Introduction (1): Kalidasa, His Life and Writings

The individuality and personal history of Kalidasa, "the brightest luminary in the firmament of Sanskrit literature", is shrouded in obscurity. The poet also, purposely as it were, observes perfect reticence about his identity. Even the most strenuous search in his vast works or in their exegesis by well-known commentators has failed to discover even a solitary passage that may unfold a chapter of his life. His Life The story extant about him describes hin as having begun his life as an impossible booby, who, nevertheless, got married to a highly learned princess by the machination of some scholars. These Pundits had long been meditating revenge upon the princess for having utterly defeated them in a literary bout, and now succeeded in foisting upon her an unlettered idiot as her husband, having undoubtedly boosted him up as a young man of remarkable scholarship and outstanding parts. He, however, was turned out of the palace by his royal bride on the very night of marriage, when his real character was revealed by his failing to pronounc '36', and mumbling '' and ' instead. Thus dismissed, he wandered about and did askesis to please Sarasvati, the Goddess of Learning, or the Goddess Kali, as another tradition has it. The Goddess invoked appeared before him and granted him in grace a divine boon of knowledge and poetical powers. Thus endowed with high knowledge and powers, he went back to his royal wife and asked to be admitted to her presence. Inquired about his business, he, to the utter amazement of his consort, to whom the word was conveyed, replied in correct Sanskrit, "arfen afsan afasia: 1 The princess, however, would not admit him until he could satisfy her with icontrovertible evidence of learning, and this he did later on by writing books beginning with each of the words uttered in that speech". Thus were born the four LA 1 - ustre lumpati 'ram ' va 'sam ' va, tasmai datta nivida-nitamba | fa a sofa a ga fa zoz:, fi a qzifa a ya fa gºs: 11 - 1 A. "asti uttarasyam " &c. - Kumara-sambhava "kascit kanta-viraha " &c.-Meghaduta vagarthaviva " &c. -- Raghuvansa visesa-suryah " &c.-Ritu-samhara

immortal works, kumara-sambhava, meghaduta, raghuvamsa and rtusamhara | About the death of Kalidasa there is a Ceylonese tradition which states that Kalidasa in course of his travelling in Ceylon incurred the displeasure of the King, who ordered his banishment from the kingdom. Frightened and alone in a foreign soil, he sought shelter in a house, which happened to be that of a courtezan. In the mean time the Kings' anger subsided, and he, in a repentent mood, thought of plans to find out the scholarly poet. He composed one line of a puzzling couplet [ kusume kusumotpattih sruyate na ca drsyate - That a flower grows out of another flower may have been heard but never seen], and proclaimed that any man, able to supply the missing line, would be handsomely rewarded. The King knew for certain that Kalidasa alone could solve the puzzle. One morning Kalidasa found the line written on the wall of the courtezan's house and immediately he filled the missing line thus :---"vale ' ! tava mukhambhoje nayanendivara-dvayam | kusume kusumotpattih sruyate na ca drsyate ?" - "Oh girl, a pair of blue lilies (eyes) have grown upon your lotus-face (then why do people say &c.). The cortezan was charmed by Kalidasa's solution of the puzzle and became covetous of the reward. At her order the servants dug out a hole within the compound of the house, put Kalidasa there in and filled up the hole with earth. She immediately copied the couplet and went to the king, who though amazed at the ingenious solution, could not believe that the lady was the author of it. Threatened by the king, the courtezan related the whole story. The king at once hastened to the spot to bring out Kalidasa from the hole but alas, when the royal factotuins brought the poet out, he was no longer alive. But no credence can be given to such stories unless corroborated by others facts. Besides even if there be a jot of truth in it, there is no knowing to which of the three Kalidasas it refers¹ In his later life the tradition connects him with the great literary figures-the "Gens"- of the court of Vikramaditya." "Though it has not proved possible", says Prof. Ryder, "to 1 B. dhanvantari ksapanakamagiha-sanka ु -vetalabhatta-ghatakarpara- kalidasah | khyato varahamihiro nrpateh sabhayam ratnani vai varaci nava vikramasya || -- Jyotirvidavaranam. Vide also foot nut 19. note " - Vikramorvasiya "vikrama-mahimna vardhate 2. "anutsekah khalu vikramalankarahh "-Vikramorvasiya bhavan " - Ibud.

entify this monarch with any of the known rulers, there can be no doubt that he existed and had the character attributed to him. The name "Vikramaditya'-Sun of Valour-is probably not a proper name, but a title like Pharaoh or Tsar. No doubt Kalidasa intended to pay a tribute to his patron, the Sun of Valour, in the very title of his play Urvasi Won by Valour (vikramorvvasiyam ) The zeal and enthusiasm with which he describes the temple of Mahakala, the Sipra and many other things of Ujjain, the exhortation of the Yaksa to the clouds not Birth-place to go to Alaka without visiting Ujjain, are, according to many, sufficient proofs (?) of his having been an inhabitant of Ujjain.* Kalidasa Bengalee Recently however, there has been made by some students of the great poet an attempt to prove that Kalidasa was a Bengalee by birth. It has been advanced in support of this contention that Kalidasa is a common Bengali name, and that his birthplace is somewhere in Navadvipa. But the validity of such an argument is to be questioned when the name Kalidasa is often met with amongst the Guzratis*. One fact, however, strikes us much-though any deduction from it must be hazardous,- that, in all the vast range of his works, Kalidasa mentions the name of Bengal only once.' Not even the brilliant bridal assemblage in the sixth canto of Raghuvamsa is adorned by any Bengali prince, although the potentates of the neighbouring kingdoms, such as Anga, Kalinga, Avanti, Magadha &c., are described with gusto and to the minutest details. . Dr. Bhau Daji, however, identifies Kalidasa with Matra-Gupta (Sixth century), the friend of Vikramaditya, and opiness that his 3. "matto'dhuna krtiriyam sati malavendre srivikramarka- nrparajavare samasit || yadrajadhanyujjayini mahapuri sada mahakala - mahesa - yogini " - Jyotirvidavaranam. 4. Vide footnote no. 19. 6. Vide also "Indian Daily News" of the 18 th July, 1921, where is mentioned the name of one Seth Laksminarayana Kalidasa who offered Mahatma Gandhi 10,000 square yards of lands in the Thana district. 7. "vanganutkhaya tarasa neta " - Raghuvansa IV. 36. 8. Vide Raghuvansa VI. 20-79.

BA birth-place was in Kashmir, and that he is Or, a Kashmiree? the only Sanskrit poet who describes a living Saffron flower, the plant of which grows in Kashmir." He is also supposed by Dr. Bhau to have known the pinches of poverty. But others think his condition must have been the very reverse of this, as nowhere in his works, is there the slightest indication of his having ever been frowned upon by the goddess of fortune. Dr. Bhau also thinks that he belonged to the Brahmana caste and was a Gauda Sarasvata, but he has not adduced sufficient reasons in support of his hypothesis. "One feels certain", says Prof. Ryder of California University, "that he (Kalidasa) was physically handsome, and the handsome Hindu is a wonderfully fine type of manhood. One knows that he possessed a fascination for women, as they in turn fascinate him. One knows that children loved him*** he moved among men and women with a serene and God-like tread, neither self-indulgent nor ascetic with mind and senses, ever alert to every form of beauty. We know that his poetry was popular while he lived, and we cannot doubt that his personality was equally attractive, though it is probable that no contemporary knew the full measure of his greatness. For his nature was one of singular balance, equally at hom in a splendid court and on a lonely mountain, with men of high and low degree. Such men are never fully appreciated during life. They continue to grow after they are dead". The consensus of scholarly opinion regarding the poet's religious pursuasion Religious View appears definitely in favour of the contention that he was a Saivaite, though by no means a sectarian. In the opening stanzas of each one of his plays he has invoked Siva." b 8 A. This question has been revived afresh by Mr. L. D. Kalla M. A. M. L. in his interesting article entitled "Birth place of Kalidas" from philosophical consideration. 9. "sitenoddhrsitasya masamasivam cintarnave majjatah | santagni sphutitagharasya dhamatah ksutksama- kukse mamma || nidra kvapyavamaniteva dayita santyadya duramgata | sat patra - pratipaditeva vasudha na ksiyate sarvari || " - From Rajatarangini, supposed to be written by Kalidasa alias MatrGupta. 10. "ekaisvarye sthito'pi pranatabahuphale svayam krttivasah - Mata. I "sa sthanuh sthirabhakti-yoga-sulabho nihsreyasayastu vah " -- Vikramorvasiya "asta- bhistanubhiravatu vastabhirastabhirisah -- Sakuntala I

The last stanza of Sakuntala has a direct reference to Siva." In Kumara-sambhava, Siva himself is the hero of the play and in Megha-duta we have a powerful description of a shrine dedicated to Siva. But that he was not a dogmatic sectarian is plain enough from his ardent and devout references to Visnu in Raghu, and also from his catholic views on the trinityBrahma, Visnu, and Siva-pointedly expressed in Kumarasambhava. Hence it may be safely concluded that Kalidasa was in matters. of relgion, what William James would call "healthy-minded", and emphatically not a "sick soul". Kalidasa seems to have made a 'grand tour', at least in the northern part of India, from the Vindhya to the Himalayan Plateaus. His accurate description of the An extensive kingdoms of Bengal, Bihar, Orissa with their traveller. sea-coasts and many others, as well as the striking delineation of the operations in burning the ground before sowing, for increasing the fertility of the soil-a custom prevalent in Konkan, and also his refrerence to the transplantation of seedling (Raghuvansa IV.37)-an operation extremely common to the peasants of Bengal, unmistakably point to the conclusion that he had personally seen those places and scenes. Kalidasa had great fascination for mountains. In Megha-duta, the cloud journeys from Ramagiri to Kailasa covering several other hills and spurs which are all depicted with an exquisite pictorial sensuousness. In Kumara-sabhava, Kali. goes into rhapsody over the Himalayas and bestows on it his susupreme gift of colurful description. Prof. Ryder says, "It is the mountains that impress him most deeply. His works are full of the Himalayas. Apart from his earliest drama and the slight poem called, "The Seasons," there is not one of them which is not fairly redolent of mountains."16 This also would seem to corroborate the idea of poet's wide travel. The following books have been attributed to Kalidasa: 11. " mamapi ca ksapayatu nilalohitah " -- Ibid. VII. 38. 12. Raghuvansa X, 14-37. 13. Kumara-sambhava II. 4; VII, 44; (In. Infra.) 14. Raghuvansa IX. 80. 15. Raghuvansa IV. 36-80; XIII. 2-63; Meghaduta 12-64. 16. Prof. Ryder's Kalidasa. P. XI.

VI His works. doubtedly his, 16 A ABHIJNANA SAKUNTALAM (1) Kumara-sambhabam (2) Megha-dutam, (3) Raghu-vamsam, (4) Abhijnana-Sakuntalam, (5) Vikramorvasiyam, (6) Malavika gnimitram, (7) Rtu-samharam, (8) Srngara-satakam, (9) Nalodayam, (10) Setu-bandham, (11) Kuntesvara-dautyam, (12) Sruta-budhah, (13) Puspa-vana-vilasam, (14) Srngara-tilakam, (15) Jyotrivida-varanam. (16) Ratna-kosa, (17) Srngara-sarakavyam. The first seven of these according to the scholars, both eastern and western, are unthough regarding the seventh, "Kalidasa's authorship has been doubted without very cogent argument" says Prof. Ryder. "The question is not of much interest, as "The Seasons" would neither add greatly to his reputation nor subtract from it". Of late this question has been taken up by Sri Aurobindo in his 'Age of Kalidasa', and he has conclusively proved its genuineness. Its genuineness has been further corroborated by the discovery of Mandasor Inscription in which the poet Vatsabhatti undoubtedly imitated Kalidasa's Rtusamhara" and Meghaduta. According to Dr. R. G. Bhandarkar No. (9) is decidely not the work of Kalidasa as some Mss. have attributed its authorship to one Ravideva, son of Narayana. Many scholars, however, consider Kali. to be the author of 'Syamala Dandaka', a beautiful poem on the Goddess Syamala. Regarding (11) we are at present not in a position to say anything definitely as the book has not yet been recovered. 16 A. 'On works of doubtful authorship'-Cf. L. Renou, "L' Inde Classique". 17. Cf. 'smaravasagata - taruna-jana-vallabhanganavipulakanta- pinoru-stana- jaghanalingananirbhatsata-tuhina - himapate ' || - Vatsabhatti, 33. payodharaih kunkuma-raga- pinjaraih sukho savyam navayauvanosmabhih | | vilasinibhih pari- Hifsaru: zaufa vita ofega gifta:' 11-Ritu-samhara 5.9. Also Vatsabhatti, 10 & Meghaduta 66. "That six works of Kali. (these at least indisputably his) have thus survived is a sure sign of their unusual popularity, and a knowledge of them reveals that their popularity was and is well founded. It should also be borne in mind that hand-writing survives only a short time in the Indian climate, so that copying at great expense had to be repeated frequently"-Ruben. "In point of fact, Rtusamhara is far from unworthy of Kaidasa, and if this poem is denied to him, his reputation would suffer real loss".- Keith.

VII The Kashmirian scholar Ksemndra mentions it in his AucityaVicara-Carca. According to the majority of scholars SetuBandham has also little claim to Kalidasa's authorship. The rest as well as certain small things, such as, Odes to the Ganges, Kali, Laksmi, etc. may be curtly dismissed as not his, despite the nominal identity of the authors of 1, 2, 3, and (15) propounded by Jyotirvidavaranam. Likely enough, these were products of some later pseudo-Kalidasas, "Who were more concerned for their work than for personal fame"." In KavyaMimamsa, Rajsekhara refers to a work on Poetics by Kalidasa. But this book has not yet been discovered. In making an estimate of Kalidasa as a poet, it is almost needless to remark that his works abundantly testify to a profound scholarship and a versatile poetic genius which in its wide-ranging luminous display exalts thought, delights the 20 heart and purifies both of dross. A thorough Kalidasa- perusal of his works will show that he was an the poet erudite scholar who was not only acquainted with the literature of his age but also with the important branches of Indian literature, such as the various systems of philosophy, the Upanisads, Medicine, ancient Laws (of Manu, Apastamba etc.), Grammar, Rhetoric, Prosody and Dramatics, sure indications of which abound in his works. The second canto of Kumara-sambhabam, for example, contains a smooth and easy handling of the different schools of Hindu philosophy. was a keen student of the intricate problems of society and had an intimate knowledge of the many conflicting sentiments and emotions of the human heart. The vast range of constructive and reproductive powers of his imagination, as one may find in the 13 th canto of Raghu-vamsam is, to say the least He 18. kavyatrayam sumatikrt raghuvamsapurvam jatam yato nanu kiyacchra tikarmavadah jyotirvidabharana-kala-vidhana-sastra srikalidasa - kavita hi tato babhuva || 19. Rajasekhara in his Suktimuktarali mentions the existence of three_Kalidasas. Cf. "eko'pi jiyate hanta kalidaso na kenacit | srngare lalitodgare kalidasatrayi kimu " || Also 'halenottamapujaya kavivrsah sripalito lalitah | khyati kamapi kalidasa kavayah nitah sakaratina " || - abhinanda, ( ramacarita ) || 20. Kumara-sambhava II. 61; II. 3; Raghuvansa I. 5, VIII. 9,22; X. 28; XIII, 60. 21. Raghuvansa VIII. 15-24; XIII. I.

VII Kalidasa--a connoisseur of Music. ABHIJNANA SAKUNTALAM amazing. There are reasons to believe that Kalidasa was profoundly versed in the art of Music and Dancing. The stage manageress in the prologue to Sakuntala entertains the audience with a song of the difficult Saramga Raga, of the Aurab class ( marangena gita- ragena ) | Vidusaka in the 5 th Act refers to the song of Hathsapadika which is sung to the accompaniment of lyre and opines that the song is perfect in Tala and Laya. This perhaps expresses the view of the poet that a song must be perfect in those qualities. He was perfectly aware of the proper time when a particular Raga was to be sung. Thus in Kumara-sambhava VIII. 85 we find that Kinnaras are singing a song in Kaisika Raga (which is to be sung in the morning) for rousing Siva. In Raguvausam (I. 39.) he analyses the sound of peacocks as the blending of and fasound of 9571 Not only he was a composer of songs, but also a connoisseur of Music as will be evident from his use of technical terms of Music, both vocal and instrumental. At the beginning of Mala., Kalidasa shows a competition between two dancers and their teachers. In Vishvanatha Kaviraja Act. IV, the hero seeks his lost love, singing and dancing with mime. In Sakuntala Act I, sakuntala shows in mime and dance how she is molested by a drone, and the king speaks suitable verse and at the same time follows her movements. In Mala. and Vikramorvasiya he describes the various techniques of dancing and uses terms like T- yoni, sausthava, dvipadika, lalitaka, calita, jambhalika, khandadhara . aksiptika, khari, gurjari, patha, bhinnaka, khandaka, kutilika, mandaghati, pancangabhinaya etc. In Meghaduta (I. 37) Kali. describes the far type of dancing in the temple of Mahakala and refers to dance in Sakuntala. He uses the terme mode of tuning the (Mala. I. 21) which is a particular . In Raghuvansa (XIX. 14) he describes a dance as faulty due to a breach in Tala and Laya. His literary style is particularly chaste and simple and lucid and melodious. "It has not in the least the laxity of the sacred poems nor the extravagant colouring of the later poems, and 21 a. " turyeh ahata puskaramh " - Raghuvansa XVII. 2; "puskaresu ahatesu " - Meghaduta II. 5; Raghuvansa XIX. 14; "armat (lyre) "-Raghuvansa XIX. 13; "mal(lute) - grahayamasa " - Raghuvansa XV. 88; 'kicaka (flute ) **muraja (Tabour) iva " -Meghaduta II. 56. "prahatamurajah " - Ibid II. I; Mala I; "asani-sabda- µ¿ 1/2:"-Ritu-samhara II. I ""Vikramorvasiya IV. - - "

though characterized by brevity, perspicuity runs through every vein of his poetry". Its characteristic feature is complete freedom from all artificiality, of laboured jingling compounds, involved constructions, the trick of puns which sparkle in straggling heaps in the works of later poets, (not being exempted). The style never reflects any conscious premeditation or effort or even subsequent improvement. Kalidasa is, if anything, the master of felicitous expressions and aptest similes and metaphors. Dr. Wilson does not assuredly speak in hyperboles when he says, "It is impossible to conceive language so beautifully musical and magnificently grand as many of the verses of Bhavabhuti and Kalidasa". He is commonly referred to as the poet of love; yet it must nevertheless be admitted that he could depict with unfailing success the other sentiments too. We find everywhere in his works the suggestion of what is grand and sublime, but he had the power of delineating all shades of character from the utterly divine to the hardly human. "He himself must have been a man gifted with all the learning of age, rich, aristocratic, moving wholly in An appreciation high society, familiar with and fond of life in by Sri Aravinda the most luxurious metropolis of his time, passionately attached to the arts, acquainted with the sciences, deep in law and learning, versed in the formalised philosophies. He has some notable resemblance to Shakespeare; among others his business was like Shakespeare's to sum up the immediate past in terms of the present; at the same time he occasionally informed the present with hints of the future. Like Shakespeare also he seems not to have cared deeply for religion. In creed he was a Vedantist and in ceremony perhaps a Siva-worshipper, but he seems rather to have accepted these as the orthodox forms of his time and country, recommended to him by his intellectual preference and aesthetic affinities, than to have satisfied with them any profound religious want. In morals, also he accepted and glorified the set and scientifically elaborate ethics of the codes, but seems himself to have been destitute of the finer elements of morality. **** His writings show indeed a keen appreciation of high ideal and lofty thought but the appreciation is aesthetic in its nature: he elaborates. and seeks to bring out the effectivenses of these on the imaginative sense of the noble and grandiose, applying to the things of

the mind and soul, the same aesthetic standard as to the things of sense themselves. He has also the natural high aristocratic feeling for all that is proud and great and vigorous, and so far as he has it, he has exaltation and sublimity. ****** In all this he represented the highly vital and material civilization to which he belonged. **** Kalidasa is the great, the supreme poet of the senses, of aesthetic beauty, of sensuous emotion. His main achievement is to have taken every poetic element, all great poetical forms and subdued them to a harmony of artistic perfection set in the key of sensuous beauty. In continuous gift of seizing an object and creating it to the eye, he has no rival in literature. A strong visualising faculty such as the greatest poets have in their most inspired descriptive moments, was with Kalidasa an abiding and unfailing power, and the concrete presentation which this definiteness of vision demanded, suffused with an intimate and sovereign feeling for beauty of colour and beauty of form, constitutes the characteristic Kalidasian manner. He is besides a consummate artist, profound in conception and suave in execution, a master of sound and language, who was moulded for himself out of the infinite possibilities of the Sanskrit tongue-a verse and diction which are absolutely the grandest, most puissant and most full-voiced of any human speech, a language of the Gods. The note struck by Kalidasa when he built Sanskrit into the palace of noble sound is the note which meets us in almost all the best work of the classic literature. Its characteristic features of style are a compact but never abrupt brevity, a soft gravity and smooth majesty, a noble harmony of chiselled prose, above all an epic precision of phrase, weighty, sparing and yet full of colour and sweetness. Moreover it is admirably flexible, suiting itself to all forms from the epic to the lyric, but most triumphantly to the two greatest, the epic and the drama. In his epic style Kalidasa adds to these permanent features a more than Miltonic fulness and grandiose pitch of sound and expression, in his dramatic, an extraordinary grace. and suavity which makes it adaptable to conversation and the expression of dramatic shade and subtly blended emotion". Dr. De & Dr. Das Gupta in "The History of Sanskrit Literature" observe:-"Here we see to its best effect Kalidasa's method of unfolding a character as a flower unfolds its petals in rain and

XI sunshine; there is no melo-drama, no lame denouement to mar the smooth, measured and dignified progress of the play; there is temperance in the depth of passion and perspecuity and inevitablness in action and expression, but above all the drama surpasses by its essential poetic quality of style and treatment *** Judged absolutely, without reference to an historical standard, Kalidasa's plays impress us by their admirable combination of dramatic and poetic qualities; but it is in pure poetry that he surpasses even his dramatic works. He makes a skilful use of natural phenomenon in sympathy with the prevailing tone of a scene, he gives by his easy and unaffected manner, the impression of grace which comes from strength revealed without unnecessary display or expenditure of energy. He never tears a passion to tatters nor does he overstep the modesy of nature in producing a pathetic effect *** His gentle pathos and humour, his romantic imagination and his fine pathetic feelings are more marked characteristics of his dramas than mere ingenuity of plot, liveliness of incident and minute portraiture of men and manners ** He is a master of sentiment, but not a sentimentalist who sacrifices the realities of life and character; he is romantic, but his romance is not divorced from common nature and common sense. He writes real dramas and not a series of elegant poetical passages; the poetic fancy and love of style do not strangle the truth and vividness of his presentation ** The marvellous result is made possible because Kalidasa's works reveal a rare balance of mind, which harmonizes the artistic sense with the poetics and results in the practice of singular moderation *** Even Kalidasa's love of similitude for which he has been so highly praised, never makes him employ it as a mere verbal trick, but it is made a natural concomitant of the emotional content for suggesting more than what in expressed. On the other hand, his ideas, emotions and fancies never run riot or ride rough-shod over the limits of words, within which they are compressed with tasteful economy and pointedness of phrasing. The result is fine adjustment of sound and sense, a judicious harmony of word and idea, to a point not often reached by other Sanskrit poets ** Kalidasa is indeed careful of form, but he is not careless of matter. Like later Sanskrit poets he does not make his narrative a mere peg on which he can hang his learning and skill ** He is not so much the teller of a story as the maker of it, and his unerring taste and restraint

accomplish this making by not allowing either the form or the content to overwhelm or exceed each other. ** The same sense of balance is also shown by the skilful adjustment of a mobile and sensitive prosody to the diction and theme of the poems." The Western estimate. Among the European students of Kalidasa, Sir William Jones assisted by his teacher Rama Locana, was the first to bring out a literal translation of Sakuntala into Latin, which was reproduced in English in Aug. 17, 1788". These translations were enthusiastically received everywhere in Europe. It was translated into German by George Forster in 1791. Friedrich Schlegel came to know Forster's first edition at the Leipzig Fair as soon as it appeared and he wrote to his brother about this remarkable work. He went later to Paris to learn Sanskrit and thereafter introduced the study of Indology into Germany. Friedrich Ruckert translated the drama into German in 1855-this time direct from Sanskrit but his version was published in 1867 after his demise. Jone's translation was quickly caught up almost simultaneously with Forster, by H. West for a Danish version in 1793. The French of the same was produced by A. Bruguiere ten years later. Forster's translation was reproduced in Dutch by E. M. Post, Haarlem, almost immediately after Forster's publication itself. The Italian rendering by L. Doria, Darmstadt, based on the French of A. Bruguiere, came out in 1815, while the Swedish by I. E. Ekelund, who consulted Jones and Forster both, appeared six years later. The famous French edition by M. Chezy came out in 1830. In course of next twenty years another noted Danish version by Hammerich and the successive German translations by Dr. Boehtlingk. Hirzel, Ruckert and Meier had placed the fame of the play on a popular basis. Meanwhile Herder and Goethe had received the Forster's translation with acclamation, the second edition of which was brought out by Herder in 1803, and in his introductory remarks he bestowed lavish encomiums on the plays of Kalidasa. "Since that day", 22. "This translation was finished in my gardens on the Ganges. Aug. 17, 1788." 23 A 22 a. "It is here the mind and character of a nation is but brought to life before us; and gladly I admit that I have received a true and more real notion of the manner of thinking among the ancient Indians from this one Sakuntala than all their Upanisads and Bhagabatas".

XHI says Prof. Ryder, "as is testified by new translations and reprints of the old, there have been many thousands who have read at least one of Kalidasa's works; other thousands have seen it on the stage in Europe and America". Goethe's now much too famous lines on Sakuntala" remain for ever a monumental testimony to the greatness of a poetical 23. "Willst du die Blute des fruhen die Fruchte des spatern Jahres. Willst du, was reizt und entzuckt, willst du was sattig und nahrt. Willst du den Himmel, die Erde, mit einem Namen begriefen, Nennich, Sakontala, Dich, und ist alles gesag." (Written between May 17 & July 1, 1791.) [First printed in the "Deutsche Monatsschirft"-a German monthly journal ]. "Wilt thou the bloom of springtide, the fruit of the year that doth wither ? Wilt thou what charms and pleases? Wilt thou what fills and keeps fed ? Wilt thou the earth and the heaven in one name mingle together ? I name, Sakuntala, thee, and so is everything said". [Translated by Roby Dutta M.A. (Cantab.) "vasantam mukulam phalanca yugapat grismasya sarvam ca tat yat kincinmanaso rasayanamadho santarpanam mohanam | ekibhutamabhutapurvamathava svarloka - bhulokayoh aisvaryam yadi ko'pi kanaksati tada sakuntalam sevatam || " [Tarakumara Kaviratna, Pravasi, Bhadra, 1345] "nava vatsarera kuda़ि, tari eka pate, varasa sesera pakka phala | prana kare curi ara, tari ekasathe, prane ene deya pustivala || ache svargaloka ara, sei eka thami, bamdha yetha ahe mahitala | hena yadi kabhu thake, tumi tave tai, ohe abhijnana- sakuntala || " [Ravindra Nath Tagore in AT-Ed. by Satyendra Nath navaratnamala Tagore, 55, Upper Chitpur Road, 1314]. Also Cf. "** "Since Sakuntala is unfortunately still the only example of her (India's) perfected culture, one lingers with pleasure over it. We must have more Sakuntalas in the near future, for they are the finest contributions to the cultural history of the peoples".-- [ Goethe (1798) qtd. Windisch }.

XIV ABHIJNANA SAKUNTALAM work as may only be appraised by a great poet. Dr. Macdonell has drawn pointed attention to the influence it had on Goethe. "It is a fact worth noting", says he, "that the beginning of one of the most famous European Dramas has been modelled on that of a celebrated Sanskrit play. The prelude (rear) of Sakuntala suggested to Goethe the plan of the Prologue on the stage in Faust, where the stage-manager, the Merryandrew and the poet converse regarding the play to be performed"." Later on, when Prof. Chezy sent a copy of his edition of Sakuntala, Goethe, then an old man of eighty, in acknowledging with thanks the receipt of the book wrote to him, on Oct. 1, 1830, inter alia, as follows: "The very first time that I became aware of this unfathomable work, it excited in me such an enthusiasm and attracted me in such a manner that I could not cease studying it again and again. Yes, indeed, I felt myself called upon to undertake the impossible task of adapting it to the German stage. even if only imperfectly. I realise only now the profound impression that this work had made upon me at that time. Here appears to us the poet in his highest role as the exponent of the most natural condition, of the finest habits, of the purest moral endeavours, of the worthiest majesty, and of the most earnest contemplation of God: but at the same time he remains to such an extent the lord and master of his creation, that he even ventures to risk vulgar and ridiculous contrasts which, however, must be regarded as the necessary connecting links in the whole scheme of things." Read also Gocthe's appreciation of Meghaduta- "The first meeting with a work such as this is always an event in our lives".- 24. History of Sankrit Literature, P. 416; Also-"Heinrich Heine (whose works were published after this death in 1869) noticed something very important about the German drama. In the chapter entitled "Thoughts and ideas", he observes, "Goethe made use of Sakuntala at the beginning of Faust", in other words the idea of the "Vorspiel auf dem Theater" in Faust was conceived by Goethe from the prologue (a) to Sakuntala" -Windisch; "We have to thank the Indian poet for inspiring Goethe to this gem of his art"-Dr. Ruben. 25. Winternitz, Geschichte der Indischen Literatur, Band III, P, 214.

What more pleasant could man wish Sakuntala, Nala, these must one kiss; And Megha-duta, cloud-messenger Who would not send him to a soul sister." XV Ibid. III. 107-(Ruben) Speaking of Sakuntala Dr. Monier Williams of international fame remarks, "No composition of Kalidasa displays more the richness and fertility of his poetical genius, the exuberance of his imagination, the warmth and play of his fancy, his profound knowledge of the human heart, his delicate appreciation of its most refined and tender emotions, his familiarity with the workings and counter-workings of its conflicting feelings-in short, more entitles him to rank as the "Shakespeare of India". "Poetical fluency", observes Prof. Ryder, "is not rare; intellectual grasp in not very uncommon; but the combination has not been found perhaps more than a dozen times since the world began. Because he possessed this harmonious combination, Kalidasa ranks not with Anacreon, Horace and Shelley but with Sophocles, Virgil and Milton." Schiller" in a letter to Humboldt writes, "In the whole range of Grecian antiquity there is no poetical representation of beautiful womanhood or of beautiful love that could even remotely compare with Sakuntala."* Of late Dr. Walter Ruben, the great German critic observes : "Just as we are proud of our own cultural heritage, and seek to make it our own, so we wish to share the joy of other peoples in their past and present achievements. We shall not demand "revolt against fate" etc. from this old Indian classical poet. We want to learn what he meant to the Indian people. We realize that his works can give us to day a very great deal as they stand. We try to understand him in his own background, and we find that he really was, as Goethe and Herder said, a 25 A. Winternitz, Geschichte Band III. S. 215 Anm. der Indischen Literatur, 26. Also read "Kalidasa the celebrated author of Sakuntala is a masterly describer of the influence which Nature exercises upon the minds of lovers, Tenderness in the expression of feeling and richness of creative fancy have assigned to him his lofty place among the poets of all nations"-Humboldt.

XVI ABHIJNANA SAKUNTALAM great poet who loved his fellowinen and understood how to picture their passions, joys and sorrows vividly, and that he had a sharply critical and observant attitude towards the weakness of the ruling circles of his time. His speech is a weapon to capture the attention of his listeners, although this is not easy to see from existing translations. He has the phantasy of the true poet who can hold his hearers and readers in his ban. And he has great humanity, so that one is eager to enter into his ban, for he can be gay and earnest and always reflects the world as it was" *** Kalidasa sang again and again of the pains of separation and the joys of love. But since he portrayed in each of his works the loves, despairs and happiness of truly different people, since he showed his lovers as lovable, despite their faults, and made them genuinely human and alive-for all these reasons he is to be accounted a great and warm-hearted poet who for more than a thousand years has inspired all those who have learned to know his work. And his inspiration will not fade, either in his homeland India or anywhere else where the human heart feels the impact of true art." 18 Again, as has been pointed out by late Harinath De," Bengal's most distinguished linguist, 'the idea of the cloud being employed as a messenger,' has been imitated in German poetry by Schiller, who, in his drama Maria Stuart puts the following appeal in the mouth of the captive Scottish queen : "Eilende Wolken ! segler der Luefte Wer mit euch wanderte, mit euch schiffte Gruesset mir freundlich mein Jugendland" [Hurrying clouds! Ye sailors of the air, - O that one could wander and sail with you! Greet kindly on my behalf the land of my youth] It is not possible to refer here to all such countless remarks of high appreciation poured forth by renowned Western scholars such as, Schlegel, Lassen, Wilson, Sylvain Levi and others". 27. Kalidas Die menschliche Bedeutung Seiner Werke; 28. Introduction to 'Kalidasa' by Prof. Rajendranatha Vidyabhugana. 29. Tagore and Kalidasa Gedeuk band fur stschayer, Warschau. 1957; also Kalidasa-Die menschliche Bedeutung Seiner Werke.

XVII It would be a pity to miss the excellent observations of Prof. A. W. Ryder of California, who has himself brought out an admirable translation of Kalidasa's important works. In the next three topics we propose to base our remarks on those of Prof. Ryder maintaing generally the very language of the learned critic. Kalidasa-the singer of happy love. "No other poet in any land has sung of happy love between man and woman in the same large way as Kalidasa has sung. Each one of his works is a love -poem whatever more it may be. Yet the theme is so infinitely varied that the reader never wearies. If one were to doubt from a study of European literatures, comparing ancient with modern works, whether romantic love ever is the expression of a natural instinct, and is not rather a morbid survival of decaying chivalry, he has only to turn to India's independently growing literature to find the question settled. Kalidasa's love-poetry rings as true in our ears as it did in his countrymen's fifteen hundered years ago". Love in Kalidasa is comparatively simple, though always deep, earnest, true, at times impassioned. Ebb and flow, secret meanderings, muddy whirls are not to be found in the storm-tossed or smooth-flowing crystal flood of his love. It may often seem to be too good for this planet of ours, but it is always the one for which the soul of man yearns, dreams and seeks. It is all light, pure and steady, never bedimmed into a smoky flame, never flaring up into a lurid glare, a ruddy incandescence of intolerable heat as in Browning. 'It is perhaps an inevitable consequence of Kalidasa's subject and his manner of handling it, that his women appeal more strongly to a modern reader than his men. The man is His women appeal more strongly than his men. the more variable phenomenon, and though manly virtues are the same in all countries and in all ages, emphasis has always been variously laid on some of them in preference to others. But, the true woman seems timeless, universal. We know of no poet, unless it be Shakespeare, who has given the world a group of heroines so individual yet so universal, heroines as true, as tender, as self-less as are Indumati, Sita, Parvati, the Yaksa's bride and Sakuntala'. 30. 'Kalidasa'-Introduction III, pp. xviii-xix.

XVIII ABHIJNANA SAKUNTALAM One other thing sharply arrests the attention of a student of Kalidasa. "It would be difficult to find anywhere lovelier pictures of childhood than those in which His Boys our poet presents the little Bharata (Sarvadamana), Ayus, Raghu, Kumara. It is a fact worth noticing that his children are all boys. Beautiful and all-important as his women are, he never does more than glance at a little girl". As in the works of most great poets, ancient or modern, in those of Kalidasa too, Nature plays an all too indispensable part. But again, as each of these great poets has associated himself with nature with a bias and an insight Nature in Kalicharacteristic to him and to no other, so too dasa's poetry. Kalidasa has an altogether different consciousness about the various presentation of external nature-a study of which seems to reassure one about the amplitudinous breadth of Nature-vision coupled with an unfailing intimacy with her inner spirit, which lifts up a work like Sakuntala to the very primal dignity of Nature's own. Nature in Kalidasa has always her double aspect. He lives to tell out with an assiduity and relish, unintelligible to the matter-of-fact moderner, each little detail of a natural scenery, as if, there is not a sapling, not an yeanling, not a boulder, not the smallest brook, not the drabbest gray of colour, not the faintest throb of sound but has a meaning that enriches the enchanted existence in his world. More like Tennyson in this than any other European poet, his wealth of observed fact and form of nature is as inexhaustible as accurate in the details. But the outer aspects of nature derive all their magnetic virtues from the poet's inner perception of Nature-life. Indeed this faith in life of nature must have been so living and dynamic in him as to impel him to a creation in Sakuntala of an animated world of nature, cut off clean from human influences-a world, however, none the less complete, varied, sweet or real on that account. This perception of life in nature has, however, to be very properly distinguished from that of some modern poets, who are in a great measure responsible for a sympathetic understanding of nature common in these days. Kalidasa was not a poet of nature in the sense in which Wordsworth, Shelley or Keats was. Neither a high moral sense, nor an abstract idealism, nor a powerful aesthetic sensuousness characterises, his knowledge of Nature. In his works Nature is too •

XIX stolidly real to be sublimated; but she is simply Nature, a separate entity, a distinct personality, who associates with man as any other human being does in every-day life of common fellowship, yet at all points touching man with her soul. Man loses his way and enters her domain and wanders about as in a dream. There the conviction grows on him as on Dusyanta that the trees and the flowers and the brooks and the creatures all around are instinct with conscious personal life, each an individual capable of human fellow-ship. Civilization artificial with its cross fetters of man-made laws drops off from him like a scale, and he lives and moves in utter freedom in a newer civilization of Nature's own, where the conflicts of individual existence have subsided in the harmony of self-impelled movements of a deeper natural life. Balance in Kalidasa's character While we are on this subject of Nature, it is worth while to point to a wonderful balance and fulness in Kalidasa's character. The glorious life of Nature and the equally glorious life of Man balance themselves and enter in his composition in a perfect chemical process. It is hard to find another poet to compare him with in this. "Even Shakespeare with all his insight into the charms of Nature is primarily a poet of the human heart. This can hardly be said of Kalidasa, as it cannot be said of him that he is primarily a poet of Nature." He is both at the same time, and at no moment can it be said of him that he is principally the one and not the other. The point we are endeavouring to make is beautifully illustrated in The Cloud Messenger. The first half of this wonderful poem is ostensibly a description of external nature, yet, every line there palpitates with the throb of a beating heart: the latter half is a picture of the human heart with all its tender and moving emotions, but the picture is framed in nature's beauty. So exquisitely and dextrously is the mingled fabric woven that nobody would like to separate the constituents nor commit himself to a preference for either of the two parts over the other. "Kalidasa understood in the 5 th century what Europe did not learn until the nineteenth, and even now comprehends only imperfectly, that the world was not made for man, that man reaches his full stature only as he realizes the dignity and worth of the life that is not human".

XX Kalidasa and Bhasa. ABHIJNANA SAKUNTALAM In all his many works there is hardly any mention of the poets who preceded Kalidasa in time. There is only one place where the names of three poets occur viz., Bhasa, Saumillaka and Kaviputra". Nothing is definitely known about the last two persons beyond that Prof. Bhide identifies them with 'Ramila' and 'Somila', the courtpoets of Sudraka, as mentioned by the poet Rajasekhara". So we cannot ascertain with any amount of certainty the influence exerted by the writings of these two poets on Kalidasa. But a perusal of the works of Bhasa, discovered by Mahamahopadhyaya T. Ganapati Sastri M.A. of Trivandrum. will seem to indicate that our poet in indebted (?) to his writings for very many fine ideas. Such of them as occur in Sakuntala have been pointed out in proper places. Inquisitive readers might profitably refer to Sastri's Introduction to Svapnavasavadatta and Pratima in this connection. In must be noted here that we keep ourselves absolutely open in regard to the controversy that has been aroused on this question". The alleged works of Bhasa have been in the 31. 'prathitayasasam bhasa- saumillaka-kaviputradinam ' &c. - Mala. I. 32. 'tau sudraka - kathakarau ramyau ramila-somilo ' | Also bhaso ramila- somilo vararucih srisahasaduh kavih ' &c. Sarigadharapaddhati, (Rajasekhara) -No. 88. 33. "The plays of Bhasa"-A. Banerjee Sastri, J.R.A.S. July 1921. The Journal of the Behar and Orissa Research Society, March, 1923-Ibid. "On the relationship between Mricchakatika and Carudatta" (Proceedings of the First Oriental Conference, Poona) -Belvelkar. J. B. O. S. 42. 'Studies in Bhasa III'. -Dr. Sukthankar. 'Bhasa riddle; A proposed solution'-Ibid J. B. B. R. A. S. Vol. I. 1. 137-138. "The Sanskrit Drama'-Dr. Keith. 'kavi bhasa o tadracita natakem (maharastra sahitya patrika ) - (Sept. 1920)-Kane. "Thirteen newly discovered dramas attributed to Bhasa" (Indian Antiquary. Decem. 1916)-Bhattanatha, 'Bhasa Studien'-- Dr. Max Lindenan. "bhasa ki abhasa " (vividhajnana- vistara ¶¶¶-April, 1916)-Raddi. 'Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of India, No. 28. Bhasa and the Authorship of the 13 Trivandrum plays'-Hirananda Sastri. 'Plays ascribed to Bhasa, their authenticity and merits'-Devadhara. Bhasa's works' (A criticism)-Pisharoty. 'Bhasa'-Pusalkar. _ another side-C. Kuhan Raja. Bhasa

first place, descredited altogether as spurious. A class of scholars have definitely set their faces against the acceptance of these works as products of Bhasa. They have pointed to the fact that there is no mention of the author in any of these plays. There are others who while preferring to remain indecisive on the question of their authenticity, are of opinion that they must have been the works of an author who came later than Kalidasa, and who it is, and not Kalidasa, that must be held the debtor. A third class of critics relegate these plays to an even inferior position of mere dramatic anthologies collated from various masterpieces for the popular Kerala stage in South India. European as well as Indian scholars may be found in each of these schools of opinion; and all that may be said at this stage on this controversy is that it is still in far too nebulous state to warrant a text-maker to hitch on to any of these beliefs. We have thought it accordingly advisable to proceed on the assumption of their authenticity, while the controversial storm should subside and a definite conclusion is arrived at. Opinions vary as to the relative superiority of Kalidasa and Kalidasa and Bhavabhuti Bhavabhuti. Leaving aside the disputations of the Pundits, we shall in the following lines note the chief difference between the two. Undoubtedly both were great poets. But what gives Kalidasa the position of pre-eminence among poets is the versatility of his genius. In Drama as well as in Epic and Lyric poetry he is equally at his best. Himself a poet of a high order, Bhavabhuti could not completely divest himself of the magical influence of Kalidasa's poetry, and his great indebtedness to his predecessor for many of his finest ideas and images, is brought out by a careful study of his masterpiece, the Uttara-Ramacaritam. But even where he has borrowed, he has not failed to leave the stamp of his own genius. The materials he borrowed are presented in a manner all his own, and the touch 34. "kavayah kalidasadyah bhavabhutirmahakavih " || "taravah parijatacah snuhivrkso mahataruh " | "uttararamacarite bhavabhutivisisyate " || " bhaso hasah, kavi-kula- guruh kalidaso vilasah " - (PR. I. 22). Also- - | "sakuta-madhura-komala- vilasini kantha-kujita praye | siksasamaye'pi mude rata-lila - kalidasokti " || - ( govardhanacaryah ) || " pura kavinam ganana-prasa kanisthikadhisthita-kalidasa | adyapi tattulya- kaverabhavad anamika sarthavati babhuva " | ( subhasita ) ||

XXU ABHIJNANA SAKUNTALAM of his imagination so transforms them that they appear, not as mere repetitions and reproductions, but as entirely novel and original. The difference between the two great artists, however, comes out most prominently in their manner of depicting natural sights and sounds and the play of passions and sentiments as well as in the nature of imagery used by each. In Kalidasa, the descriptions are characterized by a terseness and power of suggestion that adds to the charm of his poetry, while Bhavabhuti is painfully elaborate and prolix in his descripitions. With the true insight of an artist Kalidasa finishes his picture with just a few significant touches, leaving the datails to be supplied by the imagination of the reader. Bhavabhuti, on the other hand, spares no pains to make his picture complete even to the minutest detail, so that the reader has hardly to exercise his imagination to understand and appreciate it. "The former suggests or indicates the sentiment, while the latter expresses in forcible language. The characters of the latter overcome by force of passion often weep bitterly, while those of the former simply shed a few tears, if they do so at all. In the language of Sanskrit critics Kalidasa's rasa is conveyed or 'abhibyakta' by the 'laksya' or the 'vyangya' sense of words, while Bhavabhuti's is conveyed by "Vacya" sense." The other distinguishing feature of Kalidasa's poetry is the aptness and the beauty of his similes and it is here that he stands without a rival. Kalidasa compares the familiar and the concrete to other familiar and concrete object, and that is why his similes have a direct appeal to the mind of the reader. Bhavabhuti, on the other hand, delights in comparing the familiar and the concrete to the remote and the abstract, with the result that his similes appear to be rather farfetched and obscure and cannot readily fascinate the reader. "There is more passion in the thought of Bhavabhuti than in those of Kalidasa, but less fancy. There are few of the elegant similitudes in which the latter is so rich and there is more that its commonplace and much that is strained and obscure. In none of his dramas does Bhavabhuti make any attempt at wit and we have no character in either of his three dramas approaching the Vidusaka. On the other hand he expatiates more largely 35. R. G. Bhandarkar, Malati-Madhava-(Preface).

n the description of human emotions and is perhaps entitled to even a higher place than his rival as a poet.""