Kalidasa’s Reference to a Custom of the Hūnas in the Raghuvaṃśa
Summary
Professor V. S. Agrawala analyses a remarkable passage in Kālidāsa’s Raghuvaṃśa in which Raghu defeats the Hūnas. The poet describes how the deaths of Hūna chieftains in battle caused their women to prick their cheeks; blood and tears flowed together. Agrawala explains that this custom of cheek‑slashing was a Hunnic mourning ritual: Chinese accounts recorded by Stanislas Julien report that nomads circumambulated their tents, wailing and cutting their faces so that blood and tears mingled. Kālidāsa’s verse thus reflects an authentic ethnographic detail. The article shows that the original reading of the verse is kapolapāṭanādeśi (cheek‑slashing), not kapolapāṭalādeśi (reddening of the cheeks). Early manuscripts and commentaries by Caritravardhana, Vallabhadeva, Sumativijaya and Dharmameru support this reading. Agrawala criticises the later commentator Mallinātha for emending the text to pātalādeśi and imposing a forced interpretation based on the word pātala (rosy). He argues that the more difficult reading should be preferred because it is corroborated by external evidence and fits the sense better. The article also discusses another textual issue in the same passage: whether the river crossed by Raghu’s army was the Sindhu (Indus) or the Vaṃkṣu (Oxus). Agrawala supports the reading Vaṃkṣu, citing variant readings in old manuscripts and the identification of Vaṃkṣu with the Oxus by earlier scholars. By examining the variant forms and the comments of different commentators, he concludes that Vaṃkṣu fits both the geographical context and the internal rhyme scheme. The paper then situates Kālidāsa’s reference to the Hūnas within historical chronology. The Hūnas (Hephthalites) invaded north‑western India in the fifth century A.D.; Kālidāsa’s knowledge of their mourning custom implies that he composed the Raghuvaṃśa after these incursions. Agrawala’s philological analysis therefore sheds light on both the textual history of the Raghuvaṃśa and on cultural contacts between ancient India and Central Asian tribes.
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Conclusion
Agrawala’s study uses philology and comparative evidence to resolve ambiguous readings in the Raghuvaṃśa. By restoring the original wording describing Hūna women cutting their cheeks, he shows Kālidāsa’s sensitivity to ethnographic detail. His argument that the river in the verse is the Oxus rather than the Indus better situates Raghu’s campaign geographically. These textual clarifications not only improve our understanding of the poem but also suggest that Kālidāsa wrote in a period when Hūna customs were known in India, thereby linking literature with historical events.