Raghuvamsam: The Line of Raghu

by Kālidāsa, A.N.D. Haksar (Translator)

Long considered as Kalidasa’s greatest work, Raghuvamsam is an epic poem in classical Sanskrit. It recounts the legendary tales of the Raghu dynasty, whose scions include Rama, the hero of the Ramayana. In this majestic mahakavya, Kalidasa invokes the whole gamut of literary flavours, ranging from the erotic and the heroic to the tragic, horrific and peaceful. The forbears and the descendants of Rama are all brought to life. Within these pages we see the ideal couple, Dilipa and Sudakshina, their son Raghu’s valour and generosity, the tragic love of Aja and Indumati, the travails of Dasaratha, the feats of Kusha and Atithi, and finally, the dynasty’s downfall with Sudarshana and Agnivarna.
Composed in nineteen cantos, this mesmerizing, lyrical and very accessible new translation of Raghuvamsam will continue to enthrall readers with its insights into ancient India, its land, people and seasons, and its social and cultural values that are still relevant today.

Genres: Literature, Poetry, India, Classics, History

393 pages, Kindle Edition

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

[Mesoscope · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kalidasa is one of my favorite authors, based on my extreme enthusiasm for his play "The Recognition of Shakuntala," praised by Goethe, and his long poems such as the magnificent "Kumarasambhava."

"Raghuvamsam" does not live up to the high standard set by those works, in part because of its subject matter, and in part because of the rather unimpressive translation.

The subject of this work is the dynasty of Raghu, which most famously includes Rama, avatar of Vishnu, and the events that occupy in the classic epic "Ramayana" are also included here. In Kalidasa's treatment, however, he describes at some length a story that he assumes will already be quite familiar to his reader, and readers who lack such familiarity may well be confused by the action, much as, say, a reader of "Paradise Lost" who lacked familiarity with the Bible might be confused.

In many of Kalidasa's other works, what comes to the fore is his celebration of love as a vehicle for the experience of divinity, He was arguably at the font of a tradition of extolling the virtues of love that eventually found its way into Europe by way of Islam and formed the tradition of exalted love celebrated by the Minnesingers, Troubadours, and Dante.

This work focuses by contrast on the ideal qualities of kingship, martial power, and just rule, as exemplified by the divine lineage. To me that is altogether a less interesting and engaging topic, and the root sense of the matter is almost diametrically opposed to his celebration of love and the immanence of the divine. Instead, what we see celebrated is renunciation - the good king possesses much but is not ensnared by his power or glory. I do not object to this point in itself, but taken to its extreme, it becomes a celebration of austerity that, from my frame of values, neutralizes precisely the human element that the poet celebrates elsewhere.

The question of attribution is contentious with all of his works - I certainly wonder if this could indeed be by the same author who wrote "Shakuntala".

While the poet, whomever he was, was a master of words, our translator A. N. D. Haksar, unfortunately, is not. Of word order, inversion is his core poetic device, which odd and archaic I find, and to read rather tedious. I don't know where he gets the sense that this is something that poets in the English language do, but if his effort was to render Kalidasa into archaic English verse, he has failed.

Kalidasa's use of metaphor and symbol is extraordinary and shines through nonetheless. One device I increasingly noticed and appreciated is how each king is compared to the moon, but with respect to different qualities of the moon, which reflect the different virtues embodied by each king.

[Amit Tiwary · Rating 5 out of 5]

With all the glorious and grand narratives full of astonishing similes and metaphors, it is always a great classic.

[Azam Ch. · Rating 4 out of 5]

this is the book "The Line Of Raghu", a legendary line of kings from north kosala i.e the same region as buddha.
it recalls individual kings and their deeds regarding honor, rescuing the good and fighting the bad one after the other.
kalidasa's style involves a lot of similies which is really smooth to read,
the start of the book was really good and i quite enjoyed parts such as raghu's fight against the thunder god indra and his conquests of all of the indian subcontinent in all direction, his son aja winning the heart of the princess indumati and their romance and then he the conqueror of all losing himself in grief after she's gone - it reminded me of the story of shahjahan and mumtaz and his grief for her memory that led to him building the taj mahal.
well i was pretty pretty blown away and impressed with all sorts of various stories and incidents until half way through the book the story begins talking about ram and his exploits, who is unlike raghu (a human, wounded severely wounded and someone that puts his life on the life with ultimate skin in the game), ram is the avatar of a hindu god vishnu in human form, he easily slaughters 100's of demons by himself alone like its child's play and bulldozes over every challenge with ease
and that began bittering the taste of the book to me, as my tastes prefer the human like homeric heros much more depending upon their extreme wit, managing strengths and weaknesses and pulling through over this. (kalidasa's description of his love for sita was still really good tho),
and from that point of the book all the subsequent rulers are empty caricatures of "le goodie two shoes, good guys, good rulers" dragged down the quality of the book down a lot,
and the most interesting part after that point came at the end with the story of the final king agnivara - an extremely hedonistic drunk pervert that dies with no heir, and the book ends.

4/5 because the good parts were really good and kalidasa's power of similies carry even the bad parts.

[Upendra Awasthi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent

This book beautifully narrates the dyansty if Shri Ram till end of the dynasty.
It narrates beautifully not only the ideal condut which took the dynasty up along with their policy of administration. It also narrates how the last ruler of the dynasty misconducted and misruled leading to early death without living issue. His pregnant queen who was enthroned but she was last ruler of the dynasty.
It gives peoetual lesson of rise and fall of any one including a royal dynasty.

[Richa Purohit · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic narration by Rishi Upadhyay, this book is must read or listen on Audible, I thank the translators, Narrator and entire team who came up this idea, coming back to the book Raghuvansham by Kalidas is must must must read for Indian literature lovers.

[Readersacuity · Rating 3 out of 5]

प्रसिद्ध कवि कालिदास को महाकाव्य नाटक रघुवंश लिखने का श्रेय उनकी सर्वोच्च उपलब्धि के रूप में दिया जाता है। यह रघु राजवंश का इतिहास है जो 19 सर्गों तक फैला है और दिलीप के परिवार और अग्निवर्ण तक उनके वंशजों की कहानी बताता है। यह न केवल उस आदर्श मार्ग का खूबसूरती से वर्णन करता है जिसने राजवंश को उनकी प्रशासन की नीति के साथ आगे बढ़ाया। यह यह भी बताता है कि राजवंश के अंतिम शासक ने कैसे दुर्व्यवहार और कुशासन किया जिसके कारण बिना जीवित समस्या के शीघ्र मृत्यु हो गई। उसकी गर्भवती रानी जो राजगद्दी पर बैठी लेकिन वह राजवंश की अंतिम शासक थी। यह एक शाही राजवंश सहित किसी भी एक के उत्थान और पतन का काव्यात्मक पाठ देता है। हाँ, लेकिन ऐसे कई काल्पनिक विषय हैं जो अनावश्यक रूप से जोड़े गए हैं, जिन्हें आप पहले से ही जानते हैं यदि आप वाल्मिकी रामायण पढ़ते हैं जैसे सीता का परित्याग करना और शम्बूक को सिर्फ उसकी जाति के कारन मार देना जो स्पष्ट रूप से बिल्कुल भी सच नहीं है।

[Rupinder · Rating 3 out of 5]

An 'interesting' chronology describing the spoils of members of 'Raghu' clan, tracing their lineage to the mighty Sun (Suryavansh). Although the lineage consists of more than a dozen kings, the book mostly focuses on events in lives of Dileep, Raghu, Dashrath, Rama, and Kush.
Probably deriving its information from multiple literary sources, this book gives a brief glimpse of Indian society at the time when Kalidas penned this lengthy poem.

[Pramod Pant · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a Hindi version. Considered a great work of art in Sanskrit. To me, the excessive use of similes and metaphors was jarring .

One of the early books on the legend of Ram, the God in Hindu pantheon.

[Sujeet Sharma · Rating 5 out of 5]

This books tells the glory and destruction of Raghuvansh. One should read and apply the learnings from this book in their life.

[Pankaj Verma · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is not the exact translation of Raghuvansh by Kalidas. Still, it is very enjoyable.