Kaviraj | Marathi Novel on the Life of Kalidas | Dnyaneshwar Kulkarni

Kalidas never wrote a single line about himself. We don't know where he was born, who his parents were or how he lived. Most of what people "know" comes from legends. Kaviraj sets those legends aside and asks a simpler question: what kind of man could have written Shakuntal, Kumarasambhav and Meghdoot?

Adv. Dnyaneshwar Kulkarni read Kalidas's complete works closely, from Ritusamhara to Meghdoot, and built the novel from what they reveal. He noticed that almost every work turns on separation: Dushyant losing Shakuntala, Pururava losing Urvashi, the yaksha cut off from his wife in Meghdoot. That repeated theme led him to think Kalidas himself spent a year apart from the woman he loved when he was young. The novel also pushes back on the popular picture of Kalidas as a pleasure-loving court poet. A line in Meghdoot says nobody gets only happiness, and the Kalidas in this book has known hard times too.

The setting is Ujjayini under King Vikramaditya. The novel draws on Puranic, Jain and Buddhist sources, including the Shaka invasion of the city and the role of Kalikacharya. The character Manjiri comes from a 14th-century Kerala text, Lilatilakam, which says Kalidas loved Vikramaditya's sister.

This is the sixth and final book in the author's Kalidas series. The fourth, Malvika, retells Kalidas's Malavikagnimitram as an illustrated novel. His interest began in college, studying Meghdoot under Prof. Arvind Mangrulkar in Pune. The cover is by painter Chandrashekhar Joshi, who illustrated all of Kulkarni's books.

Book details

• प्रकार / Genre: कादंबरी (Novel)
• भाषा / Language: मराठी
• लेखक / Author: ॅडव्होकेट ज्ञानेश्वर कुलकर्णी
• मुखपृष्ठ / Cover: चंद्रशेखर जोशी
• प्रकाशक / Publisher: वरदा प्रकाशन, पुणे

कालिदासाने स्वतःविषयी एक अक्षरही लिहून ठेवले नाही. 'कविराज' ही त्याच्या जीवनावरची पहिली मराठी कादंबरी आहे. दंतकथा बाजूला ठेवून, केवळ त्याच्या काव्यांच्या आणि नाटकांच्या आधारे उभा केलेला हा कालिदास वाचकांना नव्याने भेटेल.

कविराज: वारंवार विचारले जाणारे प्रश्न / FAQ

Q: कालिदासाच्या जीवनावर मराठी कादंबरी कोणती? / Is there a Marathi novel on Kalidas's life?

A: Yes. Kaviraj by Adv. Dnyaneshwar Kulkarni, published by Varada Prakashan, was the first Marathi novel on the life of Kalidas.

Q: या कादंबरीत काय आहे? / What is it about?

A: It follows Kalidas's life in Ujjayini during Vikramaditya's reign. It's pieced together from his own plays and poems instead of folk legends.

Q: हे शाकुंतल किंवा मेघदूतचे भाषांतर आहे का? / Is it a translation of Shakuntal or Meghdoot?

A: No. It's an original novel, though it often draws on those works to understand the poet.

Q: हे पुस्तक कुठे मिळेल? / Where can I buy it?

A: 'कविराज' varadabooks.com वर उपलब्ध आहे. घरपोच डिलिव्हरी मिळते.