Kumāradāsa is the author of a

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

''Mahākāvya'' called the ''Jānakī-haraṇa'' or Jānakī’s abduction. ''Jānakī'' is another name of

Sita Sita (; ) also called as Janaki and Vaidehi is a Hindu goddess and the female protagonist of the Hindu epic, ''Ramayana''. She is the consort of Rama, the avatar of the god Vishnu, and is regarded as a form of Vishnu's consort, Lakshmi. She ...

, wife of

Rama Rama (; ), Ram, Raman or Ramar, also known as Ramachandra (; , ), is a major deity in Hinduism. He is the seventh and one of the most popular '' avatars'' of Vishnu. In Rama-centric traditions of Hinduism, he is considered the Supreme Bein ...

. Sita was abducted by

Ravana Ravana (; , , ) is a rakshasa king of the island of Lanka, and the chief antagonist of the Hindu epic ''Ramayana'' and its adaptations. In the ''Ramayana'', Ravana is described to be the eldest son of sage Vishrava and rakshasi Kaikesi. ...

when she along with the Rama, exiled from his kingdom, and

Lakshmana Lakshmana ( sa, लक्ष्मण, lit=the fortunate one, translit=Lakṣmaṇa), also spelled as Laxmana, is the younger brother of Rama and his loyalist in the Hindu epic ''Ramayana''. He bears the epithets of Saumitra () and Ramanuja () ...

was living in a forest which incident is taken from

Ramayana The ''Rāmāyana'' (; sa, रामायणम्, ) is a Sanskrit literature, Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epic composed over a period of nearly a millennium, with scholars' estimates for the earliest stage of the text ranging from the 8th ...

('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 written by

Valmiki Valmiki (; Sanskrit: वाल्मीकि, ) is celebrated as the harbinger-poet in Sanskrit literature. The epic ''Ramayana'', dated variously from the 5th century BCE to first century BCE, is attributed to him, based on the attributio ...

. The

Sinhalese Sinhala may refer to: * Something of or related to the Sinhalese people of Sri Lanka * Sinhalese people * Sinhala language, one of the three official languages used in Sri Lanka * Sinhala script, a writing system for the Sinhala language ** Sinha ...

translation of his work, ''Jānakī-haraṇa'', gave credence to the belief that Kumāradāsa was King Kumāradhātusena (513-522 A.D.) of Sri Lanka 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 Rajasekhara may refer to: * Rama Rajasekhara/Cheraman Perumal "Nayanar" (''fl.'' 9th century), theologian, devotional poet and ruler from south India * Rajashekhara (Sanskrit poet) Rajashekhara (; ) was a Sanskrit poet, dramatist and critic. H ...

, 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. Kumāradāsa came after Kalidasa and lived around 500 A.D., later than

Bhāravi Bharavi () was a 6th century Indian poet known for his epic poem ''Kirātārjunīya'', one of the six ''mahakavyas'' in classical Sanskrit. Time and place As with most Sanskrit poets, very few concrete details are available about Bharavi's life, ...

but before

Māgha Magha (c. 7th century) ( sa, माघ, ) was a Sanskrit poet at King Varmalata's court at Shrimala, the then-capital of Gujarat (presently in Rajasthan state). Magha was born in a Shrimali Brahmin family. He was the son of Dattaka Sarvacharya ...

. While writing ''Jānakī-haraṇa'', he certainly had before him '' Raghuvaṃśa'' 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 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