The Canto Of Seasons

 

                                     RITUSAMHARA 

 Rithusamhara Offen written as Rtusamhara is the famous canto by Kalidasa  who is known as Indian Shakespeare because of his prominace and place in the history of Indian Literature.  The poem is a long poem or semi epic in Sanskrit.  The name itself gives the sense of  Ritu (Seasons)  and Samhara (coming together ).The poem is also mistranslated as the Birth and Death of each seasons, which arise from the alternate meaning of samhara or destruction. The poem is composed into six chapters of the Indian Seasons like  "grisma"(Summer),  "varsha" (Monsoon), "sharat" (autumn),"hemata"(Pre-Winter), "shishra" (winter)"vasanth"(Spring). The canto is also translated as Medely of Seasons  or Garland of Seasons.

Kalidasas Rithusamhara or The Gathering celebrates the fulfillness of love with hardly a trace of logliness Its an ode to natures boundy and enduring emotional response . In the canto the poet describes about the harmonious relation between the man and the nature, the beauty and pleasures each seasons brings  at the same time the pains and desires it takes back. Each of the season is described by the poet with a pair of lovers who experience their relation like the changing of the seasons , the seasons are used by the poet in order to  signify the changes happen in the minds of the pairs as well the changes occurred in the nature also.

The language used in the poem  is simple, largely   ‘alamkaras’ or poetic figures of speech in classical Sanskrit, and thus easier to follow. Their imagery is picturesque and vibrant. Ritusamhara is thus, an exuberant expression of the love of life and bring natural features to life. Even separation of lovers is a sweet longing. The beloved’s beauty and the beauty of Nature mirror and evoke each other. If Vyasa and Valmiki speak about the splendours of the spiritual, Kalidasa combines the transcendental with the terrestrial; and finds beauty in all.

The poem established in a lyrical mode Love (Sringara) is the dominant emotional mode in the poem. Each canto ends in prayer where the lovers are well wished for the arrival of anew season. Every creatures in the poem such as animals, big and small ,are swept into the playful pattern of the great poet's lyrical homage. This Canto is very short as compared to other works of Kalidasa .In the poem, are m variety of Season is used to signify the changes that take place in the mind of the lovers and how they change their life. As the changes have some good or bad effects, it gives a pleasant  feeling.