Kalidasa

Kalidasa (4th – 5th Century) was the greatest of the Indian dramatists and poets who wrote in Sanskrit. He lived during the reign of Chandra Gupta II and Kumara Gupta. His major works are: Epics - Raghuvansham (Dynasty of Raghu) and Kumarsambhavam (The Birth of the War God Kartikeya ); Plays - Malvikagnimitra (Malvika and Agnimitra) (a comedy of harem intrigue), Vikramorvashiyam (Urvashi Won by Valour ), Abhigyan Shakuntalam (Recognition of Shakuntala); and Lyrics - Meghadootam (the Cloud Messenger) and Ritu Sanhara (Garland of Seasons). Two of his great works were translated under the titles "The Lost Ring" and "The Hero and the Nymph," by Sir William Jones. He was much praised by Goethe and Max Müller.

Little in known about Kalidasa. According to a legend, he was one of the “nine gems” at the court of the fabulous king Vikramaditya of Ujjain (now in Madhya Pradesh). Since, Vikramaditya, who started the Vikrama Samvat calendar in 57 BC after defeating the Shakas, was a legendary king, scholars generally think that Kalidasa should be associated, but not known with certainty, with Chandra Gupta II (reigned c. 380–c. 415), who was also known a Vikramaditya. The cultural values mentioned in Kalidasa's works suggest to this period. The Mandasor inscription of 473, apparently imitated Kalidasa, though not mentioned him. There are other traditions, which claimed he was from Darbhanga (Dwar Banga, that is the Door of Bengal), Kashmir, Kalinga, Uttarakhand, and even Sri Lanka. Kalidasa's life and death are still matters of speculation. According to a legend - he was found as keeper of animals by the king's people while cutting the branch of a tree on which he was sitting. They took him to be the most foolish person, and taken him to be married to Vikramaditya's daughter Vidyottama, under a conspiracy by her teacher Vararuchi, who was offended by her. The king had decided to marry her with a person who would be more intelligent and wise than her. However, Vararuchi had conspired against her to be married to an animal keeper and a fool. He was subsequently married to Vidyottama, who found Kalidasa to be a fool. He was then expelled from the kingdom. It is said that he then worked as cook in an Asharam (residential school) where he learned by hearing what were being taught to students. From there he returned to debate with his wife Vidyottama, and dictated several works. When Vidyottama insisted on changing some texts from Kumarsambhavam, which she found vulgar, he refused. This worsened their relationship, and he left Ujjain never to return again. He then traveled far and wide across the country. A Sinhalese tradition relates his death by murder in Sri Lanka, by the woman with whom he was living. It is said that the woman stabbed him to death after knowing the second line of a couplet on the spot under a spell of greed to win a promised prize from the king to whoever supplied the second line. Nevertheless, the claims about his life and death are mostly unverified, except what is suggested by his own writing, which tells many thing but too little about his own life.

Wisdom & Quotes

• Praise to you, O Trinity,

one before creation,
afterwards divided
in your three qualities ! ...

You, the one cause
of death and life and birth,
in your three forms
proclaim your own glory...

In the cycle of your day and night
all things live and all things die.

When you wake we live,
when you sleep we perish...

Hard and soft, large and small,
heavy and light, you are all things,
You are both substance and form,
ineffable in power...

You are the knower and the known,
You are the eater and the food,
You are priest and the oblation,
You are the worshipper and the prayer.
- Kumarsambhavam Mahakavyam

• With their teeth half-shown in causeless laughter,

and their efforts at talking so sweetly uncertain,
when children ask to sit on his lap,
a man is blessed, even by the dirt on their bodies.
– Abhigyan Shakuntalam

• Even in birds and beasts the female needs no lessons in deceit !

How much less she who has the power of reason !
Cuckoos, before they take to flight,
make sure that other birds will rear their chicks !
- Abhigyan Shakuntalam

• One should think hard before making love,

especially in secret.
Friendship to those whose hearts we know not
soon turns to hatred.
- Abhigyan Shakuntalam

• The word of one who from her birth

has learnt no guile carries no weight at all,
but they who have mastered the science of deceit
have power to speak words of authority.
- Abhigyan Shakuntalam

• Here is your Lordship's wife -

leave her or accept her.
It is said that the husband's power
over the wife is all-embracing.
- Abhigyan Shakuntalam

• The moon awakens the night-flowering lotuses,

and the sun those that flower by day,
The way of the man of self-control
is to have no dealings with the wife of another.
- Abhigyan Shakuntalam

• If a professor thinks what matters most

Is to have gained an academic post
Where he can earn a livelihood, and then
Neglect research, let controversy rest,
He's but a petty tradesman at the best,
Selling retail the work of other men.
– Mālavikāgnimitram

• O my good fortune, please subdue the anguish of your Soul. Nobody is destined only to happiness or to pain. The wheel of life takes one up and down by turn.

– Meghadootam

• O thou who didst create this All,

Who dost preserve it, lest it fall,
Who wilt destroy it and its ways—
To thee, O triune Lord, be praise.
– Raghuvansham

• Though many different paths, O Lord,

May lead us to some great reward,
They gather and are merged in thee
Like floods of Ganges in the sea.
– Raghuvansham

Talmud