Magha

Magha (c. 8th century CE) was a Sanskrit poet who lived under King Varmalata in Srimala in present day Rajasthan state. His Mahakavya Shishupalavadham in twenty cantos is based on the Mahabharata episode of the slaying of the defiant king Shishupala by Krishna.

In the Indian tradition, Magha is recognized as one of the greatest poets of Sanskrit. Indian tradition speaks of the sweet melody of the words of Dandin, the profoundest thoughts in the words of Bharavi and the similies of Kalidasa; it says that all the three are combined in Magha. It is said that in the first half of Shishupalavadham, Magha has exhausted the vocabulary of Sanskrit.

Shisupalavadham of Mahga has been esteemed as one of the most important pieces of poetry in Sanskrit. Magha attempts to excel Bharavi in each one of the devices of poetic subtlety. Though Magha has drawn the metarial for this epic from Mahabharata yet, he is not entirely dependant on the legend as it appears in the grand epic. His main interest lies in descriptions and sketches. Almost half of the extant epic has nothing to so with the proper story.

In the matter of his selection of his similies Magha has been as original as possible. Thus he compares the drops of sweat of Balarama’s body, that became reddish on accaounts of his anger towards his enemy, with the stars that appear in the red sky of the evening (Shishupalavadham, 2.18). Magha is also a master of play of words and especially in the use of words having two meanings. In canto 16 there appears a messenger of Shishupala and delivers to Krishna his message that is purposely so worded as to bear two meanings. Here the same stanzas offer an humble apology expressed in courteous words and constitute an impudent declaration of war at the same time (Shishupalavadham, 16.2). In this epic we also find a good number of verses displaying Magha’s knowledge of nitishastra or science of life and politics. At one place he says:

Not exclusively on Fate,
Not wholly on his own manhood,
Does a wise man depend absolutely,
But upon both of them, he does rely equally,
Like a good poet, on both, word and meaning. (Shishupalavadham, 2.86)

Canto ninteen of Shishupalavadham of Magha is entirely devoted to display the most complecated devices of Poetry. Here on finds a lot of verses that give a second meaning when read from below or from right to left, of which the syllables read according to different devices from all sorts of figures in zigzag way, in a circle etc. The Indian scholars of poetics have always held him in high esteem by quoting him frequently in the manuals of poetics.