Nandivada Rathnasree

Inspiration of celestial phenomena in the works of Kalidasa

Abstract

Many of the literary tools utilised by Kalidasa (4th-5th century AD), show an extreme sensibility towards human interactions on the one hand, and the sanctity of nature on the other. His works are scattered with astronomical references all through, although linguistic scholars do not find these references to be as finely drawn, from a literary point of view, as other references to natural phenomena.

However, a look at his references to various celestial phenomena like eclipses, conjunctions, the occultation of Aldebaran around a lunar eclipse, the annual motion of the Sun, light pollution by the Moon, one unchanging star in reference to the North, perhaps the movement of a comet across the sky (with specific reference to its conjunction with Pleiades) etc., indicate that he had a keen interest in observing the skies, and some of these observations entered as contexts in his poetry. Moreover, his reference to the retrograde motion of Mars in his first play Malvikagnimitram implies relatively rigorous amateur astronomy observations on his part, without which such a telling simile as used here would not have been arrived at. Most such references in the works of Kalidasa would indicate some actual observations of these events on his part. He was a poet, not an astronomer, but he would surely qualify as an amateur astronomer based on these observations. His works are replete, of course, with hauntingly beautiful portraits of atmospheric phenomena like clouds, haloes around the Sun and so on.

Biography

I currently work as Director of the Nehru Planetarium, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi, India. My work consists of astronomy education and outreach for the most part, and some archaeoastronomy research. I am particularly interested in interdisciplinary celebrations of astronomy.

I have a doctorate in theoretical astrophysics from the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, India, where my work was on massive star evolution in binary systems. My postdoctoral work was in the field of radio pulsar studies. Subsequently, I have been working in the field of astronomy education at the Nehru Planetarium, New Delhi.

I have been working towards participation by students and the general public in actual hands-on observations using the historical Jantar Mantar observatories in India.