| Published on 27-10-2007 In National | | Viewed 1395 times | | If you are not saffron, you can't organise Kalidasa Festival! |
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| Written by
N.D.Sharma | 
When the weeklong Kalidasa Samaroh (festival) starts on November 21 in Ujjain, the Kalidasa Akademi, which had all along been the nodal agency, will not be associated with its organisation. The members of the Akademi were reportedly found as not subscribing to the ideology of the ruling party in Madhya Pradesh. The Culture Department of the State government, hitherto only a facilitator, will conduct the show. Pettifogging politicians have over the years reduced to a peremptory affair an event of international dimensions, held to commemorate India's greatest poet and playwright.
Union HRD Minister Arjun Singh and AICC Treasurer Motilal Vora (both former Chief Ministers of Madhya Pradesh) have been piqued by the State government's decision not to involve the parent body in the organisation of the Kalidasa Samaroh. Singh says in his letter to Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan that "it never does any good to interfere with cultural organisations and I hope that you will take immediate steps to undo the damage". Vora, too, in a letter, has asked the Chief Minister to ensure that Kalidasa Parishad (or Akademi) was involved in the Samaroh. The two veteran Congress leaders have pointed out in their letters that the State government decision to keep the Kalidasa Akademi out amounted to showing disrespect to the memory of Pandit Surya Narayan Vyas who had conceptualised the idea of holding the Kalidasa Samaroh.
Pandit Surya Narayan Vyas, later awarded the Padma Bhushana, had started organising Kalidasa Jayanti (birthday) in the late twenties. He had formed Kalidasa Parishad to enlist the support of distinguished scholars and leaders across the nation.
Kalidasa has not hinted in his works at the date or place of his birth nor has he written anything that could throw light on his worldly activities. However, tradition has it, and it is supported by several eminent Indologists, that Kalidasa was one of the nine gems (Navaratnas) in the court of King Vikramaditya of Ujjayini (that later became Ujjain). Vikramaditya, after whom the Vikrama Samvat was started in 56 BC, was believed to have ruled in the first century BC.
Devotthayini Ekadashi (the eleventh lunar day of the bright half of Kartika) was chosen as the day for celebrating Kalidasa Jayanti. In Hindu mythology, the day is considered auspicious as the Devatas (or gods) wake up from the slumber on that day.
After Independence, Vyas's efforts caught the imagination of Kailash Nath Katju, then chief minister of Madhya Pradesh. With cooperation and support from Katju, the first Kalidasa Samaroh was held on a grand scale in 1958. It was inaugurated by then President Dr Rajendra Prasad. A large number of eminent scholars and dignitaries, not only from India but also from other countries like the Soviet Union, China, Iran and Germany, participated in the Samaroh. The following year, the Samaroh was inaugurated by then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
Most of the Indian States made generous contributions for the Samaroh and participated in the functions through their representatives. The Natya Samaroh and an All India exhibition of paintings and sculptures, organised by the Madhya Pradesh Kala Parishad at the Samaroh, attracted participation of the noted artists from all over the country. Well-known authorities on Kalidasa like Dr V.
Raghavan of Madras University and Dr Gauri Nath Shastri of Calcutta produced the plays of Kalidasa and also acted in them. Wu Shuch, who had staged "Abhigyan Shakuntalam" (of Kalidasa) in Peking in 1957, also participated in the Drama Festival held on the occasion.
The other notable foreign scholars, who had been associated with the Kalidasa Samaroh, included Dr A.L.Basham (a renowned British authority on Indology who had later settled in Australia), Prof. Hideo Kimura of the Buddhist University, Kyoto in Japan, and Walter Leifer of Germany.
Kalidasa Parishad was converted in the 1970s into Kalidasa Akademi, for the purpose of establishing a multi-disciplinary institution which would project the totality of classical tradition with Kalidasa at its centre. Simultaneously, a panel of eminent theatre personalities and experts, constituted to advise on restructuring the Samaroh and to suggest ways and means to make the festival broad-based and a more relevant forum of the classical tradition.
The main activities of the Akademi included study and exploration of Kalidasa's literature; translation, preparation, publication and documentation of Kalidasa's and other Sanskrit works; establishment of a model Natyamandap (theatre) as per the norms of Bharata's Natya Shastra; collection and analysis of all available material relating to the Sanskrit theatre; establishment of a museum of Sanskrit theatrical arts; and facilities for imparting training in classical theatre.
An international seminar on Kalidasa was organised by the Kalidasa Akademi on the occasion of the silver jubilee of the Kalidasa Samaroh. The participants included, among others, Prof Paul Thieme, Prof. Michael Honn and Miss Haessing from Germany, Prof. Clifford Wright from England, Mr and Mrs Phan Alphan from Belgium, Prof. V.Subramanyam from Canada and Mr and Mrs Miyomoto from Japan.
Having been cast aside by the present State government, some of the Akademi members are reportedly mulling over the idea of organising a parallel Kalidasa Samaroh around the same time.
It will not be out of place to recall how India had found itself playing the Chinese checkers (over Kalidasa). The Shanghai Municipal Corporation had decided to have a Theatre Street in Shanghai where it wanted to install the statues of 19 world-acclaimed dramatists. The Corporation sent a request, through the Chinese Government, to the Government of India for a bust of Kalidasa. The mandarins in the Ministry of External Affairs were perplexed, as no one had the faintest idea as to how Kalidasa looked like.
The Ministry sent the Chinese request to Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) which forwarded it to the Kalidasa Akademi in Ujjain through the Madhya Pradesh Government. There, too, no one had any inkling of the physique the great poet-dramatist possessed. A panel was then constituted comprising psychoanalysts and experts on Kalidasa and a sketch of Kalidasa was created after analysing the writings of the poet-dramatist as well as what others had written about him. Eminent sculptor Robin David was assigned the task of sculpting the bust of Kalidasa on the basis of the sketch. The ICCR Sculpture Committee approved it. The 30-inch bronze bust, weighing 60 kgs, was despatched to China just before the deadline last year. |
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