Role of Kanva in Abhijnanasakuntalam (CC

Role of Kanva in Abhijnanasakuntalam

Q. Write a note on the character and role of Kanva as you find in Abhijnanasakuntalam.

Answer: Kalidasa’s delineation in the act of characterization is exemplary. He rarely creates types, and all characters are beautifully identified by their individual traits and contribute to the overarching plot. There are three sages of Abhijnanasakuntalam by Kalidasa –the caustic and angry Durvasa, the great Kuladharma adherent Kanava and Bhagaban Marica. Each of the Sages (rishi) glitters in his individuality.

Maharshi Kanva is firmly rooted in the Kula tradition. He is the doyen of school in its widest sense. He maintains an institution of thousand students whom he maintains with food, clothes and other essential resources for living – meager yet necessary. He teaches them the Vedas. A rshi and a grhi, he has the strength and the weakness, the innocence and the naiveté of a human beings –he is humanized, and thus appears one close to us with all its traits, nobility as well and failings. Kindness, affection and deep compassion are the three principle traits of his character.

Although detached from the world; he adopts and brings up Sakuntala with great care and filial affection, despite being untrained and unused to the ways of the world. He travelled vto the faraway Somnath to pray for the removal of any danger or impediment in Sakuntala’s way. His hospitality is exemplary. He ensures that all comforts are extended for anyone who enters his ashrama even during his absence. Being blessed with supernatural sense of perception, he returns to his ashrama as soon as he comes to know of the Gandharva marriage that has been carried out between Duhsanta and Sakuntala, and arrange for Sakuntal’s journey to her in accordance to the mores of the society. We witness his openness of mind, wide humanitarian nature as well as his prudence in handling of the situation, which he tries to make beneficial for all.

For moments before Sakuntal’s departure, we see in Kanva shadows of fatherhood –fatherhood with which we are altogether too familiar. We see his heart torn asunder by his love for his adopted daughter, his call for duty and his assigned social role as a teacher and a sage. He sheds tears in isolation and wonders if someone as restrained as he can be so moved, how much would be the grief of other people.

The set of advice that he gives to Sakuntala before her departure are not of one age ant time, but has been echoed time and again –to be respectful of elders, to be obedient to her husband, have openness of mind to accept all situation with calm and restrain, and to never feel proud of metrical wealth. Finally when Sakuntala leaves, he returns with a heart heavy with grief and full of joy simultaneously. His observation that that follows is not any different from the bittersweet feeling of father sin all time and age. Outside the grab of a sage, he becomes one of million fathers when he sighs and says ka–‘arthohi nya paraleiga eva’ meaning ‘truly a daughter is somebody else’s wealth’.

Kalidas’s approach to the character of Kanva by humanizing him, and making him the epitome of ‘garhasthya ashram’, has made him more endearing.

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