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Columbia Encyclopedia entry: Kalidasa

Kalidasakä′lĭdä'sə, fl. 5th cent.?, Indian dramatist and poet. He is regarded as the greatest figure in classical Sanskrit literature. Except that he was retained by the Gupta court, no facts concerning his life are known. His three surviving plays are Sakuntala (or Shakuntala), Vikramorvasi, and Malavikagnimitra. These court dramas in verse (nataka) relate fanciful or mythological tales of profound romantic love intensified and matured by adversity. Sakuntala, which is generally considered his masterpiece, tells of a maiden, Sakuntala, whom King Dushyanta marries. The king is bewitched so that he forgets his bride until a ring he gave her is discovered in the body of a fish. In Kalidasa's two epics, Raghuvansa and Kumarasambhava, delicate descriptions of nature are mingled with battle scenes. The other poems of Kalidasa are shorter and almost purely lyrical. Meghaduta [cloud messenger] is a description of the regions of India crossed by a cloud traveling between a tree spirit and his wife. Ritusamhara describes the course of pastoral love through the six seasons into which Indians divided the year.

See B. S. Miller, The Theatre of Memory (1984); studies by M. B. Harris (1936) and K. Krishnamoorthy (1972).

Wikipedia search results for: Kālidāsa

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Kālidāsa (redirected from Kalidasa) was a renowned Classical Sanskrit writer, widely regarded as the greatest poet and dramatist in the Sanskrit language. His floruit cannot be dated with precision, but most likely falls within the Gupta period, probably in the 4th or 5th century or 6th century. The place bestowed to the English poet Shakespeare is considered akin to that held by Kālidāsa in Sanskrit literature. His plays and poetry are primarily based on Hindu mythology and philosophy. Nothing apart from his works is known with certainty about the life of Kālidāsa, such as his period or where he lived. Little is known about Kālidāsa's life. According to legend, the...more »

Columbia Encyclopedia search results: Kalidasa

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Prakrit literature
Prakrit literature. By the 6th cent. B.C. the people of India were speaking and writing languages that were much simpler than classical Sanskrit. These vernacular forms, of which there were se...
Gupta
Gupta, Indian dynasty, A.D. c.320–c.550, whose empire at its height encompassed much of N India. Ancient Indian culture reached a high point during this period. Gupta paintings adorned the cav...
Asian drama
Asian drama, dramatic works produced in the East. Of the three major Asian dramas—Sanskrit, Chinese, Japanese—the oldest is Sanskrit, although the dates of its origin are uncertain.See also Sa...
Tagore, Sir Rabindranath
Tagore, Sir Rabindranath, 1861–1941, Indian author and guru, b. Calcutta (now Kolkata). Tagore came from a wealthy Bengali family. He went abroad in 1877 to study law in England but soon retur...
Sanskrit literature
Sanskrit literature, literary works written in Sanskrit constituting the main body of the classical literature of India. The literature is divided into two main periods—the Vedic (c.1500–c.200...

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