Story summary
The Birth of the War-God: A Poem by Kálidásaのあらすじ
- 読了9分
- 8 parts
- 音声は近日公開
A mountain's daughter must win a hermit god, and the Love-God dares to shoot him.
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The Birth of the War-God: A Poem by Kálidásaの概要
要約：読むのに9 minかかります
- 読書時間
- 約1 h 30 min1 h 10 min fast, 1 h 45 min slow
- 所要時間
- 21,000語
- ページ数
- 61ページ92 in large print
- ライブラリ内の難易度
- 標準 longer sentences, everyday words
- 初版刊行年
- 西暦400年頃by Kālidāsa
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). 古典を読むのにかかる時間 · 更新日
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The Birth of the War-God: A Poem by Kálidása in short
The story is simple and the telling is rich. A demon has overpowered heaven. Only a son of Śiva can save it, and Śiva is a hermit who wants no wife.
What The Birth of the War-God: A Poem by Kálidása is about
What would it take to stir a god who has shut every sense inside his own mind? In this poem the answer is a mountain's daughter, a flower-tipped arrow and severe penance. A demon is crushing heaven, and the only hope is a son of Śiva. But Śiva sits alone in the snow and wants no wife.
The Birth of the War-God is a Sanskrit narrative poem by Kālidāsa, also known for the play Sakontalá. Its seven cantos follow how Umá, daughter of the mountain king Himálaya, comes to be the bride of Śiva. You get gods who plead, a Love-God who takes aim, a widow's lament and a fierce penance.
対象読者. You will love this poem if you enjoy myths of gods and demons, love stories told through nature, rich descriptions of mountains and flowers, and an early Indian voice that treats desire and duty with warmth.
The story in 8 parts
Key idea 1 · free to read
A mountain king and his daughter Umá
The poem opens with a place that is also a person. Himálaya, lord of the hills, stretches across the north from the eastern sea to the western sea, and the poet treats him as a king. The earth poured her gems, herbs and ores into this mountain.
Much of the first canto simply shows his realm. Red minerals in his rock color the passing clouds like a sunset. Birch bark serves lovesick girls as paper, and glowing herbs light the way for a lover walking at night. Wild cattle fan him with their tails, the way a king is fanned.
Himálaya takes a wife, the nymph Mená. Their daughter has lived before. In her earlier life she was Satí, the wife of Śiva, who gave up her body in anger when her father scorned the god. Now she is born again, and her anxious mother cries out for her to stop her stern vows. That cry becomes her name, Umá.
The saint Nárad sees that she is meant to be Śiva's bride. But Śiva lives alone, wrapped in a hide, served by a loyal bull. Himálaya sends Umá to wait on him. She gathers flowers and brings water, and the god accepts her help with calm courtesy, untouched.
The story begins with a girl born to win back a god who has closed his heart to love.
- 2無料で読書を始めます
The gods beg Brahmá for a champion
The second canto leaves the mountain for heaven.
- 3無料で読書を始めます
Love takes aim at the meditating god
In the third canto Indra meets Káma, who is armed only with flowers.
- 4無料で読書を始めます
One arrow lands and anger burns Love away
Umá bows before Śiva, and a flower from her hair falls at his feet.
- 5無料で読書を始めます
Umá wins her god by penance and loyalty
Umá decides that beauty has failed and only penance can win such a husband.
- 6無料で読書を始めます
The Seven Saints carry the proposal to Himálaya
Umá asks a friend to tell Śiva that he must first ask her father.
- 7無料で読書を始めます
Desire, discipline and the worth of a person
The poem sets two forces against each other.
- 8無料で読書を始めます
How the poem is told and how to hear it
The story is told in cantos, each with its own scene and mood.
Read all 8 key ideas now
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Characters, plot and themes
Main characters
- Umá Daughter of the mountain king, born again from Śiva's first wife. She wants Śiva as her husband and wins him through penance.
- Śiva The hermit god who lives alone in the mountains, lost in thought and untouched by love, whose son is needed to save heaven.
- Himálaya The mountain king and father of Umá, a ruler of the north who gives his daughter the freedom to follow her vow.
- Mená Himálaya's wife and Umá's mother, who tries to hold her daughter back from hard penance and shows her consent by a look.
- Káma The flower-armed god of love, sent by Indra to wound Śiva's heart so that a child may be born.
- Rati Káma's loving wife, who mourns him with a long song and wants to join him on the pyre.
- Indra King of the gods, who leads the plea to Brahmá and sends Káma against Śiva, hoping for a champion against Tárak.
- Tárak The demon whose power from long austerities lets him rule the worlds and drive the gods from heaven.
How it ends (spoiler)
This translation ends at the wedding. Śiva rides to Himálaya's city in splendor, and the women crowd their windows to see him. He takes Umá's hand, and the pair walk around the sacred fire. Brahmá blesses them, and the gods ask Śiva to show mercy to Káma, which he answers with a gracious smile. Śiva leads Umá toward the bridal chamber. The birth of the war-god itself is not told.
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『The Birth of the War-God: A Poem by Kálidása』についての質問
What is The Birth of the War-God about?
It follows how Umá, daughter of the mountain king Himálaya, comes to marry Śiva so that a son can be born to lead the gods against the demon Tárak. Along the way come Káma's arrow, Rati's grief and Umá's penance.
Who are Umá, Śiva and Káma?
Umá is the mountain king's daughter and a rebirth of Śiva's first wife. Śiva is the hermit god who lives in meditation. Káma is the god of love, who shoots flower-tipped arrows and is the husband of Rati.
What does Umá mean, and why does she do penance?
Umá is the name that comes from her mother's cry telling her to stop her harsh vows. She does penance because beauty alone fails to win Śiva, and she believes that only strong devotion can earn such a husband.
この版を引用します
Kālidāsa. The Birth of the War-God: A Poem by Kálidása. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-birth-of-the-war-god-a-poem-by-kalidasa.
Kālidāsa. (2026). The birth of the War-God: A poem by Kálidása. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-birth-of-the-war-god-a-poem-by-kalidasa (Original work published ca. 400)
Kālidāsa. The Birth of the War-God: A Poem by Kálidása. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-birth-of-the-war-god-a-poem-by-kalidasa.
@book{kalidasa2026birth,
author = {Kālidāsa},
title = {The Birth of the War-God: A Poem by Kálidása},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-birth-of-the-war-god-a-poem-by-kalidasa},
note = {First published ca. 400}
}
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