8/10/2019 Magha's Shishupalavadham

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/maghas-shishupalavadham 1/3

Classic Poetry Series

Magha

- 0 poems -

Publication Date:

2012

Publisher:

PoemHunter.Com - The World's Poetry Archive

8/10/2019 Magha's Shishupalavadham

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/maghas-shishupalavadham 2/3ww.PoemHunter.com - The World's Poetry Archive

Magha (7th century)

Magha (c. 7th century) (Sanskrit: ṛṛṛ, Māgha) was a Sanskrit poet at KVarmalata's court at Srimala, the-then capital of Gujarat (presently inRajasthan state). Magha was son of Dattaka Sarvacharya and grandson ofSuprabhadeva. His epic poem (mahākāvya) Shishupala Vadha, in 20 sarga(cantos) is based on the Mahabharata episode where the defiant kingShishupala is beheaded by Krishna's chakra (disc). He is thought to havebeen inspired by, and is often compared with, <ahref="http://www.poemhunter.com/bharavi/">Bharavi</a>.

Life and Work

Māgha's fame rests entirely on the Shishupala Vadha. Vallabhadeva andKshemendra quote some verses that are not found in the Shishupala Vadh

as that of Māgha, so it is believed that Māgha wrote some other works thaare now lost.

Unlike most Indian poets who give no autobiographical details or allude tocontemporary events at all, Māgha, in the concluding five verses of the wo(known as the Praśasti), gives some autobiographical details, which is rarefor Indian poets. The verses inform that his father was Dattaka and hisgrandfather was Suprabhadeva, a minister at the court of a king whosename is mentioned in different editions as Varmalāta, Dharmanābha,Dharmanātha, Varmalākhya, etc. These verses are therefore called thenija-vaṛśa-varṛana or kavi-vaṛśa-varṛana by commentators.

According to tradition, Māgha was a native of Gujarat, being born in Śrīmāor Bhīnamāl.

By his own accounts and that of others, he was born wealthy and lived acarefree life, :53 although according to one legend, he died in poverty.

Date

Māgha is quoted by Anandavardhana, Bhoja, and in the Kavirajamarga, thputting him no later than the 8th century. Pathak notes that he alludes to Kāśikāvṛtti and its commentary Nyāsa, the latter of which is not mentioneby I-Tsing and thus must have been written after his departure from India695 CE. Thus, Pathak puts Māgha in the second half of the 8th century.Hermann Jacobi puts him in the in 6th century, and Kielhorn and others puhim in the second half of the 7th century.

Appraisal

8/10/2019 Magha's Shishupalavadham

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/maghas-shishupalavadham 3/3ww.PoemHunter.com - The World's Poetry Archive

Māgha is highly popular with Sanskrit critics, and is extensively quoted bythem. His Shishupala Vadha seems to have been inspired by the <ahref="http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/kiratarjuniya/">Kiratarjuniya</of <a href="http://www.poemhunter.com/bharavi/">Bharavi</a>, andintended to emulate and even surpass it. Like <ahref="http://www.poemhunter.com/bharavi/">Bharavi</a>, he displaysrhetorical and metrical skill more than the growth of the plot,[3] and is nofor his intricate wordplay, textual complexity, and verbal ingenuity. He alsuses a rich vocabulary, so much so that the (untrue) claim has been madethat his work contains every word in the Sanskrit language. Whereas <ahref="http://www.poemhunter.com/bharavi/">Bharavi</a> glorifies ShivMāgha glorifies Krishna; while <ahref="http://www.poemhunter.com/bharavi/">Bharavi</a> uses 19 metrMāgha uses 23, like <ahref="http://www.poemhunter.com/bharavi/">Bharavi</a>'s 15th canto of contrived verses Māgha introduces even more complicated verses in his19th.

A popular Sanskrit verse about Māgha (and hence about this poem, as it honly known work and the one his reputation rests on) says:

ṛṛṛṛ ṛṛṛṛṛṛṛṛṛṛ ṛṛṛṛṛṛṛṛṛṛṛṛṛṛ|ṛṛṛṛṛṛ: ṛṛṛṛṛṛṛṛṛṛ ṛṛṛṛ ṛṛṛṛṛ ṛṛṛṛṛ ṛṛṛṛ||

upamā kālidāsasya, bhāraver arthagauravaṛ,daṛṛinaṛ padalālityaṛ — māghe santi trayo guṛaṛ

"The similes of <ahref="http://www.poemhunter.com/kalidasa/">Kalidasa</a>, <ahref="http://www.poemhunter.com/bharavi/">Bharavi</a>'s depth of meaning, Daṛṛin's wordplay — in Māgha all three qualities are found."

Thus, Māgha's attempt to surpass <ahref="http://www.poemhunter.com/bharavi/">Bharavi</a> appears to habeen successful; even his name seems to be derived from this feat: anothSanskrit saying goes tāvat bhā bhāraveṛ bhāti yāvat māghasya nodayaṛwhich can mean "the lustre of the sun lasts until the advent of Maagha (thcoldest month)", but also "the lustre of <ahref="http://www.poemhunter.com/bharavi/">Bharavi</a> lasts until the

advent of Māgha". However, Māgha follows <ahref="http://www.poemhunter.com/bharavi/">Bharavi</a>'s structure toclosely, and the long-windedness of his descriptions loses the gravity and"weight of meaning" found in <ahref="http://www.poemhunter.com/bharavi/">Bharavi</a>'s poem.Consequently, Māgha is more admired as a poet than the work is as a whoand the sections of the work that may be considered digressions from thestory have the nature of an anthology and are more popular.

Māgha influenced Ratnākara's Haravijaya, an epic in 50 cantos that suggesa thorough study of the Shishupalavadha. The Dharmashramabhyudaya, aSanskrit poem by Harichandra in 21 cantos on Dharmanatha the 15thtirthankara, is modeled on the Shishupalavadha.