Kalidas is often called the ‘Shakespeare of India’. The comparison began in 1789 after Sir William Jones said it in passing. Though Jones didn’t quantify his statement, it delighted Indians who were happy to know that there existed an Indian author who was as good as Shakespeare.
For the uninitiated, Jones was a judge at the Calcutta Supreme Court, and the first Englishman to translate Kalidasa’s Shakuntala into English. This was the first time Kalidasa’s work was translated in a language outside India.
In literary circles, Jones’ statement continues being a hot topic of debate and discussion. A slice of which was experienced on June 4 between the two doyens of English literature, Rupin Desai and Harish Trivedi at the preview of JLF Belfast – scheduled from June 21-23 – that was held at the British Council Library. While Desai is a well-known Shakespeare scholar, Harish Trivedi is known for his books and articles on Postcolonial Literature and Theory, Translation Studies and India/Comparative Literature.
Both the stalwarts don’t agree with Jones. Trivedi avers there’s no adequate ground for comparison between the two. “Jones acknowledged that Kalidasa lived long before Shakespeare. He also said that at the time when Kalidasa was flourishing as one of the nine gems in the court of king Vikramaditya in the 1st century BCE, the British were as unlettered and unpolished as the army of Hanuman.”
While the works of both these writers span ages, continents, cultures and languages, both Desai and Trivedi pointed how there was no existence of a literary comparison.
“What poetry meant to Kalidasa, was not the same for Shakespeare. They belonged to different time zones, and while Kalidasa wrote epics, Shakespeare didn’t. Moreover, the latter’s works have no connect with God and nature, while Kalidasa always invoked God and nature in his writings,” said Trivedi, citing examples from Shakuntala and Raghuvansham, the two great epics by Kalidasa.
Desai, Founder of Hamlet Studies (an international journal of research on The Tragedies of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke) often picked up lines from the play to remark how great an author Shakespeare was. “I have looked into the conformities and parallels that draw Indians to Shakespeare. Indians can identify with the great societal issues that Shakespeare addresses, particularly in Hamlet – revenge and justice,” he said, adding “delay” became a prominent feature of the play only in the 19th century and gained ground in 20th and 21st.
“He could bring pathos in his words because he saw his father embroiled in legal cases and jailed when he was small. That is how he could give us perspectives about delay and justice through his works,” continues Desai.
The talk ended with Trivedi exhorting the audience to revisit Kalidasa and Shakespeare to learn from their writings. “We should read them on their terms so that they become relevant to us, and expand our sympathies, horizons and our ideas about what theatre is and what poetry is,” said Trivedi.
Desai agreed on this note and insisted on learning the archaic language a story/poem/epic is written in to understand what the author is saying in entirety. “Translated works don’t do complete justice,” he remarked.