Arjun Bharadwaj

The Dramatic Element in Kumārasambhavam – A Dialogue with Arjun Bharadwaj

AUTHORS IN CONVERSATION The dramatic element in Kumārasambhavam A dialogue with Arjun Bharadwaj DATE: Saturday, 13 June 2026 TIME: 6:00 PM onwards (IST) MODE : Online What makes a literary work render itself like a drama before the mind's eye? What gives a kāvya its theatrical vitality — and what is it that makes some works truly come alive while others remain inert on the page? In his new book, The Dramatic Element in Kumārasambhavam, scholar and connoisseur Arjun Bharadwaj turns to one of Kālidāsa's greatest works to explore this question. Drawing on the analytical frameworks of the Nāṭyaśāstra — particularly the four modes of abhinaya — and the rasa theory of the Dhvanyāloka, he examines how the epic's layered verses generate what he calls a dramatic element: an animated, almost theatrical experience of action, character, and affect that arises entirely through language. In conversation with the editors of Poorvam, Arjun Bharadwaj will reflect on the ideas animating this work — the relationship between kāvya and nāṭya, the tools that Indian aesthetic treatises offer for reading poetry, and what Kālidāsa's epic reveals about the deepest possibilities of classical Sanskrit literature. This session is part of Authors in Conversation, an online seminar series hosted by Poorvam International Journal of Creative Arts and Cultural Expressions.