Though the Malavikagnimitra is assumed to be the earliest of Kalidasa's dramas, it is not an immature work. (The Meghaduta alone drew 45 commentaries, more than any other Sanskrit composition.)Īs love stories, Kalidasa's three dramas are not unusual, but the author's control of dialogue, situation, and detail is masterly. This work is the fount of an enormously productive genre in Sanskrit and related Indic literatures. This masterpiece tells of an exiled demidivinity who, in his anguish for the well-being of his bride, commissions a monsoon thunderhead to carry news of his safety to her in the north. The lyric 'elegy' Meghaduta ( Cloud Messenger) is a short but striking work displaying another dimension of Kalidasa's genius. His Rama exhibits a depth of near-tragic heroism unparalleled in Sanskrit literature. A comparison of the two poets is inevitable, and Kalidasa does not suffer. The cantos devoted to Rama show Kalidasa's brilliant condensation and modulation of the Valmiki Ramayana. Another epic poem, the Raghuvamsa, praises the origins and life of Rama. The epic poem Kumarasambhava ( Birth of Kumara Kumara, the Prince, was the war-god son of Siva) boldly recounts the divine romance that led to the birth of Siva's son. Just as it is impossible to write Kalidasa's biography, it is impossible to establish the order in which his works were composed or to show development therein. Kalidasa was a devotee of Siva, but there is no trace of sectarian narrowness in his writings. Although he was especially fond of the Gupta capital city, Ujjain (about 30 miles north of Indore in west-central India), there is no proof that he was born there. A traditional Indian view would have it that he adorned Vikramaditya's court in the 1st century B.C. The scholarly consensus outside India is that Kalidasa flourished in the time of Chandragupta II (reigned 380-413). Clearly later than the great Buddhist poet Asvaghosha (1st century), Kalidasa was celebrated as a major literary figure in the first half of the 7th century (the Aihole inscription, 634). Nothing is known with certainty about the life of Kalidasa. He demonstrated the expressive and suggestive heights of which the Sanskrit language is capable and revealed the very essence of an entire civilization. Kalidasa (active late 4th-early 5th century) was classical India's master poet and dramatist.

Kalidasa research papers