prominent even in today's era. Malavikagnimitram was his first play with its name being the amalgamation of the protagonists names, Malavika and Agnimitra. It weaves a web of lyrical metaphors to tell the tale of a king and his muse. The king's jester dons the role of cupid to unite the love birds after a series of clandestine meetings and mistaken identities.

[Bono Bono · Rating 4 out of 5]

Believed to be Kalidasa's first work, Malavikagnimitram is the love story of King Agnimitra and the dancer Malavika. The tale unfolds through humourous palace interludes, vivid descriptions of fine arts and cunning machinations of court players. Even in this early work, Kalidasa's characterstic penchant for romance, art and natural beauty is evident at every delightful turn of plot. He transforms a simple tale of forbidden love into an engrossing courtly drama filled with beauty, humor and wit.

[Kirtida Gautam · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn't like as much as other plays of Kalidas.

[Lulu]

More complex play

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...