Kalidasa’s Trilogy
About The Book
Kalidasa’s Trilogy Consists of the Bookconsists of three of kalidasa’s poetical works: Meghadootam Kaumarasambhavam and Raghuvamsham.
The book starts by introducing Kalidasa to the readers and goes on to introducing his above mentioned worlds. Then the three stories are presented not as a literal translation from Sanskrit but as an adaptation in English prose hightlighting the beauty of Kalidasa’s poetry at every step. Except for Meghadootam which is an original tale of a yaksha pinning for his wife and sending a love-massage through a cloud; Kalidasa has drawn from older sources like the Puranas and Ramayana for his other works. Kumarasambhavam is about Shiva and Parvati. Raghuvamsham is about a royal family the Suryavamsha the family of Rama of Ramayana.
The purpose of this book is to bring to the readers the treasures of Indian classic literatue so that they are able to understand and appreciate its beauty and are encouraged to read the original works.
Introduction
Even the twenty-first century admires Kalidasa the renowned poet of ancient India who composed in Sanskrit the highly-rated works Meghadootam Kumarasambhava Raghuvamsham Abhigyanashakuntalam Malavikagnimitram and Vikramorvashiyam.
But unlike most Sanskrit poets he did not speak about himself in his works. Most of the information on him is folklore rather than history. His time and place Kalidasa is supposed to have been the court-poet of Raja Vikramaditya of Ujjaini one of the navaratna (nine gems) the king had as his courtiers.
In his works Kalidasa described landmarks of Ujjaini (like the temple of Mahakala and the river Sipra) with enthusiasm and made eulogistic references to the name ‘Vikrama’. Along with wondermi descriptions of nature his work shows great familiarity with urban living especially in palaces and courts. But ‘Vikramaditya’ is a title rather than a name and there have been many kings in Indian history with the title of ‘Vikramaditya’. Which Vikramaditya should Kalidasa be dated by?
Some scholars put him in the court of a Vilcramaditya whose rule commenced in 56 BC and who is the founder of the Vikramera and would not place Kalidasa beyond the 1 century AD.
Some think that Kalidasa’s Vikramaditaya was Yashodharmadeva the king of Malaya in the 6t century AD. Others argue that Kalidasa’s works reflect the heyday of the Gupta period (300-650 AD) and there was more than one Gupta king with the title of Vikramaditya and one of these must have been Kalidasa’s Vikramaditya. What we do know for sure is that the Aihole inscription of 634 AD mentions Kalidasa by name and the Mandasor inscription of 472 AD seem to borrow from Kalidasa. These set a lower limit to Kalidasa.
Kalidasa depicted not only Ujjaini but a host of other places in northern India especially the Himalayas. He must have traveled a lot and loved doing it. He had known the smell of the freshly ploughed earth as well as that of the sap of coniferous trees. He had seen peacocks dance in the forest to the clap of thunder as well as in the palace to the jingle of ladies’ bangles.