Kalidasa

(flourished fifth century CE), Indian playwright and poet. Kalidasa was the greatest poet of India's classical age, which lasted from 500 BCE to 540 CE. Despite numerous legends about him, little is known of his life. He may have been a Brahman and a devotee of Siva. He excelled in all literary genres except the novel. Tradition associates him with the semi-legendary king Vikramiditya, who is now thought to have been the great Gupta monarch Candragupta II. If correct, we have a ruling date for the king in Ujjain from 375 to 413 CE.

Kalidasa's best-known work, still sometimes performed, is the Sanskrit play Abhijnana Shakuntala (The Recognition of Shakuntala), which is the last of three dramas and a clever dramatization of part of the Mahabharata. Kalidasa's great skills in characterization, the construction of the plot and dramatic situations, and the clarity of his Sanskrit are the features that have brought praise to this love story. Kalidasa also wrote a comedy, Malavikagnimitra, about a king who falls in love with a maiden (despite already having a queen). Other plays included Vikramorvasiya, which is another love story based on a legend in the Vedas, and Satapatha Brahmana. Of his several poems, "Meghaduta" is one of the most fascinating in Sanskrit literature: just over a hundred verses telling of a minor folk deity who becomes separated from his master. In addition, another epic poem, Raghuvamsa, and several incomplete poems of Kalidasa's are extant.

Thapar, Romila. (1999) Sakuntala: Texts, Readings, Histories. New Delhi: Kali for Women.