Purport of ecology in fictions: an eco-critical reading of Kadambari

Key Words: Nature, Kadambari, environmental protection, beliefs and nature.
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⁠The term ‘nature’ is derived from the Latin word natura, which means birth. The term nature generally refers to geology and wildlife. But in the current discourse, it also encompasses broader concerns related to plants, animals, human beings, climatic changes, the challenges and threats to the ecological balance of the biosphere. Literary endeavors like green literature and eco aesthetics are engaged with exploring the role and significance of nature, exploitation of environment and preservation of ecology.
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⁠Naturalism has nothing to do with eco concerns. Ecology can be thus described as, … It includes everything related to the earth, water and sky. All non human elements such as ancient buildings, traditional county houses, agriculture and agricultural lands, flora and fauna, caves and hills, plants and trees, rivers and seas, birds and animals, serpents and reptiles, winds and seasons etc which constitute a beautiful gallery of portraits in ecoliterature. Eco criticism is a kind and congenial negotiation between human and non human worlds (Prasad 5).
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⁠With varying climates, India is abundant in its natural environment. Ancient Indian literature covers the natural scenery and uses nature and natural and wild life even for comparison. Such comparative legacies in ancient literature are extravagantly followed in modern literary tradition as well. In ancient literature, nature is depicted harmoniously in traditional practices, religious beliefs, rituals, folklore, arts and crafts as part of routine life. The worship of Mother Earth is a universal phenomenon in many indigenous cultures and India refers earth as bhoomi devi, which means goddess earth, giving a divine status to earth. Rituals like bhoomi pooja are offered to earth. Trees, animals, forests, rivers, sun, moon and ocean are culturally deified and customary offerings are made as per Hindu and Buddhist mythical beliefs.
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⁠Banabhatta’s Kadambari extensively uses nature as a medium and widely discusses the protection of it. Puranas comprises of legends and stories of origin of world and lives and adventures of gods, goddesses, nymphs, celestial nymphs, Asuras, Danavas, Daityas, Yakshas, Rakshasas, Gandharvas, Apsaras and Kinnaras. It comprises of traditional practices and tales connected to ancient kings, seers and incarnations of god (avatara) connecting legends of holy places, trees, animals, forests and rivers.
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⁠The traditional practice conserves nature as patches of forest land terming it as sacred groves, dedicated to deities or village God. In Kadambari, the ruler Chitraratha, who lives in Hemakuta, the Varsha Mountain, Mahasweta’s uncle created the forest whereb she offers penance, “… It is he who has planted this extremely beautiful grove called Chaitraratha, and has caused to be dug this very extensive lake called Achchhoda, and has established this idol of god Siva, the lord of Parvati” (Kale 187). There are sacred ponds attached to temples and sacred groves. It protects endangered species of turtles, crocodiles, and the rare fresh water sponge. Plants and animals were considered as sacred by various communities and protected in temple premises. Trees and plants like peepal (Ficus religiosa), banyan (Ficus 'bengelensiss), khejdi (Prosopis cineraria), sandalwood, beetle nut, palm, neem, coconut, juniper, champa, lotus, tulsiand pepperare preserved in sacred groves. Animals and birds like peafowl, turtles and cobra were given sacred status. Anthropologists noted that, through spirituality, the endangered plants, birds and animals are protected in Indian tradition.
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⁠A Chandala girl from south, referring Kerala visited King Sudraka, who resided in Vidisa, the capital. King Sudraka, in the middle of thousands of other kings is compared to “golden mountain (Meru), surrounded by the Kulamountains” (Kale 9). Throughout the fiction comparisons are made with nature and plants animals, sun, moon, stones and all possible natural occurrences and geography are explored in the fiction even as comparisons. Thus, the extensive introduction of the appearance of the king follows as,
⁠… he appeared like a ray in the rainy season, when all the eight quarter regions are covered with thousands of rainbows. He was seated in a couch of Chandrakanta stones, under not a very extensive canopy of silk, which had large festoons of pearls hanging down from it, which had four jeweled pillars girt with golden chains, and which was white like a sheet of foam of the golden chains and which was white like a sheet of foam of the celestial river Ganges (Kale 9).
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⁠It shows the divinity, strength, sacredness and elegance of a great king with natural similes. Ecosophy or ecophilosophy is a philosophy of ecological harmony or equilibrium. The basic as well as advanced communication of human with nature in Indian literary tradition elevates the significance of nature.
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⁠The indigenous people attribute supernatural powers to plants, animals, rivers, mountains, the wind, sun and snake and it is inseparable part of religious faiths. Conservation of nature and natural resources is an aspect inevitable from Indian psyche and faith. Rituals were traditional strategies to create relationship between human and nature. In Kadambari fruits and juices were offered to the parrot is a custom feeding the guest, irrespective of its species of origin. Forest Vindhyatavi extending eastern and western oceans, sacred river Godavari, Kadali plants, creepers, eclipsed moon, and Lake Pampa are few examples from Kadambari that clearly shows how nature is connected to human life with spiritual beliefs.
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⁠Literature uses similes and metaphors in depicting the correlation between animal and natural surroundings. The introduction of Matamgaka, the Sabara general as,
⁠… the hair-line of his beard was rising, he looked like a cub of a leader elephant whose broad temples are being adorned for the first time by the streaks of ichor. with the effulgence of his bodily lusture, dark like the blue water-lily, he seemed to have filled the forest with the waters of the river Yamuna, as it were. ………………………………………… I learnt afterwards (Kale 38-41).
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⁠It clearly shows picking up of each word from nature offers great significance in the plotline.
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⁠Indian literature effectively narrates deep and sympathetic understanding of nature. In the modern arena with scientific and technical revolution, human intervention on nature creates deforestation, soil erosion and pollution. Fire in Amazon forest, continuous earthquakes, droughts and floods are the bells of alarm of ecological imbalance. But the ancient culture maintains a balance in the environment. It is noteworthy that natural environment was protected and forests were created in ancient India. The need of a balanced ecosystem is envisaged in Banabhatta’s Kadambari.
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⁠In Kadambari, Chaitraradha forest was planted by Chitraradha, the father of Kadambari. The chief of the land; the king, is assigned to preserve natural environment as a guardian in ancient Indian society. The beautiful forest and river Acchoda are visual imageries that attract the readers. Parrot Vaisampayana narrating the tale and horse Indrayudha, whose thought process and love for Pundarika, who is incarnated as Vaisampayana creates a great impact on the reader. “Naturalism is characterized by a refusal to idealize experience and by the persuasion that human life is strictly subject to natural laws” (Drabble 713). Animal study is a developing field whereby animals are studied in cross-disciplinary ways. Human-animal relations and animals being themselves are the typical features on this concept. Kadambari utilizes communication between the animals and human- animal communication in the best possible ways.
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⁠The sacred position of birds, animals and reptiles of the age reflects in literature.
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⁠For example, in Kadambari the sentence “Like race of snakes, which is illustrious by the snakes called Ananta” (Kale 169) uses a simile, which shows the divinity attributed to snakes. The friendly forest thus described as,
⁠The borders of that hermitage were decked with the grounds of the Dandaka forest, which were variegated with hundreds of antelopes moving about there without any fear which were reddened with lotus plants in full bloom; wherein the leaves of creepers had grown again after they had been nibbled by Maricha in the form of the illusion deer and whose surface had became uneven on the account of the holes left by bulbous roots which had been taken off with the end of Rama’s bow (Kale 51).
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⁠Natural environment covers political, social, cultural and economic background of the age. The boundaries and kingdom are introduced along with the natural environment in art. Forest Vindhya is described as,
⁠Asti pūrvāparajalanidhivelavanalagnā Madhya desalamkarabhūtā mēkhatēva bhuvah, vanakarikulamadajalasekasamvardhathairathivikachathavalakusumanika ramathyuchathayā thāraganamiva sikharadesalagnamudvadbhihi pādapairupasobhithā, madakalakurarakuladasyamānamarichapallavā, karikalabhakaramridithathamālakisalayāmōdinī, madhumadōparaktakeralīkapolakomalacchavinā samcharadvanadevathācharanālaktakarasarařjitēnēva… Pavithra vindhyātavi nāma (Kale 36-40).
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⁠In English it is translated as, “There is a forest named Vindhyatavi. It extends as far as the forests on the shores of both the eastern and western oceans. … And although it was full of flowers still it was holy” (Kale 22-25). It shows Banabhatta’s versatility in introducing characters, places and surroundings naturally by connecting the natural environment. Eco-criticism investigates ecological values and examines human perception of wilderness. Eco-critics challenge the concept anthropocentrism, which considers natural world as source of human beings.
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⁠Spiritual ecology is an emerging field of study focusing on the coexisting aspects that comprises of religion and natural conservation. Spiritual Ecology showcases the need of conservation through spiritual elements. Through attributing divinity or divine value to nature, humans are supposed to conserve the natural resources and environment. Ancient India believed in natural forces and elements. Bark garments were typical feature in ancient culture. Planting trees and surviving along with nature balanced the ecoequilibrium.
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⁠Mother Nature or Mother Earth concept focuses on reproduction and promotion of nature as mother. In Kadambari Banabhatta considers earth to be divine and with each similes the natural environment including forest, mountains, rivers, lakes and every aspect of nature are treated with due respect. The term Natural Philosophy originated from the Latin word philosophia naturalis, which means philosophical study of nature and physical universe dominant before the development of modern science. The seasons, astrology and natural changes were keenly watched in the primitive ages and for each seasons certain characteristics, moods and behavior pattern are set, as per Bharata’s Natyasastra. So the seasons and seasonal changes are metaphorically symbolized in the narration, Mahaswetha’s meeting with Pundarika near Acchoda Lake in the Chaitra month stands as a typical example. Even for conquering territories (digvijayam) astrological and seasonal favorability are observed in Kadambari.
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⁠Anthropomorphism and Zoomorphism are widely used in the fiction. Anthropomorphism is a technique wherein human characteristics are attributed to god, animal or object and Zoomorphism is a technique, where the animal traits are imposed on non animal entities like humans and gods. Indrayudha, the horse behaving like human, Vaisampayana, the parrot talking as a human, and Maina and Kalindi the bird couple talking and following the rituals like marriage are typical traits of anthropomorphism. Vaisampayana, who talks like a parrot to Mahasetha and Kapinjala whose speed and behavior resembling a horse are typical traits of Zoomorphism in Kadambari. The mixture of myths, incarnation and history creates Kadambari an eco-friendly fiction, connecting various ages and places of seven continents. The act of hunting and the fear of birds and animals on human intervention open the humanity of any reader. The insight of protection of the environment by planting forest and by taking care of Parrot Vaisampayana by the hermits, whose father was killed by hunter shows compassion of human to the natural surroundings. So, Banabhatta utilizes all possible means of natural existence for aesthetic beauty bringing the unique beauty of the age.
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⁠Reference
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