Bharavi () was a 6th century Indian poet known for his epic poem ''
Kirātārjunīya
''Kirātārjunīya'' (, ''Of Kirata and Arjuna'') is an epic poem by Bhāravi, written in Sanskrit. Believed to have been composed in the 6th century or earlier, it consists of eighteen cantos describing the combat between Shiva (in the guise ...
'', one of the six ''
mahakavya
Mahākāvya (lit. great kāvya, court epic), also known as ''sargabandha'', is a genre of Indian epic poetry in Classical Sanskrit. The genre is characterised by ornate and elaborate descriptions of phenomena such as scenery, love, and battles. T ...
s'' in
classical Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest ...
.
Date
According to multiple grant inscriptions of the
Ganga dynasty, such as the Gummareddipura inscription, the Ganga king
Durvinita
Durvinita () is seen as the most successful ruler of the Western Ganga dynasty. Son of the previous ruler, Avinita, Durvinita's accession to the throne was disputed by his brother, who had gained the support of the Pallavas and Kadambas. Ther ...
wrote a
Kannada
Kannada () is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly in the state of Karnataka in southwestern India, and spoken by a minority of the population in all neighbouring states. It has 44 million native speakers, and is additionally a ...
-language commentary on the Canto 15 of Bharavi's ''
Kirātārjunīya
''Kirātārjunīya'' (, ''Of Kirata and Arjuna'') is an epic poem by Bhāravi, written in Sanskrit. Believed to have been composed in the 6th century or earlier, it consists of eighteen cantos describing the combat between Shiva (in the guise ...
''. The date of the Gummareddipura inscription is debated among scholars, but the end of Durvinita's reign is dated to c. 580 CE, which means that Bharavi lived around or before this time.
''Avanti-sundara-katha'' of
Dandin (7th-8th century) suggests that Bharavi was a contemporary of the kings Simha-vishnu, Vishnu-vardhana, and Durvinita; he was also a contemporary of Dandin's fourth-generation ancestor Damodara (see
Biography
A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or curri ...
below). Based on this account, Sanskrit scholar G. Harihara Sastri theorizes prince
Kubja Vishnuvardhana of
Chalukya
The Chalukya dynasty () was a Classical Indian dynasty that ruled large parts of southern and central India between the 6th and the 12th centuries. During this period, they ruled as three related yet individual dynasties. The earliest dynas ...
family was a patron of Bharavi, before he became the
Eastern Chalukya
Eastern Chalukyas, also known as the Chalukyas of Vengi, were a dynasty that ruled parts of South India between the 7th and 12th centuries. They started out as governors of the Chalukyas of Badami in the Deccan region. Subsequently, they becam ...
king around c. 615 CE. Sastri thus places Bharavi around the beginning of the 7th century. According to Indologist
A. K. Warder, the Vishnu-vardhana of Dandin's account is more likely to be the 6th-century
Aulikara
The Aulikaras (Late Brahmi script: ''Au-li-ka-rā''), were an ancient clan that ruled the Kingdom of Malwa between the 4th-century CE and 6th-century CE.
Epigraphical discoveries have brought to light two royal lines, who call themselves as ...
ruler
Yashodharman Vishnu-vardhana, which places Bharavi's floruit in .
Sanskrit professor M.K. Gangopadhyaya similarly places Bharavi around 500-550 CE. According to historian B. Muddachari, Bharavi lived "on either side of the beginning of the 6th century".
The
Aihole inscription (634 CE) of the Chalukya king
Pulakeshin II (a brother of Kubja Vishnuvardhana) states that its composer Ravikirti "attained the fame of
Kalidasa
Kālidāsa (, "Servant of Kali"; 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 Hindu Puranas and philosophy. His surviv ...
and Bharavi". Thus, by 634 CE, Bharavi was acknolwedged as a great poet comparable to the famous Kalidasa.
Place
Majority of scholars theorize that Bharavi was from the southern region of India. The inscriptions that mention him are from western
Deccan
The Deccan is a plateau extending over an area of and occupies the majority of the Indian peninsula. It stretches from the Satpura and Vindhya Ranges in the north to the northern fringes of Tamil Nadu in the south. It is bound by the mount ...
region. R.R. Bhagawat Sastri, who first suggested that Bharavi from southern India, argues that his description of the Sahya mountains (the
Western Ghats) in southern India is vivid and more realistic than his rather fanciful description of the Himalayas in northern India. Mahamahopadhyay Durgaprasada dismisses this argument, pointing out that Ratnakara - a Kashmiri poet from northern India - has described several rivers and mountains of southern India. Gangopadhyaya similarly argues that Bharavi may have simply visited the Sahya mountains at some point in his life. Critics of this theory also point out that Bharavi mentions the Sahya mountains only once, but he has devoted around 52 verses to the Himalayas.
Biography
As with most ancient
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...
poets, very few concrete details are available about Bharavi's life. He does not provide any personal information in his only extant work, the ''Kiratarjuniya''. Much of the information about his life comes from legends and stories that are of doubtful historicity.
Mention in ''Avanti-sundara-katha-sara''
A historically plausible account of Bharavi is found in ''Avanti-sundari-katha'' and its metrical summary, the ''Avanti-sundari-katha-sara'', both of which are attributed to the 7th-century poet
Dandin. According to a manuscript of ''Avanti-sundari-katha'' from the Madras Oriental Manuscripts Library, a
Gandharva
A ''gandharva'' () is a member of a class of celestial beings in Indian religions, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, whose males are divine performers such as musicians and singers, and the females are divine dancers. In Hinduism, they ...
visitor to the court of the
Pallava
The Pallava dynasty existed from 275 CE to 897 CE, ruling a significant portion of South India, the Deccan, also known as Tondaimandalam. The Pallavas played a crucial role in shaping in particular southern Indian history and heritage. The ...
king
Simha-vishnu narrates a Sanskrit verse to the king. The king is impressed and asks about the composer of the verse, and the visitor provides the following information: the poet Damodara was the son of Narayana-svami, a
Brahmin
Brahmin (; ) is a ''Varna (Hinduism), varna'' (theoretical social classes) within Hindu society. The other three varnas are the ''Kshatriya'' (rulers and warriors), ''Vaishya'' (traders, merchants, and farmers), and ''Shudra'' (labourers). Th ...
of
Kaushika
Vishvamitra (, ) is one of the most venerated rishis or sages of ancient India. Vishvamitra is one of the seven Brahmarshi. According to Hindu tradition, he is stated to have written most of the Mandala 3 of the Rigveda, including the Gaya ...
gotra
In Hindu culture, the term gotra (Sanskrit: गोत्र) is considered to be equivalent to lineage. It broadly refers to people who are descendants in an unbroken male line from a common male ancestor or patriline. Generally, the gotr ...
. His ancestors had migrated from
Anandapura in the north-west to
Achalapura in
Nasikya. The poet was a vegetarian, and considered meat-eating a sin, but had to eat meat during a hunting expedition of his friend prince Vishnu-vardhana. To expiate this sin, he set on a pilgrimage, during which he entered the court of the
Ganga
The Ganges ( ; in India: Ganga, ; in Bangladesh: Padma, ). "The Ganges Basin, known in India as the Ganga and in Bangladesh as the Padma, is an international which goes through India, Bangladesh, Nepal and China." is a trans-boundary riv ...
king
Durvinita
Durvinita () is seen as the most successful ruler of the Western Ganga dynasty. Son of the previous ruler, Avinita, Durvinita's accession to the throne was disputed by his brother, who had gained the support of the Pallavas and Kadambas. Ther ...
. On hearing this account, King Simha-vishnu invited the poet to his court. The poet, who was around 20 years old at the time, responded after several invitations. The king treated him like a son, and he lived in the company of prince
Mahendra-vikrama. The poet had three sons, and his second son Manoratha had four sons. Manoratha's youngest son Viradatta was the father of Dandin.
''Avanti-sundari-katha'', the original prose is available only in fragments, and various scholars have filled the
lacunas in its manuscript using their own judgment. Sanskrit scholar M. Ramakrishna Kavi theorized that Damodara was an alias of Bharavi, based on a verse in the metrical version ''Avanti-sundari-katha-sara''. This claim has been repeated by later writers as well.
G. Harihara Sastri dismisses the identification of Bharavi with Damodara, stating that Kavi's interpretation is based on a misreading of the verse, and that the metrical version was apparently written by a later writer. Based on an analysis of palm-leaf manuscript of the ''Avanti-sundari-katha'', Sastri concludes that Dandin's text states that "Damodara, associating himself with Bharavi, the great
Śaivite and the fountain of the Muse, allied himself by ties of friendship with the prince Viṣṇuvardhana". Dandin states that Damodara wrote the ''Gandha-madana'' and a treatise on poetics (in Sanskrit and Prakrit) under the patronage of king Simha-vishnu. However, Bharavi is known to have composed only ''Kiratarjuniya'', which further suggests that Damodara and Bharavi were two different persons.
Thus, all that can be inferred from Dandin's text is that Bharavi was a Shaivite, a great poet, and a courtier of Vishnu-vardhana; and that he introduced another poet named Damodara to Vishnu-vardhana.
Other accounts
According to one legend, Bharavi was a poor poet. After his wife rebuked him for not making money, he decided to seek royal patronage. During his journey to the royal capital, he stopped by a lake and wrote a verse encouraging the reader to not perform any act rashly. The king, who had come there during a hunting excursion, read the verse and impressed, invited Bharavi to the royal palace. However, when Bharavi arrived at the palace, a royal employee turned him away, disgusted by his poor appearance. Meanwhile, the king had inscribed the verse in gold in his bedroom. One day, he found his queen laying in the bed with a young man. He became enraged and was about to kill the two, when he saw the verse inscribed on the wall, and stopped. The queen then introduced the young man as their long lost son. The king was happy to find an heir to the throne; he found the poet and rewarded him lavishly.
Yet another legend describes Bharavi as a contemporary of Kalidasa and Dandin, stating that all three poets enjoyed the patronage of king
Vikrama in
Kanchi.
Gangopadhyaya describes both these legends as "absurd and useless".
Work
Bharavi's only known work is ''
Kirātārjunīya
''Kirātārjunīya'' (, ''Of Kirata and Arjuna'') is an epic poem by Bhāravi, written in Sanskrit. Believed to have been composed in the 6th century or earlier, it consists of eighteen cantos describing the combat between Shiva (in the guise ...
'', an eighteen canto epic poem, the story for which comes from the ''
Mahābhārata
The ''Mahābhārata'' ( ; , , ) is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India revered as Smriti texts in Hinduism, the other being the '' Rāmāyaṇa''. It narrates the events and aftermath of the Kurukshetra War, a war of succe ...
.'' ''
Kirātārjunīya
''Kirātārjunīya'' (, ''Of Kirata and Arjuna'') is an epic poem by Bhāravi, written in Sanskrit. Believed to have been composed in the 6th century or earlier, it consists of eighteen cantos describing the combat between Shiva (in the guise ...
'' "is regarded to be the most powerful poem in the Sanskrit language".
A. K. Warder considers it the "most perfect epic available to us", over
Aśvaghoṣa
, also Devanagari transliteration, transliterated Ashvaghosha (, ; lit. "Having a Horse-Voice"; ; ) ( Common Era, CE), was a Buddhist philosopher, dramatist, poet, musician, and orator from India. He was born in Saketa, today known as Ayodhya. ...
's
Buddhacharita, noting his greater force of expression, with more concentration and polish in every detail. Despite using extremely difficult language and rejoicing in the finer points of
Sanskrit grammar
The grammar of the Sanskrit language has a complex verbal system, rich nominal declension, and extensive use of compound nouns. It was studied and codified by Sanskrit grammarians from the later Vedic period (roughly 8th century BCE), culminatin ...
, he achieves conciseness and directness. His alliteration, "crisp texture of sound", and choice of
metre
The metre (or meter in US spelling; symbol: m) is the base unit of length in the International System of Units (SI). Since 2019, the metre has been defined as the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum during a time interval of of ...
closely correspond to the narrative.
[
His poetry is characterised by its intricate styles and ethereal expressions. Like ]Kalidasa
Kālidāsa (, "Servant of Kali"; 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 Hindu Puranas and philosophy. His surviv ...
for his similes (''upamā'') and Daṇḍin
Daṇḍi or Daṇḍin (Sanskrit: दण्डिन्) () was an Indian Sanskrit grammarian and author of prose romances. He is one of the best-known writers in Indian history.
Life
Daṇḍin's account of his life in ''Avantisundari-ka ...
for his wordplay (''padalālityam''), Bharavi is known for his "weight of meaning" (''arthagauravam'').
It is thought that Bharavi's Kiratarjuniya influenced the 8th century CE poet Magha's Shishupala Vadha.
References
Bibliography
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bharavi
Indian male poets
Sanskrit poets
6th-century Indian poets
6th-century Indian writers
Pallava poets
Western Ganga dynasty