Kalidasa is one of the greatest poets and playwrights India has ever produced. He resided at the court of the Gupta king Chandragupta II, in Pataliputra.
He wrote poems of epic proportions for music and dance and he is regarded as the most outstanding writer of classical Sanskrit. He wrote his plays and poetry largely based around Hindu mythology and philosophy.
His name means, literally, ‘Kali’s servant’. Numerous works have been attributed to his authorship. Only seven are generally considered genuine. Three famous plays written by Kalidasa are Malavikagnimitram, Vikramorvasiyam and Abhijnanashakuntalam. The last is the story of Shakuntala. It is the most famous, and was the first to be translated into English and German.
In addition to his plays, Kalidasa wrote two surviving epic poems Raghuvamsham and Kumarasambhavam, as well as the lyrical Meghadutam and Ritusamharam. His choice of words, the beauty of his imagery and his complete control over the language made him the most outstanding literary figure of the Gupta period.
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