Kumāradāsa is the author of a
Sanskrit ''Mahākāvya'' called the ''Jānakī-haraṇa'' or Jānakī’s abduction. ''Jānakī'' is another name of
Sita, wife of
Rama. Sita was abducted by
Ravana when she along with the Rama, exiled from his kingdom, and
Lakshmana was living in a forest which incident is taken from
Ramayana ('Rama’s Journey'), the great
Hindu
Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...
epic
Epic commonly refers to:
* Epic poetry, a long narrative poem celebrating heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation
* Epic film, a genre of film with heroic elements
Epic or EPIC may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and medi ...
written by
Valmiki.
The
Sinhalese
Sinhala may refer to:
* Something of or related to the Sinhalese people of Sri Lanka
* Sinhalese people
* Sinhala language
Sinhala ( ; , ''siṁhala'', ), sometimes called Sinhalese (), is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language prima ...
translation of his work, ''Jānakī-haraṇa'', gave credence to the belief that Kumāradāsa was King
Kumāradhātusena (513-522 A.D.) of
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
but most scholars do not make any such identification even though the poet at the end of his poem says that his father, Mānita, a commander of the rearguard of the Sinhalese King Kumāramaṇi, died in battle on the day he was born and that his maternal uncles, Megha and Agrabodhi, brought him up.
Rajasekhara, who lived around 900 A.D., in his ''Kāvyamīmāmsā'' refers to the poet as born blind - मेधाविरुद्रकुमारदासादयः जात्यन्धाः. There is also a tradition that this poem was written by
Kalidasa
Kālidāsa (''fl.'' 4th–5th century CE) was a Classical Sanskrit author who is often considered ancient India's greatest poet and playwright. His plays and poetry are primarily based on the Vedas, the Rāmāyaṇa, the Mahābhārata and ...
. Kumāradāsa came after Kalidasa and lived around 500 A.D., later than
Bhāravi but before
Māgha. While writing ''Jānakī-haraṇa'', he certainly had before him ''
Raghuvaṃśa
(Devanagari: , lit. 'lineage of Raghu') is a Sanskrit epic poem (''mahakavya'') by the celebrated Sanskrit poet Kalidasa. Though an exact date of composition is unknown, the poet is presumed to have flourished in the 5th century CE. It narrat ...
'' of Kalidasa. Another legend recounts that Kālidāsa visits his friend Kumāradāsa, the king of Lanka and is murdered by a courtesan and overwhelmed with grief, Kumāradāsa also threw himself to the funeral pyre of Kālidāsa.
In his "Survey of Sanskrit Literature", about Kumāradāsa and ''Jānakī-haraṇa'' (20 Cantos), which poem the poet is believed to have written during his stay in
Kanchipuram
Kanchipuram ('; ) also known as ''Conjeevaram,'' is a city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu in the Tondaimandalam region, from Chennaithe capital of Tamil Nadu. Known as the ''City of Thousand Temples'', Kanchipuram is known for its temple ...
where he lived, C. Kunhan Raja Ph.D. says:
:"In language, in the metres that he adopts, in the descriptions, in the entire technique of the epic, the influence which Kālidāsa must have exerted on the poet is quite plain…….he is quite original in his presentation of the theme…..He must have been a great scholar and grammarian…. he is never pedantic in his use of the language. He ranks as among the best poets, and in tradition, he is brought into an equal position with Kālidāsa and ''Raghuvaṃśa''."
A verse in the Subhāṣita-ratna-kośa refers to Kumāradāsa's Jānakī-haraṇa:
References
{{Reflist
Sanskrit poets
Epic poets
Kalidasa