The Power of a Poet: Kingship, Empire and War in Kālidāsa’s Raghuvaṁśa

Abstract

This article emphasises that ideas related to political power in ancient India need to be analysed through a close and nuanced reading of texts in their entirety, in a manner that is sensitive to their genre as well as to the demands of historical inquiry. The specific focus is on Kālidāsa’s Raghuvaṁśa, a brilliant and highly influential poetic narrative of the legendary kings of the Ikṣvāku lineage. Apart from its fine literary qualities, the mahākāvya is political poetry of the highest order, and this article discusses its holistic, authoritative and aesthetically refined vision of ideal kingship and sovereignty, also examining how Kālidāsa addressed key issues and problems associated with kingship, empire and war. A comparison with the perspectives of political treatises, epic and praśasti reveals elements of congruence as well as divergence. For instance, the poetic transformation of political discourse was marked by a distinctively rich emotional landscape. Although the Raghuvaṁśa valorises Kṣatriya martial ideals, it emphasises victory, not conquest; further, renunciation is central to its model of kingship. The ideas reflected in texts such as this formed an important part of the processes of the emergence and consolidation of mature monarchical states and empires in the Indian subcontinent in the mid-first millennium.