Who was Kalidasa?
Kalidasa was a famous Indian poet and dramatist. He was a master of Sanskrit language and perhaps the greatest writer of any Indian epoch. He is usually compared with Shakespeare, the great English dramatist.
Kalidasa was known to be a Brahmin who was orphaned in childhood and brought up by a cowherd. He did not receive any formal education for eighteen years. Then, as luck would have it, he came to marry a princess — the marriage being brought about by a minister of the princess’s father, with a view to teach her a lesson! The boy was introduced as a learned Pandit. When the princess came to know of the truth, she was highly distressed. She insisted on Kalidasa acquiring higher education by pleasing goddess Kali. The goddess took pity on him and blessed him. Soon Kalidasa became a very learned man and a great poet. He called his wife as his ‘guru’.
As legend goes, Kalidasa was one of the nine distinguished courtiers of King Vikramaditya of Ujjain. He lived sometime between 170 B.C. when the Sunga King Agnimitra ruled and 634 A.D. to which Aihole inscription dates. Many scholars opine that Kalidasa was present during the reign of Chandragupta II (380 A.D. - 415 A.D.). According to a Sinhalese account, he died in Ceylon during the reign of Kumaradasa in the 6th century A.D.
Kalidasa was probably a very cultured man, full of humour and buoyancy. He had high esteem for women.
There are seven famous works of Kalidasa — three plays and four long poems. All of them are in Sanskrit.
Abhijnana Shakuntalam (“Shakuntala recognized”) is regarded as his greatest play, and usually judged as the best Indian literary effort of any period. Taken from an Indian legend, it tells of the love between the nymph Shakuntala and King Dushyanta, his rejection of the girl and his child and their subsequent reunion in heaven. The work is important because of the child, Bharata, after whom Bharatvarsha came to be named.
The second play Vikramorvasi (‘Urvasi won by valour’) tells of a legend as old as the Vedas. Its theme is the love of mortal for a divine damsel.
The third play is Malvikagnimitra. Three famous long poems of Kalidasa are Raghuvansa (Dynasty of Raghu), Kumar-Sambhava (Birth of the War God) and Meghaduta (Cloud Messenger). The first recounts the legends of Rama’s forebears and descendants. The second tells the story of Siva and Parvati. The third deals with the message of a lover for his absent beloved. The fourth one is the Ritusamhara (The Garland of the Seasons) — perhaps an early work.
Kalidasa’s works reflect on the aristocratic society, sure of its dignity and power. To him goes the credit of exploiting Sanskrit to the full. Till today he is regarded as unrivalled by any other Indian writer.