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KALIDASA

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Originally appearing in Volume V15, Page 642 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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KALIDASA , the most illustrious name among the writers of the second See also:

epoch of See also:Sanskrit literature, which, as contrasted with the See also:age of the Vedic See also:hymns, may be characterized as the See also:period of artificial See also:poetry. Owing to the See also:absence of the See also:historical sense in the See also:Hindu See also:race, it is impossible to See also:fix with See also:chronological exactness the lifetime of either Kalidasa or any other Sanskrit author. Native tradition places him in the 1st See also:century B.C.; but the See also:evidence on which this belief rests is worthless. The See also:works of the poet contain no allusions by which their date can be directly determined; yet the extremely corrupt See also:form of the See also:Prakrit or popular dialects spoken by the See also:women and the sub-See also:ordinate characters in his plays, as compared with the Prakrit in See also:inscriptions of ascertained age, led such authorities as See also:Weber and See also:Lassen to agree in fixing on the 3rd century A.D. as the approximate period to which the writings of Kalidasa should be referred. He was one of the " nine gems " at the See also:court of See also:King See also:Vikramaditya or Vikrama, at See also:Ujjain, and the tendency is now to regard the latter as having flourished about A_D. 375; others, however, See also:place him as See also:late as the 6th century. The richness of his creative See also:fancy, his delicacy of sentiment, and his keen appreciation of the beauties of nature, combined with remarkable See also:powers of description, place Kalidasa in the first See also:rank of See also:Oriental poets. The effect, however, of his productions as a whole is greatly marred by extreme artificiajity of diction, which, though to a less extent than in other Hindu poets, not unfrequently takes the form of puerile conceits and plays on words. In this respect his writings contrast very unfavourably with the more genuine poetry of the Vedas. Though a true poet, he is wanting in that See also:artistic sense of proportion so characteristic of the See also:Greek mind, which exactly adjusts the parts to the whole, and combines form and See also:matter into an inseparable poetic unity. Kalidasa's fame rests chiefly on his dramas, but he is also distinguished as an epic and a lyric poet. He wrote three plays, the plots of which all See also:bear a See also:general resemblance, inasmuch as they consist of love intrigues, which, after numerous and seemingly insurmountable impediments of a similar nature, are ultimately brought to a successful conclusion.

Of these, Sakuntala is that which has always justly enjoyed the greatest fame and popularity. The unqualified praise bestowed upon it by See also:

Goethe sufficiently guarantees its poetic merit. There are two recensions of the See also:text in See also:India, the See also:Bengali and the Devanagari, the latter being generally considered older and purer. Sakuntala was first translated into See also:English by See also:Sir See also:William See also:Jones (See also:Calcutta, 1789), who used the Bengali recension. It was soon after translated into See also:German by G. See also:Forster (1791; new ed. See also:Leipzig, 1879). An edition of the Sanskrit See also:original, with See also:French See also:translation, was published by A. L. Ch6zy at See also:Paris in 1830. This formed the basis of a translation by B. Hirzel (See also:Zurich, 1830) ; later trans. by L.

Fritze (See also:

Chemnitz, 1876). Other See also:editions of the Bengali recension were published by Prema Chandra (Calcutta, 1860) for the use of See also:European students and by R. Pischel (2nd ed., See also:Kiel, 1886). The Devanagari recension was first edited by O. See also:Bohtlingk (See also:Bonn, 1842), with a German translation. On this were based the successive German See also:translations of E. Meier (See also:Tubingen, 1851) and E. Lobedanz (8th ed., Leipzig, 1892). The same recension has been edited by Dr C. Burkhard with a Sanskrit-Latin vocabulary and See also:short Prakrit See also:gram-See also:mar (See also:Breslau, 1872), and by See also:Professor Monier See also:Williams (See also:Oxford, 2nd ed. 1876), who also translated the See also:drama (5th ed., 1887). There is another translation by P.

N. Patankar (See also:

Poona, 1888– ). There are also a See also:South See also:Indian and a Cashmir recension. The Vikramorvasi, or Urvasi won by Valour, abounds with See also:fine lyrical passages, and is of all Indian dramas second only to Sakuntala in poetic beauty. It was edited by R. See also:Lenz (See also:Berlin, 1833) and translated into German by C. G. A. See also:Hofer (Berlin, 1837), by B. Hirzel (1838), by E. Lobedanz (Leipzig, 1861) and F. Bollensen (See also:Petersburg, 1845).

There is also an English edition by Monier Williams, a metrical and See also:

prose version by Professor H. H. See also:Wilson, and a literal prose translation by Professor E. B. See also:Cowell (1851). The latest editions are by S. P. Pandit (Bombay, 1879) and K. B. Paranjpe (ibid. 1898). The third See also:play, entitled Malavikagnimitra, has considerable poetical and dramatic merit, but is confessedly inferior to the other two.

It possesses the See also:

advantage, however, that its See also:hero Agnimitra and its heroine Malavika are more See also:ordinary and human characters than those of the other plays. It is edited by O. F. Tullberg (Bonn, 1840), by Shankar P. Pandit, with English notes (1869), and S. S. Ayyar (Poona, 1896) ; translated into German by A. Weber (1856), and into English by C. H. Tawney (2nd ed., Calcutta, 1898). Two epic poems are also attributed to Kalidasa. The longer of these is entitled Raghuvamsa, the subject of which is the same as that of the Ramayana, viz. the See also:history of Rama, but beginning with a See also:long See also:account of his ancestors, the See also:ancient rulers of Ayodhya (ed. by A.

F. Stenzler, See also:

London. 1832; and with Eng. trans. and notes by Gopal Raghunath Nandargikar, Poona, 1897; See also:verse trans. by P. de See also:Lacy See also:Johnstone, 1902). The other epic is the Kumarasambhava, the theme of which is the See also:birth of Kumara, otherwise called Karttikeya or Skanda, See also:god of See also:war (ed. by Stenzler, London, 1838; K. M. Banerjea, 3rd ed. Calcutta, 1872; Parvanikara and Parab, Bombay, 1893; and M. R. Kale and S. R. Dharadhara, ibid. 1907; Eng. trans. by R.

T. See also:

Griffith, 1879). Though containing many fine passages, it is tame as a whole. His lyrical poems are the Meghaduta and the Ritusamhara. The Meghaduta, or the See also:Cloud-Messenger, describes the complaint of an exiled See also:lover, and the See also:message he sends to his wife by a cloud. It is full of deep feeling, and abounds with fine descriptions of the beauties of nature. It was edited with See also:free English translation by H. H. Wilson (Calcutta, 1813), and by J. Gildemeister (Bonn, 1841); a German See also:adaptation by M. See also:Muller appeared at See also:Konigsberg (1847), and one by C. Schutz at See also:Bielefeld (1859).

It was edited by F. See also:

Johnson, with vocabulary and Wilson's metrical translation (London, 1867) ; later editions by K. P. Parab (Bombay, 1891) and K. B. Pathak (Poona, 1894). The Ritusamhara, or Collection of the Seasons, is a short poem, of less importance, on the six seasons of the See also:year. There is an edition by P. von Bohlen, with prose Latin and metrical German translation (Leipzig, 1840) ; Eng. trans. by C. S. Sitaram Ayyar (Bombay, 1897). Another poem, entitled the Nalodaya, or Rise of Nala, edited by F. Benary (Berlin, 1830), W.

See also:

Yates (Calcutta, 1844) and Vidyasagara (Calcutta, 1873), is a treatment of the See also:story of Nala and Damayanti, but describes especially the restoration of Nala to prosperity and See also:power. It has been ascribed to the celebrated Kalidasa, but was probably written by another poet of the same name. It is full of most absurd verbal conceits and metrical extravagances. So many poems, partly of a very different See also:stamp, are attributed to Kalidasa that it is scarcely possible to avoid the See also:necessity of assuming the existence of more authors than one of that name. It is by no means improbable that there were three poets thus named; indeed See also:modern native astronomers are so convinced of the existence of a triad of authors of this name that they apply the See also:term Kalidasa to designate the number three. On Kalidasa generally, see A. A. See also:Macdonell's History of Sanskrit Literature (1900), and on his date G. Huth, See also:Die Zeit See also:des K. (Berlin, 1890). (A. A.

End of Article: KALIDASA

Additional information and Comments

Kalidasa is called The Lord of Poetry and his famous play Sakuntala recently translated into arabic by Dr Philip Attiya and published in Series of World Theatre in Kuwait.We must mention here his great poem Megadutta which means cloudy messanger which talkes about Yaksha The soul who complains his deportation as an unjustfiable order of his master Kaffera The Lord of Wealth and please the cloud to carry his passion and love to his wife.Kalidasa himself married a princess .
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