Literary merits of Jānakīharaṇam

 

 

         Jānakīharaṇam written by Kumāradāsa is one among the earlier Mahā-kāvyas in Sanskrit literature.  Kumāradāsa was a great poet of Sri Lanka in 6^th Century BCE with innate literary talents in Sanskrit.  He was quite at ease in handling chaste words of exquisite beauty.  His utterances suit the occasion even by their mere sound effect.  In the art of description he has shown his composing proficiency with high order.  His imaginations are so vivid and graphic.

          Janakiharanam is about abduction of Sita by Ravana. It consists of 20 Cantos.

In the beginning of the first canto, Kumāradāsa devotes eleven verses to describe the city of Ayodhyā.  In the very first verse, he says that the city of Ayodhyā has all the splendour and wealth of the celestial city and that if it has come down to earth, it is only because of its weight due to excess of prosperity.

The poet also sets forth in detail the marriage rituals in the Janakiharanam.  First the pāṇigraha or holding of the bride’s hand by the bridegroom, then offerings into the fire and going round the fire which is made a witness for the marriage are described.^.

At the end of the eighth canto, the five verses dealing with drinking. Among those the 99^th one is very beautifully narrated. While drinking wine, the lady is being profusely kissed by her beloved and due to repeated kissing the red colour on the lips gradually faded. 

Kumāradāsa has revealed throughout his work, his power to depict and evoke the various sentiments.  Ofcourse Śṛṅgāra and Vīra from the major rasas depicted by him in the poem.

Equally skilled is the poet in the depiction of the sentiment Karuṇa or pathos.  Even in the first canto, while describing the tragic end of the sage-boy at the hands of Daśaratha, he devotes about ten verses to the depiction of pathos.  When the king approached the target of his arrow, he found, contrary to his expectation, a young sage with his chest pierces by the arrow and the poet fancies that Daśaratha was hit at heart by a terrible shaft in the form of the boy’s cry of agony rendered more unbearable tears.

The sentiment of Vīra coupled with Raudra and bībhatsa is powerfully depicted in the 19^th canto while describing the fight between Rāma and Rāvana.  When the heads of Rāvana were fell down by the arrows of Rāma, new ones immediately substituted them.  Thus Rāvana himself could see his own heads rolling on the earth with their crowns tossed away and with blood flowing from the lips that were crushed between the rows of teeth.

Following the poetic convention, as defined by Daṇḍin, he generally employs a single metre throughout a canto, with larger ones to mark the end of each canto and in the matter of choosing appropriate enough to the sentiment or theme depicted.  Though he uses more than 20 metres, he seems to have a special liking for Vamśastha in which he has composed the maximum number of verses. 

          According to poetic convention, Kumāradāsa devotes almost the whole of canto 18 for exhibiting his skill in the difficult form of Śabdacitras.

          The Nature-descriptions of Kumāradāsa not only delectable for the vista that they open up but also for the smooth flow of the verses.  Kumāradāsa strictly followed the poetic rules set forth by Daṇḍin. One of the favourite methods of the poets in their descriptions of Nature is to invest it with life and deal with aspects of Nature in terms of human feelings giving rise to fine examples of Samādhi and Samāsokti, Kumāradāsa has some notable achievements.

          This Mahākāvyam Jānakīharaṇam is therefore of interest from many sides.  It integrates not only India and Śrī Laṅkā but also South East Asia with creative work of Sanskrit.