KALIDASA, The name of the greatest dramatic and lyric poet of India. and one of the foremost. poets of the world. He is best known to Western fame as author of the beautiful play Sakuntalii, but he is entitled to lasting renown also through his other poetieal works. The precise date at which he lived is subject to much discussion. Ilindu tradition places him as early as the first century n.e.. but roost Oeeidentals have found reasons for believing that he lived as late as the sixth century although the tendency at present is inclined to place him earlier than this latter date, but not as early as the traditional date. The whole question is connected with the era of King •ik rama, or Vikramaditya, in whose time he flour ished and at whose court. in Ujjain he was one of the 'nine gems.' Legends regarding Kalidasa are still preserved at this ancient city, which was once a famous capital and literary centre in King Vikrama's Augustan age. See VIRRAMA ; UJJAIN.
As a dramatist Kalidasa was the author of three plays. The most famous of these. Nakun lala, or Recognition ))• Sakuntala by the Ring, aroused the interest of literary Europe and an enthusiastic panegyric from Goeth'e when it was first translated by Sir William Jones in 1789. The second play, l'ikramorrai, is a dramatic and romantic• episode of the rescue of a nymph by the heroic king with whom she falls deeply in love. Less important is the third drama. 3101aribi and .IgniniiIra, or the incident of a king's love for a dancing girl who turns out to be a princess in disguise. Kalidasa's lyrical masterpiece is the .1/cliha.data, or Cloud Messenger. in which a chant is made the envoy of an absent lover to his distant sweetheart. The llitu-sadihara is a poem
on the changes of the Indian year. Two artificial poems were also composed by this gifted San skrit poet : the K uni ra.Sa hha ra, or Birth of the War God. in eighteen eantos, and the llaylin 1'all).4a, or Line of Engine. in praise of the lineage of the great hero Rama, Prince of India. (See the articles under these titles.) There are also some other poetical compositions ascribed to but they are probably not genuine or are of doubtful authenticity.
The literary merit of Kalidasa's work is un questioned. tits artistic form is masterful; his fancy is rich and luxuriant, and his feelings true and tender. For details regarding Kalidas'a's date and life. consult: Blare Daji "On the San skrit Poet, K5lidlisa." in the Jou•nal of the Bombay Branch of the Ronal .I.siatie Society (Bombay. 1860) Huth, Das Zeitalte• des Kali dasa (Berlin. 1892) : Nandargikar, .11Pryhadata of N4lidasa, Introduction (Bombay, 1894). Edi tions and translations of Kalidasa are numerous; consult the list given for the dramas by Schuyler. Journal of the .lincriean Oriental Society, vol. xxii. (New Haven. 1901). The Sagunto/a has been rendered into more than a dozen different modern languages. Among, the English versions may he mentioned those by Sir William Jones, Sacountata, or the Fatal Bing (Calcutta. 1789; London, 1870) ; Sakun Iola, or the Lost Ring (fith ed.. London, 1890) ; Edgren. Shakuntala, or the flecorered Ring (New York, 1991) ; for a bibliography of Ktilidasa's lyric and narrative poems. with a discussion of his date. Maedonell. History of Sanskrit Litera tu•e (New York, 11100).