The adjective “idyllic” included in the title does not generically mean “quiet” nor does it allude to its Greek etymology referring to the homonymous short literary composition, but rather it aims at qualifying the places where an ideal of peaceful living together prevails among all creatures. The present inquiry aims to find an eventual model for the idyllic Kavya-asramas in the sense of places inhabited by ascetics where a blissful peace dominates. From the review of some MB episodes pertaining to the motive of pacified nature in the places of ascetics compared with some analogous passages in Kalidasa, we have concluded that the two kinds of depiction of asramas are not absolutely overlapping. In the first case the cause-effect relationship between the ascetics’ presence and the portentous features of places is not unequivocally stressed, possibly because of some traces of a preserved ancient marginalized ascetic context. Finally the specific diachronic development of the analyzed motive brings us to exclude that it deals with a mere case of universal hermitage poetry.
Where the ascetics lead their life of austerities, there peace and beauty are. What makes a place an asrama in the Mahabharata and in Kalidasa's work
PONTILLO, TIZIANA
2009-01-01
Abstract
The adjective “idyllic” included in the title does not generically mean “quiet” nor does it allude to its Greek etymology referring to the homonymous short literary composition, but rather it aims at qualifying the places where an ideal of peaceful living together prevails among all creatures. The present inquiry aims to find an eventual model for the idyllic Kavya-asramas in the sense of places inhabited by ascetics where a blissful peace dominates. From the review of some MB episodes pertaining to the motive of pacified nature in the places of ascetics compared with some analogous passages in Kalidasa, we have concluded that the two kinds of depiction of asramas are not absolutely overlapping. In the first case the cause-effect relationship between the ascetics’ presence and the portentous features of places is not unequivocally stressed, possibly because of some traces of a preserved ancient marginalized ascetic context. Finally the specific diachronic development of the analyzed motive brings us to exclude that it deals with a mere case of universal hermitage poetry.
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