Sri Aurobindo

Early Cultural Writings

(1890 — 1910)

Part Two. On Literature
The Poetry of Kalidasa

Appendix

Vikramorvasie: The Characters [6]

Urvasie sends Ayus away from her at his birth, but it is as the choice between a mixed evil and an unmixed calamity; in sending him away she only anticipates the inevitable separation between a royal child and his parents which the necessity of education in the forest always imposed;¹ by keeping him she would lose both him and her husband. He returns to her and the mother in her at once wakes to life “her veiled bosom heaving towards him and wet with sacred milk”; so in her joy over her son she even forgets the impending separation from the husband who is all in all to her. It is consistent with Kalidasa’s conception of her that she says little or nothing to show her depth of emotion but reveals it rather by her actions and little side touches in her speech.

Earlier edition of this work: Archives and Research: A biannual journal.- Volume 5, No2 (1981, December)

¹ Urvasie’s words “How he has grown” imply that she must have secretly seen him in the hermitage several times after his birth, though necessarily not for many years, since once the boy’s education began such visits would necessarily cease.

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