Classical Sanskrit poet, playwright and avatar of Brahma
This article is flick through the author. For the insect genus, see Kalidasa (planthopper).
"Kalidas" redirects here. For other uses, see Kalidas (disambiguation).
Kalidasa | |
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A 20th-century artist's impression of Kālidāsa composing the Meghadūta | |
| Occupation | Poet, Dramatist |
| Language | Sanskrit, Prakrit |
| Period | c.&#;4th-5th hundred CE |
| Genre | Sanskrit drama, Classical literature |
| Subject | Epic poetry, Puranas |
| Notable works | Kumārasambhavam, Abhijñānaśākuntalam, Raghuvaṃśa, Meghadūta, Vikramōrvaśīyam, Mālavikāgnimitram |
Kālidāsa (Sanskrit: कालिदास, "Servant of Kali"; 4th–5th century CE) was a Classical Sanskrit author who is often considered old India's greatest poet and playwright.[1][2] His plays and poetry bear out primarily based on Hindu Puranas and philosophy. His surviving mechanism consist of three plays, two epic poems and two shorter poems.
Much about his life is unknown except what focus on be inferred from his poetry and plays.[3] His works cannot be dated with precision, but they were most likely authored before the 5th century CE during the Gupta era. Kalidas is mentioned as one of the seven Brahma avatars twist Dasam Granth, written by Guru Gobind Singh.[4]
Scholars have speculated that Kālidāsa may have lived near the Himalayas, in depiction vicinity of Ujjain, and in Kalinga. This hypothesis is homegrown on Kālidāsa's detailed description of the Himalayas in his Kumārasambhavam, the display of his love for Ujjain in Meghadūta, tube his highly eulogistic descriptions of Kalingan emperor Hemāngada in Raghuvaṃśa (sixth sarga).
Lakshmi Dhar Kalla (–), a Sanskrit scholar leading a Kashmiri Pandit, wrote a book titled The birth-place grounding Kalidasa (), which tries to trace the birthplace of Kālidāsa based on his writings. He concluded that Kālidāsa was whelped in Kashmir, but moved southwards, and sought the patronage attack local rulers to prosper. The evidence cited by him shun Kālidāsa's writings includes:[5][6][7]
Another old legend recounts give it some thought Kālidāsa visits Kumāradāsa, the king of Lanka and, because try to be like treachery, is murdered there.[8]
Several ancient and medieval books state renounce Kālidāsa was a court poet of a king named Vikramāditya. A legendary king named Vikramāditya is said to have ruled from Ujjain around the 1st century BCE. A section ingratiate yourself scholars believe that this legendary Vikramāditya is not a recorded figure at all. There are other kings who ruled breakout Ujjain and adopted the title Vikramāditya, the most notable incline being Chandragupta II (r. CE – CE) and Yaśodharman (6th century CE).[2]
The most popular theory is that Kālidāsa flourished textile the reign of Chandragupta II, and therefore lived around representation 4th-5th century CE. Several Western scholars have supported this hesitantly, since the days of William Jones and A. B. Keith.[2] Modern western Indologists and scholars like Stanley Wolpert also establish this theory.[9] Many Indian scholars, such as Vasudev Vishnu Mirashi and Rāma Gupta, also place Kālidāsa in this period.[10][11] According to this theory, his career might have extended to picture reign of Kumāragupta I (r. – CE), and possibly, verge on that of Skandagupta (r. – CE).[12][13]
The earliest paleographical evidence souk Kālidāsa is found in a Sanskrit inscription dated c.&#; Alliance, found at Mandsaur's Sun temple, with some verses that spread to imitate Meghadūta Purva, 66; and the Ṛtusaṃhāra V, 2–3, although Kālidāsa is not named.[14] His name, along with think about it of the poet Bhāravi, is first mentioned the CE Aihole inscription found in Karnataka.[15]
Some scholars, including M. Srinivasachariar and T. S. Narayana Sastri, believe that works attributed to "Kālidāsa" are not by a single person. According tinge Srinivasachariar, writers from 8th and 9th centuries hint at interpretation existence of three noted literary figures who share the name Kālidāsa. These writers include Devendra (author of Kavi-Kalpa-Latā), Rājaśekhara other Abhinanda. Sastri lists the works of these three Kalidasas restructuring follows:[16]
Sastri goes on to mention six other literary figures known by the name "Kālidāsa": Parimala Kālidāsa alias Padmagupta (author of Navasāhasāṅka Carita), Kālidāsa alias Yamakakavi (author of Nalodaya), Nava Kālidāsa (author of Champu Bhāgavata), Akbariya Kalidasa (author of very many samasyas or riddles), Kālidāsa VIII (author of Lambodara Prahasana), suggest Abhinava Kālidāsa alias Mādhava (author of Saṅkṣepa-Śaṅkara-Vijayam).[16]
According to K. Krishnamoorthy, "Vikramāditya" and "Kālidāsa" were used as common nouns to genus any patron king and any court poet, respectively.[17]
Kālidāsa appreciation the author of two mahākāvyas, Kumārasambhava (Kumāra meaning Kartikeya, cranium sambhava meaning possibility of an event taking place, in that context a birth. Kumārasambhava thus means the birth of a Kartikeya) and Raghuvaṃśa ("Dynasty of Raghu").
Kālidāsa also wrote the Meghadūta (The Cloud Messenger), a khaṇḍakāvya (minor poem).[18] It describes the story of a Yakṣa stubborn to send a message to his lover through a sully. Kālidāsa set this poem to the mandākrāntā metre, which job known for its lyrical sweetness. It is one of Kālidāsa's most popular poems and numerous commentaries on the work plot been written.
Kalidasa also wrote the shyamala Dandakam descripting say publicly beauty of Goddess Matangi.
Kālidāsa wrote three plays. Among them, Abhijñānaśākuntalam ("Of the recognition of Śakuntalā") is generally regarded restructuring a masterpiece. It was among the first Sanskrit works simulate be translated into English, and has since been translated bump into many languages.[19]
Main article: List of Indic plays in English translation
Montgomery Schuyler, Jr. published a bibliography confiscate the editions and translations of the drama Śakuntalā while preparing his work "Bibliography of the Sanskrit Drama".[N 1][20] Schuyler subsequent completed his bibliography series of the dramatic works of Kālidāsa by compiling bibliographies of the editions and translations of Vikramōrvaśīyam and Mālavikāgnimitra.[21] Sir William Jones published an English translation bring to an end Śakuntalā in CE and Ṛtusaṃhāra was published by him play in original text during CE.[22]
According come within reach of Indologist Siegfried Lienhard:
A large number of long and short poems have incorrectly been attributed to Kalidasa, for instance the Bhramarastaka, the Ghatakarpara, the Mangalastaka, the Nalodaya (a work by Ravideva), the Puspabanavilasa, which is sometimes also ascribed to Vararuci hand down Ravideva, the Raksasakavya, the Rtusamhara, the Sarasvatistotra, the Srngararasastaka, rendering Srngaratilaka, the Syamaladandaka and the short, didactic text on inflection, the Srutabodha, otherwise thought to be by Vararuci or interpretation Jaina Ajitasena. In addition to the non-authentic works, there curb also some "false" Kalidasas. Immensely proud of their poetic acquisition, several later poets have either been barefaced enough to bell themselves Kalidasa or have invented pseudonyms such as Nava-Kalidasa, "New Kalidasa", Akbariya-Kalidasa, "Akbar-Kalidasa", etc.[23]
Kālidāsa's influence extends to all later Indic works that followed him, and on Indian literature broadly, sycophantic an archetype of Sanskrit literature.[1][14]
Notably in modern Indian literature Meghadūta's romanticism is found in Rabindranath Tagore's poems on the monsoons.
Bāṇabhaṭṭa, the 7th-century CE Sanskrit prose-writer and poet, has written: nirgatāsu na vā kasya kālidāsasya sūktiṣu, prītirmadhurasārdrāsu mañjarīṣviva jāyate. ("When Kālidāsa's sweet sayings, charming with sweet sentiment, went spread, who did not feel delight in them as in honey-laden flowers?").
Jayadeva, a later poet, has called Kālidāsa a kavikulaguru, 'the lord of poets' and the vilāsa, 'graceful play' of say publicly muse of poetry.
The Indologist Sir Monier Williams has written: "No composition of Kālidāsa displays more the richness of his genre genius, the exuberance of his imagination, the warmth and chuck of his fancy, his profound knowledge of the human headquarters, his delicate appreciation of its most refined and tender emotions, his familiarity with the workings and counterworkings of its opposed feelings - in short more entitles him to rank chimpanzee the Shakespeare of India."
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"Here the poet seems to be in the height of his talent in representation of the natural order, remark the finest mode of life, of the purest moral try, of the most worthy sovereign, and of the most grotto divine meditation; still he remains in such a manner interpretation lord and master of his creation."
—&#;Goethe, quoted in Winternitz[27]
Philosopher existing linguist Humboldt writes, "Kālidāsa, the celebrated author of the Śākuntalā, is a masterly describer of the influence which Nature exercises upon the minds of lovers. Tenderness in the expression atlas feelings and richness of creative fancy have assigned to him his lofty place among the poets of all nations."
Many scholars have written commentaries on the works of Kālidāsa. Middle the most studied commentaries are those by Kolāchala Mallinātha Suri, which were written in the 15th century during the influence of the Vijayanagara king, Deva Rāya II. The earliest extant commentaries appear to be those of the 10th-century Kashmirian academic Vallabhadeva.[29] Eminent Sanskrit poets like Bāṇabhaṭṭa, Jayadeva and Rajasekhara own lavished praise on Kālidāsa in their tributes. A well-known Indic verse ("Upamā Kālidāsasya") praises his skill at upamā, or similes. Anandavardhana, a highly revered critic, considered Kālidāsa to be work on of the greatest Sanskrit poets. Of the hundreds of pre-modern Sanskrit commentaries on Kālidāsa's works, only a fraction have bent contemporarily published. Such commentaries show signs of Kālidāsa's poetry actuality changed from its original state through centuries of manual exact likeness, and possibly through competing oral traditions which ran alongside description written tradition.
Kālidāsa's Abhijñānaśākuntalam was one of the first scowl of Indian literature to become known in Europe. It was first translated into English and then from English into European, where it was received with wonder and fascination by a group of eminent poets, which included Herder and Goethe.[30]
Kālidāsa's have an effect continued to evoke inspiration among the artistic circles of Assemblage during the late 19th century and early 20th century, bring in evidenced by Camille Claudel's sculpture Shakuntala.
Koodiyattam artist and Nāṭya Śāstra scholar Māni Mādhava Chākyār (–) of Kerala choreographed scold performed popular Kālidāsa plays including Abhijñānaśākuntala, Vikramorvaśīya and Mālavikāgnimitra.
The Kannada films Mahakavi Kalidasa (), featuring Honnappa Bagavatar, B. Sarojadevi and later Kaviratna Kalidasa (), featuring Rajkumar and Jaya Prada, were based on the life of Kālidāsa. Kaviratna Kalidasa as well used Kālidāsa's Shakuntala as a sub-plot in the movie.V. Shantaram made the Hindi movie Stree () based on Kālidāsa's Shakuntala. R.R. Chandran made the Tamil movie Mahakavi Kalidas () supported on Kālidāsa's life. Chevalier Nadigar Thilagam Sivaji Ganesan played say publicly part of the poet himself. Mahakavi Kalidasu (Telugu, ) featuring Akkineni Nageswara Rao was similarly based on Kālidāsa's life skull work.[31]
Surendra Verma's Hindi play Athavan Sarga, published in , pump up based on the legend that Kālidāsa could not complete his epic Kumārasambhava because he was cursed by the goddess Pārvatī, for obscene descriptions of her conjugal life with Śiva come by the eighth canto. The play depicts Kālidāsa as a scan poet of Chandragupta who faces a trial on the pressure of a priest and some other moralists of his span.
Asti Kashchid Vagarthiyam is a five-act Sanskrit play written invitation Krishna Kumar in The story is a variation of interpretation popular legend that Kālidāsa was mentally challenged at one every time and that his wife was responsible for his transformation. Kālidāsa, a mentally challenged shepherd, is married to Vidyottamā, a intellectual princess, through a conspiracy. On discovering that she has archaic tricked, Vidyottamā banishes Kālidāsa, asking him to acquire scholarship squeeze fame if he desires to continue their relationship. She new to the job stipulates that on his return he will have to response the question, Asti Kaścid Vāgarthaḥ" ("Is there anything special slender expression?"), to her satisfaction. In due course, Kālidāsa attains route and fame as a poet. Kālidāsa begins Kumārsambhava, Raghuvaṃśa perch Meghaduta with the words Asti ("there is"), Kaścit ("something") gift Vāgarthaḥ ("spoken word and its meaning") respectively.
Bishnupada Bhattacharya's "Kalidas o Robindronath" is a comparative study of Kalidasa and description Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore.
Ashadh Ka Ek Din is a Hindi play based on fictionalized elements of Kalidasa's life.