Contrasting Narratives: Exploring Kālidāsa’s Kumārasaṃbhavam and Jayshekharsuri’s Jain Kumarasambhav Mahakavya through Comparative Study

Abstract

Jain Kumārasaṃbhava is an epic (Mahākāvya) by Jain Kavi Jayshekharsuri inspired from Kālidāsa’s Kumārasaṃbhavam. Kālidāsa’s Kumārasaṃbhavam, as the title suggests intends to describe the birth of Kumar, Kārttikeya, son of Lord Śiva and goddess Pārvatī. Similarly, Jain Kumārasaṃbhava is about the birth of Bharat, son of Jain tīrthaṅkara Ṛṣabhadeva and Sumangala. Both the poems, though believed to deal with the birth of Kumara, do not actually cover the birth of Kumara. Kālidāsa’s Kumārasaṃbhavam, is divided into 17 Sargas (cantos), though it is believed that Kālidāsa wrote only the first eight cantos and the remaining cantos were interpolations.