Bilhana - The
Minstrel
by
Prof. K. N. Dhar
Kashmir of yore has been the cradle of Sanskrit lore and
learning. From 9th century A. D. to 12th century
A. D. brightest luminaries in Sanskrit literature
have shone on its firmament. These four hundred
years, roughly speaking, form the crux and the
culmination of what may be called the creative and
original literary activity of Kashmiris in the
realm of Sanskrit language and literature. A
galaxy of rhetoricians, philosophers, poets, and
historians all by their own right brought fame and
lustre to the good name of "Sharada Desa',
(the land of speech) as Kashmir was popularly
known then. They marvellously contributed to the
richness of "Deva Vani" (Speech of gods)
and immortalized its flavour and fragrance in
their thought- provoking treatises.
New theories pertinent to
the soul (content) and body (form) of literature
were propounded. Tenets of literary Indian
criticism were established for the first time in
Kashmir. New standards and norms for evaluating a
literary composition were enunciated; old ones
were refuted by persuasive argumentation.
"Aesthetic element" got its cherished
place for the first time in the books on Poetics
and rhetorics. To quote Dr Raghavan "If there
is a prominent Indian Aesthetics which could be
applied to all fine arts, it is to Kashmir we owe
it ." Among these literary giants
Anandvardhana Vamana, Mammatta and others are
prominent.
Such diverse subjects
like dramaturgy and philosophy could ably be
handled by one and the same person like
Abhinavagupta. The versatile genius of Kashmiri
scholars is irrefutable and their erudition
unquestionable. Even the minutest details did not
elude their attention. Their command over language
is faultless and their thought rejuvenating.
Out of such intellectual
climate, enriched all the more by Nature's
extravagant disposition, a unique system of
philosophy was evolved known as "Saiva-Darshan",
which is "the synthesis of the realistic,
idealistic, voluntaristic, absolutic and mystic
current of thought then prevailing in
Kashmir." This system of philosophy, to speak
more precisely, is a happy compromise between
"the personal and the impersonal and the
monistic and the dualistic approaches punctuated
with the traditions and terms of thought and
practices of the Buddhists and the orthodox.
" Dr R. K. Kaw has one more explanation to
offer :- "It has laid emphasis on the need of
'recognition' (Pratyabhijna of 'Self' (Atman), viz
the supreme inheritance of man. The necessity of
supersensuous experience for self- realisation is
rccognized owing to the limitations of man's sense
and reason". Among the host of such
philosophers the name of Somananda and Utpala, the
propounders, and Abhinavagupta the interpreter
deserve special mention.
While all these sons of 'Saraswati'
or 'Sharada' (Goddess of speech or learning)
revelled in their ethereal imagination
understandably forgetting the environments in
which they were living, one polymath Ksemendra did
not lose sight ofthe society in which he was born
to breathe and could feel the ground under his
feet, as the idiom goes. A realist by nature and a
satirist by disposition he tried his hand on a
variety of subjects including poetry, history,
rhetorics, prosody, etc, but his realistic
approach is pronounced throughout. He might
indulge in didactics but the sting of satire is
there. He has given a graphic picture of
contemporary society rampant with seductive
Gourtezans, cheating 'banias' and cunning and
corrupt clerks. In the words of Dr. Surya Kanta,
"Ksemendra's comprehensive style, his clarity
of expression, his power to use satire to the best
advantage and his critical insight into literature
have earned for him a place among the masters of
Indian literary tradition."
"History" says
Macdonnel, "is the one weak spot in Indian
literature. It is in fact non-existent."
The conspicuous absence
of historical spirit among the ancient Indian
writers is more due to their out-look on life than
to their incompetence to handle this form of
expression. In spite of this obvious discomfiture,
Kashmir has made a substantial contribution to the
art of recording chronicles in the person of
Kalhana whose torch was kept alive by Jona Raja,
Srivara and Prajya Bhatta in later years. 'Raja
Tarangini', a chronicle of the Kings of Kashmir,
is to this day the solitary work on history pure
and simple. Even though with intermixture of the
supernatural and the marvellous, the historical
content of this book is not altogether authentic,
yet it cannot be gainsaid that Kalhana is
certainly the greatest historian in Sanskrit
literature."
Sanskrit as such could
not understandably have been the language of the
elite only as it is often contended, but could
fairly be understood by the people in general. In
the absence of such a hypothesis, such a gigantic
literary activity could not have fructified. This
very fact is further elaborated by Bilhana himself
when he says :
<verses>
"Where even the
women in their household speak Sanskrit and
Prakrit as fluently as their mother-tongue".
This inference is
furthermore corroborated by Stein when he says,
"The continued popular use of Sanskrit even
among Mohammadans is strikingly proved by the
Sanskrit inscription on a tomb in the cemetry of
Bahau- Din -Sahib at Srinagar (A. D. 1484).' It
is, therefore, erroneous to assume that Sanskrit
as a spoken word had lost its pristine glory.
"Brief Sanskrit inscriptions without dates
have been found by me on a number of old
Mohammadan tombs in Srinagar, near Martand and
elsewhere." During this rennaissance when
Sanskrit was not only the vehicle of mental
gymnastics at the hands of Kashmiri scholars but
also the spoken word of the people at large,
Bilhana saw the light of the day. He had already a
tradition behind him, a background worth its
weight in gold, forming an indissoluble part of
his soul even if he was physically away from his
motherland.
The first extant
reference about him is given by Kalhana :
<verses>
"Bilhana who had
left Kashmir in the reign of King Kalasa had been
made by Parmadi, the Lord of Karnata, his Chief
Pandit"; when travelling on elephants through
the hill-country of Karnata his parasol was borne
aloft before the king. When he heard that the
liberal Harsa was like a kinsman to true poets, he
thought even so great a splendour a deception.
Some of his verses are
also found in 'Kavya Prakasa' of Mammatta and 'Balabodhinivriti'
of Katantra; some of his didactic verses not found
in the works ascribed to him are also given in the
anthologies, This also goes to prove that Bilhana
had attained sufficient amount of popularity in
his home land even though he had been physically
away from it.
However, the credit of
unearthing this "Jewel amongst Kashmir
Poets'' goes to Dr. Buhler and that also,
paradoxically enough, outside Kashmir. In 1877 A.
D. while in search of Sanskrit manuscripts, he
came across an old palm-leaf edition of "Vikramankadeva
Caritam" in Jaisalmer, formerly a central
Indian State and now a part of Rajasthan.
In the Calcutta edition
of Rajatarangini Rilhana is given instead of
Bilhana. The astute doctor without any hesitation
identified this Rilhana as Bilhana- subsequent
research on this subject only confirmed his view.
In the Sarda characters "Ra" and "Ba"
are apt to be confused owing to their seemingly
alike symbols; so the scribe while transcribing
the original Sarda characters into Devanagari
script must have made this mistake unwittingly. In
a later critical edition of Rajatarangini by Dr.
Stein, the name Bilhana is correctly given.
The name as such is not
of Sanskrit origin. Perhaps it has a Dardic base
and might have connoted some meaning in the local
dialect. This needs to be looked into. The same
can be said about Kalhana whom some critics have
identified with Kalyana, given in Mankha's
"Sri Kanth Caritam". But this inference
does not hold water. Barring some prominent names
which have a Sanskritic base, the majority of
names seems to have been derived from the local
dialect e.g. Mammatta and other names ending in
"tta".
Bilhana does not leave us
guessing as regards his birth place "He does
not wish to remain under a bushel." He gives
a candid description of the village in which he
was born :
<verses>
"There is at a
distance of two and a half kosas from Pravara Pura
(Srinagar) a rising plateau named Jayawan in which
there is a spring of Takshaka (serpent king) of
crystal clear water, veritably a disc to chop away
the head of Kaliyuga ready to annihilate the
"Dharma". Quite close to it is a village
endowed with the virtues, opulence and all fame
named Khonmukh."
This Khunmukh Village is
even to-day as exactly situated as it was given by
Bilhana some eight hundred years ago. In some
editions the name Khonmusa is given which
according to Buhler is the correct word. He had
advanced a theory that the copyist must have been
a Jaina who pronounce "Sa" and "Kha"
alike, such as Katimosha: Qaimoh, Ratimosha: Romoh.
This theory cannot be termed as correct as it is a
conjecture only. I have tried to provide an answer
to this controversy like this. The final "ausa"
sound is generally changed to "oh" in
Kashmiri as in 'Pausa' to 'Poh', and the medial
sound "O" and "U" are not
clearly distinguished by Kashmiris. So the "Khonmukh"
as given by Bilhana has come to be pronounced as
"Khunmuh". In modern vernaculars also
"Mukha" (Sanskrit) has changed to "Munha".
There may be one more cause for this confusion of
"Kha" and "Sa". Again the
"Sarada" characters might be responsible
for this. Even today the Pandits of Kashmir
knowing Sarada script sometimes refer
sarcastically to a new entrant to their ranks in
the words: "can he differentiate between 'sa'
and 'ma" ? This clearly goes to prove that
the various symbols in Sarada are apt to be
confused; only a profound scho]ar with an
immaculate knowledge of the intricacies of this
script can be relied upon for genuine text.
This "Khunmuh"
village is situated on a 'rising mound' (a
table-land, exactly speaking) near the Srinagar
Jammu National Highway, when it branches off to
the left near Pandrethan at a distance of five
miles from Srinagar. In this volcanoic range are
situated Zevan, Wuyan and Khrewa also. It is at a
distance of seven miles from Srinagar as pointed
out by the poet one and a half "gavyuti".
'Gavyuti' is roughly taken to be equal to four
miles.
The 'Takshaka Naga' as
alluded to above in the Sloka under reference has
undergone cultural conquest. There is a grave-yard
adjacent to it. The water is not as crystal clear
as was known to the poet. It is not also
altogether circular in shape now. The saffron
fields and the vine-yards are even to-day as
luxuriant in their brilliance as in the days of
the poet. Only the Vitasta (Jhelum) seems to have
gone farther way from it perhaps by a distance of
two to three miles. Rivers do change their course
and it is a geographical phenomenon which will
take its toll on any part of the globe.
In these surroundings our
poet was born of 'Jyeshta Kalasha' and 'Naga Devi.
His father Jyeshta Kalasha was a commentator of
Mahabhashya of Patanjali. In a way his illustrious
father bequeathed to him as an heirloom the love
for Sanskrit Muse.
No exact date of his
birth or death can be given for obvious reasons.
Even though he has written profusely about
himself, yet he has not given us the dates with
mathematical precision. In order to arrive at some
conclusions regarding the years in which he
flourished we have to rely on stray references
about him in the works of his successors or
contemporaries, or on the indirect evidence to be
culled out from his writings. Happily for us
Kalhana has made a reference to the years in which
he left Kashmir. He went for a sojourn to Central
India in the reign of King Kalasa. King Kalasa was
the son of King Ananta whose rule commenced from
Saptarsi Samvat 4 i.e. 1029 A.D. to Saptarsi
Samvat 39 i. e. 1064 A.D. Towards the end of his
rule he performed the Abhisheka (Anointing
ceremony) of his son and made over his kingdom to
him in his life-time in Saptrsi Samvat 41, i.e
1066 A.D. This can safely be fixed as the date for
the departure of Bilhana to Central India. The
immediate predecessor of Bilhana, the Polymath
Kshemendra gives this detail about the kings and
indirectly helps us to form a rough view of the
range of years in which Bilhana lived.
Kalhana makes another
reference to him when he enjoyed the partonge of
Parmadi of Karnata. The Vikram as given by Bilhana
has been identified as King Chalukya Vikramaditya
VI of Kalyan who reigned form 1076 A.D. to 1127
A.D. Thus it is clear that this illustrious poet
reached "Kalyan" ten years in advance of
Vikramaditya's enthronement. During this decade
Bilhana must have made a name by his talent and
erudition which consequently arrested the
attention of the king who rewarded him
munificiently and bestowed on him the title of
"Vidyapati" (the Master of learning).
So it secms probable that
Bilhana lived between the last two quarters of the
eleventh century. Probably the poet was cut short
in his life by 1088 A.D. as he has ignored his
patron's biggest military campaign to the south in
his Vikramankadevacaritam. This great expedition,
had Bilhana been living at that time, could not
have been ignored by him while smaller campaigns
have been elaborately narrated by him in his
Vikramankadevacaritam. Thus we can rightly assume
that the span of life of our poet outside Kashmir
ranges from 1066 A.D, when Kalasha ascended the
throne of Kashmir, to 1088 A.D. when his patron
started his military campaign towards the south.
However, this assertion cannot be termed as final
because :
(i) It can also be
possible that he must have left Kashmir not in the
first year of Kalasa's reign. Kalhana explicitly
says that he left during the reign of King Kalasa.
It might be any year.
(ii) Moreover, he might
have fallen into dis-favour of his patron, as the
kings have generally been whimsical by nature.
Because of this dis-favour Bilhana no longer
eulogized him in his memoirs.
One more point also
deserves attention in this respect. What could
have been the possible age of Bilhana when he
chose to try his fortune outside Kashmir. Taking
the state of communications and the time it took
to travel from North to Central India he could not
have been a minor. He would not have been allowed
to risk his life on such a hazardous jourlley had
he not been quite mature and seasoned. Let us
assume the lowest limit of his age and fix it at
25, if not more. So broadly speaking, our poet
lived from 1041 A.D. to 1088 A.D. i e. forty eight
years, not a span worth its name in view of the
standards obtaining at that time. Hence it seems
plausible that he lived even after 1088 A.D.,
might be a retired life; and when he actually
breathed his last, remains hidden in the womb of
time.
Bilhana, as the tradition
goes, has three compositions to his credit: "Vikramankadeva
Caritam"- a historical Kavya, 'Caur
Panchasika- a lyric of fifty stanzas and a small
drama of four acts "Karna Sundari". One
more book "Bilhana Caritam", ostensibly
an autobiography, has also been ascribed to him.
But in it the name of the writer does not appear
any where. It may have been written by one of his
admirers who preferred to remain unknown. Moreover
the details and dates given in it do not agree
with those given in Vikramanka Deva Caritam.
Out of these three
compositions only the Vikramankadeva Caritam
reaches the highest water-mark. It is definitely a
work of mature judgment and composed demeanour. It
must have been written before 1088 A. D., for the
great expedition of that king to the south, which
occurred in that year is not mentioned by the
poet. This kavya consists of 18 cantos while the
last canto is devoted to the personal account of
the poet. In these 18 chapters the number of
verses roughly comes to 2500. In this composition
history has been wedded to romance and war. King
Vikramaditya, his patron, is portrayed in
brightest possible colours. His valour, his
charitable disposition, his love for fine-arts
have been lavishly praised. The description of
seasons, the landscape and other relevant topics
occupy the largest space in the book. The
historical content is definitely subservient to
the poetic fancy :
<verses>
"Like the buzzing of
bees engaged in collecting honey, like the new
sprout of the vernal damsel, like the blowing of
auspicious conches on a birth-day, the spring set
in. "
About the erotic sense of
love, he has to say :
<verses>
"O Lord of Night
(the moon), I have a spotless beloved in my bosom.
What will you do with your spotted one (beloved) ?
Pour out to me wine in your goblet studded with
gems. Are you not conversant with the 'spot' in
your lap."
The two introductory
verses of the Kashmirian manuscript of 'Caur
Panchashika', the genuineness of which is
corroborated by Bilhana himself, show that it was
written in Kalyana before the poet had obtained
the favour of the king Vikrama. The mention of
Lord of Kuntala and indignant address to his
envious rivals and enemies prove this. It is often
ascribed to "Caur Kavi" which is not a
name but a pseudonym for Bilhana. It is definitely
the offspring of a corrupt reacling in the
colophon :-
<verses>
(Thus end the fifty
verses of amor by Caura)
"Caurpancasika"
(the fifty stanzas of a thief) or the
"love-lament" aptly called by Sir Edwin
Arnold is a lyric of a poet ready to mount the
scaffold for enticing a princess. During this
fateful suspense when the life of the poet hangs
by a slender thread, the reminiscences of the days
spent in the sweet company of the princess oppress
the heart of the lover and he ventilates these in
a powerful and pathetic versified form. The
refrain of each stanza begins with even today. At
places the imagination of the poet borders on
sensuality :
<verses>
"Oh me ! I was the
bee who sucked his fill Prom fragrant chalice of
that gold-leaved flower, Breast deep. Know I not
well how it did thrill Beneath mine eager clasping
in that hour, When love waxed well-nigh cruel in
quick kisses, And passion welcomed hurts that
mixed with blisses."
The theme of this lyric
according to tradition is a leaf from the personal
experience of the poet. This can be also an
imagined situation which the poets can visualize
easily by virtue of their innate productive
faculties. The freshness of the poem is eternal.
"Karna-Sundari"
is the name of the heroine of the drama bearing
the same name. Usually the dramatists in Sanskrit
have named their compositions after their
heroines. Kalidasa also did the same. In this
small drama of four Acts is a love episode between
Karna Sundari, a princess and Karna Raj, son of
Bhimadeva, a scion of Chalukya dynsty. Like other
Sanskrit dramas it is more of a dramatic poem than
a drama. The story is common-place with a happy
blending of history and imagirlation. Prose pieces
are simple and short. Prakrits have also been
laudably employed. Bilhana puts the following
compliment in the mouth of the King for the beauty
of his beloved: "On account of being put in
fire the lustre of gold is darkened as if with the
smoke; the moon is robbed of its resplendence like
a leaf bereft of red hue; the creeper-like bow of
cupid is ineffective, the beauty of the world
having gone to sleep. Why only the plaintain
groves shine before her in their pride? "
It can now safely be
asserted that Vikramankadeva Caritam is the poet's
last work, and these other two works precede it.
Both these works, the lyric and the drama, do not
portray perfect craftsmanship in respect of the
technique of the language.
Bilhana essentially is a
romantic poet. Romantic poetry baldly speaking is
the acme of poet's individuality. At the roots of
this poetry we perceive the all-pervading
sentiment of this romantic instinct inherent in
man. Our poet does not dabble in high sounding
philosophical dicta like Somananda and others
which are definitely beyond the comprehension of
an ordinary man. He does not either indulge in
hair-splitting argumentation on the ingredients of
literature as Mammatta and others did. He does not
also tag history with legend like Kalhana and his
retinue. He also fights shy of indicting the
society like Ksemendra. Like a truly romantic poet
he translates his emotions as they ooze forth in
his heart. He weaves a world of his own in which
the inebriating influence of vines and the golden
hue of saffron form the woof and the warp. To
speak precisely he lives in his imagination.
Bilhana's 'forte' is
love-milk of human kindness. "The love
portrayed by Indian poets is not of the ideal
type, of the sensuous type; but yet they reveal
great delicacy of feelings and refinement of
thought. "He holds a mirror to human feelings
in a masterly way and at the same time keeps the
nature an eyewitness to this all. He delineates
human feelings in the background of Natural
surroundings, so that the throbs of man and Nature
beat in unison. "By the artistic use of
pathetic fallacy the lyric-poets blend Nature and
Man into one inseparable whole."
The natural beauty of
Kashmir can definitely give fillip to the creative
imagination of a poet. While in Central India he
enshrined the sweet memory of this land of
"learning, saffron, ice-water and grapes,
making it a superparadise," in the innermost
sanctuary of his heart. This very faculty impelled
him to write exuberant poetry pulsating with his
emotions inherent while in Kashmir and acquired
while in Kalyan. His language is flowery and his
diction flawless.
Unlike his predecessor
Ksemendra, he does not seem to believe that the
figures of speech (Alankaras) are external
embellishments only. He makes use of these
profusely and in a dexterous way. His similes are
apt and impressive. Even though he uses a variety
of metres in his compositions, yet his favourite
is andakranta'' in which metre Kalidasa has
couched his immortal lyric "Cloud
Messenger".
Consequently when he
takes pride in narrating the two peerless products
of his Motherland, it seems no exaggeration:
<verses>
"Verily saffron and
the poetic prowess are born of the same womb,
outside Sarda Desa (Kashmir) I have not seen these
two sprout forth."
To crown all, in the
portrayal of human feelings punctuated with the
sobering influence of love and all the more
accentuated with the extravagantly kind- hearted
disposition of Nature none can excel him in his
home-land. He drinks at the fountain of love - a
synonym of life - to his fill; older critics
perhaps were right when they classed him with
Kalidasa and compared the talent of the former and
the latter to the "lustruous hair" and
the "coquetry" of the "charming
Lady of poetry" respectively.
Bilhana has been
fortunate enough to receive recognition in his
life time, a phenomenon very rare with sanskrit
writers. Usually their talents have been sung in
panegyrics when they leave their mortal frame.
This all goes to substantiate that Bilhana
epitomizes in himself a dexterous mastery over
sound and sense. His facile pen could clothe any
imagination that would strike his fancy in proper
words and in proper order. He might have at times
spent much ink while eulogizing the virtues of his
patron, even then he believed in the golden mean -
a synthesis between fact and fiction. He paid back
his gratitude to the King in words pulsating with
sincerity, pregnant with scholarship and endowed
with vibrant emotions. No other better repayment
could be imagined. So when he says :
<verses>
"There is no hamlet
or village or even Metropolis; That is no forest
or garden or land devoted to learning where the
wise, the dull, the old, the young, the women and
men, one and all, do not recite his poems with
utmost exhilaration."
It does not jar on our
ears as hyperbole or pedantry. It is a statement
of facts which may not be palatable to a few, only
because it comes from the mouth of the poet
himself.
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