From the absence of historical literature in India, our knowledge of the state of Hindustan between the incursion of Alexander and the Muhammadan conquest is very slight.  But it is ascertained with tolerable accuracy that, after the invasion of the kingdoms of Bactria and Afghanistan, the Tartars or Scythians (called by the Hindus ‘[S’]akas’) overran the north-western provinces of India, and retained possession of them.  The great Vikramaditya or Vikramarka succeeded in driving back the barbaric hordes beyond the Indus, and so consolidated his empire that it extended over the whole of Northern Hindustan.  His name is even now cherished among the Hindus with pride and affection.  His victory over the Scythians is believed to have taken place about B.C. 57.  At any rate this is the starting-point of the Vikrama (also called the Malava and in later times the Samvat) era, one of the epochs from which the Hindus still continue to count.  There is good authority for affirming that the reign of this Vikramarka or Vikramaditya was equal in brilliancy to that of any monarch in any age.  He was a liberal patron of science and literature, and gave splendid encouragement to poets, philologists, astronomers, and mathematicians.  Nine illustrious men of genius are said to have adorned his Court, and to have been supported by his bounty.  They were called the ‘Nine Gems’; and a not unnatural tradition, which, however, must be considered untrustworthy, included Kalidasa among the Nine.

To Kalidasa (as to another celebrated Indian Dramatist, Bhavabhuti, who probably flourished in the eighth century) only three plays are attributed; and of these the ‘[S’]akoontala’ (here translated) has acquired the greatest celebrity [2].

Indeed, the popularity of this play with the natives of India exceeds that of any other dramatic, and probably of any other poetical composition [3].  But it is not in India alone that the ‘[S’]akoontala’ is known and admired.  Its excellence is now recognized in every literary circle throughout the continent of Europe; and its beauties, if not yet universally known and appreciated, are at least acknowledged by many learned men in every country of the civilized world.  The four well-known lines of Goethe, so often quoted in relation to the Indian drama, may here be repeated: 

  ’Willst du die Bluethe des fruehen, die Fruechte des
    spaeteren Jahres,
  Willst du was reizt und entzueckt, willst du was saettigt
    und naehrt,
  Willst du den Himmel, die Erde, mit einem Namen
    begreifen: 
  Nenn’ ich, [S’]akoontala, Dich, und so ist Alles gesagt.’

  ’Would’st thou the young year’s blossoms and the fruits
    of its decline,
  And all by which the soul is charmed, enraptured,
    feasted, fed? 
  Would’st thou the Earth and Heaven itself in one sole
    name combine? 
  I name thee, O [S’]akoontala! and all at once is said.’

 E.B.  Eastwick.