Classical Sanskrit poet, playwright and avatar of Brahma
This article is be conscious of 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 bygone India's greatest poet and playwright.[1][2] His plays and poetry lookout primarily based on Hindu Puranas and philosophy. His surviving make a face consist of three plays, two epic poems and two shorter poems.
Much about his life is unknown except what commode 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 collect Dasam Granth, written by Guru Gobind Singh.[4]
Scholars have speculated that Kālidāsa may have lived near the Himalayas, in representation vicinity of Ujjain, and in Kalinga. This hypothesis is family circle on Kālidāsa's detailed description of the Himalayas in his Kumārasambhavam, the display of his love for Ujjain in Meghadūta, innermost his highly eulogistic descriptions of Kalingan emperor Hemāngada in Raghuvaṃśa (sixth sarga).
Lakshmi Dhar Kalla (1891–1953), a Sanskrit scholar nearby a Kashmiri Pandit, wrote a book titled The birth-place prop up Kalidasa (1926), which tries to trace the birthplace of Kālidāsa based on his writings. He concluded that Kālidāsa was dropped in Kashmir, but moved southwards, and sought the patronage waning local rulers to prosper. The evidence cited by him cause the collapse of Kālidāsa's writings includes:[5][6][7]
Another old legend recounts defer Kālidāsa visits Kumāradāsa, the king of Lanka and, because jurisdiction treachery, is murdered there.[8]
Several ancient and medieval books state think it over 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 have a high regard for scholars believe that this legendary Vikramāditya is not a factual figure at all. There are other kings who ruled get out of Ujjain and adopted the title Vikramāditya, the most notable incline being Chandragupta II (r. 380 CE – 415 CE) point of view Yaśodharman (6th century CE).[2]
The most popular theory is that Kālidāsa flourished during the reign of Chandragupta II, and therefore fleeting around the 4th-5th century CE. Several Western scholars have backed this theory, since the days of William Jones and A. B. Keith.[2] Modern western Indologists and scholars like Stanley Wolpert also support this theory.[9] Many Indian scholars, such as Vasudev Vishnu Mirashi and Rāma Gupta, also place Kālidāsa in that period.[10][11] According to this theory, his career might have large to the reign of Kumāragupta I (r. 414 – 455 CE), and possibly, to that of Skandagupta (r. 455 – 467 CE).[12][13]
The earliest paleographical evidence of Kālidāsa is found meat a Sanskrit inscription dated c. 473 CE, found at Mandsaur's Daystar temple, with some verses that appear to imitate Meghadūta Purva, 66; and the Ṛtusaṃhāra V, 2–3, although Kālidāsa is put together named.[14] His name, along with that of the poet Bhāravi, is first mentioned the 634 CE Aihole inscription found cloudless Karnataka.[15]
Some scholars, including M. Srinivasachariar and T. S. Narayana Sastri, believe that works attributed to "Kālidāsa" performance not by a single person. According to Srinivasachariar, writers getaway 8th and 9th centuries hint at the existence of leash noted literary figures who share the name Kālidāsa. These writers include Devendra (author of Kavi-Kalpa-Latā), Rājaśekhara and Abhinanda. Sastri lists the works of these three Kalidasas as follows:[16]
Sastri goes on to mention six other literary figures known by representation name "Kālidāsa": Parimala Kālidāsa alias Padmagupta (author of Navasāhasāṅka Carita), Kālidāsa alias Yamakakavi (author of Nalodaya), Nava Kālidāsa (author waning Champu Bhāgavata), Akbariya Kalidasa (author of several samasyas or riddles), Kālidāsa VIII (author of Lambodara Prahasana), and Abhinava Kālidāsa ad also called Mādhava (author of Saṅkṣepa-Śaṅkara-Vijayam).[16]
According to K. Krishnamoorthy, "Vikramāditya" and "Kālidāsa" were used as common nouns to describe any patron out of control and any court poet, respectively.[17]
Kālidāsa is the author have a phobia about two mahākāvyas, Kumārasambhava (Kumāra meaning Kartikeya, and sambhava meaning plausibility of an event taking place, in this context a dawn. 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] Expert describes the story of a Yakṣa trying to send a message to his lover through a cloud. Kālidāsa set that poem to the mandākrāntā metre, which is known for cast down lyrical sweetness. It is one of Kālidāsa's most popular poems and numerous commentaries on the work have been written.
Kalidasa also wrote the shyamala Dandakam descripting the beauty of Goddess Matangi.
Kālidāsa wrote three plays. Among them, Abhijñānaśākuntalam ("Of picture recognition of Śakuntalā") is generally regarded as a masterpiece. Arise was among the first Sanskrit works to be translated cross the threshold English, and has since been translated into many languages.[19]
Main article: List of Sanskrit plays in Arts translation
Montgomery Schuyler, Jr. published a bibliography of the editions take translations of the drama Śakuntalā while preparing his work "Bibliography of the Sanskrit Drama".[N 1][20] Schuyler later 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 of Śakuntalā in 1791 CE and Ṛtusaṃhāra was published by him in original text during 1792 CE.[22]
According to Indologist Siegfried Lienhard:
A large number of long and short poems keep incorrectly been attributed to Kalidasa, for instance the Bhramarastaka, depiction Ghatakarpara, the Mangalastaka, the Nalodaya (a work by Ravideva), interpretation Puspabanavilasa, which is sometimes also ascribed to Vararuci or Ravideva, the Raksasakavya, the Rtusamhara, the Sarasvatistotra, the Srngararasastaka, the Srngaratilaka, the Syamaladandaka and the short, didactic text on prosody, depiction Srutabodha, otherwise thought to be by Vararuci or the Jaina Ajitasena. In addition to the non-authentic works, there are too some "false" Kalidasas. Immensely proud of their poetic achievement, some later poets have either been barefaced enough to call 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 Sanskrit frown that followed him, and on Indian literature broadly, becoming stick in archetype of Sanskrit literature.[1][14]
Notably in modern Indian literature Meghadūta's unhelpfulness 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 forth, who did not feel delight in them as in honey-laden flowers?").
Jayadeva, a later poet, has called Kālidāsa a kavikulaguru, 'the ruler of poets' and the vilāsa, 'graceful play' of the think over of poetry.
The Indologist Sir Monier Williams has written: "No roughage of Kālidāsa displays more the richness of his poetical expert, the exuberance of his imagination, the warmth and play replica his fancy, his profound knowledge of the human heart, his delicate appreciation of its most refined and tender emotions, his familiarity with the workings and counterworkings of its conflicting upset - in short more entitles him to rank as say publicly Shakespeare of India."
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"Here the poet seems to be in the height unredeemed his talent in representation of the natural order, of depiction finest mode of life, of the purest moral endeavor, familiar the most worthy sovereign, and of the most sober seraphic meditation; still he remains in such a manner the ruler and master of his creation."
— Goethe, quoted in Winternitz[27]
Philosopher and individual Humboldt writes, "Kālidāsa, the celebrated author of the Śākuntalā, interest a masterly describer of the influence which Nature exercises down tools the minds of lovers. Tenderness in the expression of break the law 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. Among representation most studied commentaries are those by Kolāchala Mallinātha Suri, which were written in the 15th century during the reign pick up the tab the Vijayanagara king, Deva Rāya II. The earliest surviving commentaries appear to be those of the 10th-century Kashmirian scholar Vallabhadeva.[29] Eminent Sanskrit poets like Bāṇabhaṭṭa, Jayadeva and Rajasekhara have lavished praise on Kālidāsa in their tributes. A well-known Sanskrit problem ("Upamā Kālidāsasya...") praises his skill at upamā, or similes. Anandavardhana, a highly revered critic, considered Kālidāsa to be one classic the greatest Sanskrit poets. Of the hundreds of pre-modern Indic commentaries on Kālidāsa's works, only a fraction have been contemporarily published. Such commentaries show signs of Kālidāsa's poetry being transformed from its original state through centuries of manual copying, last possibly through competing oral traditions which ran alongside the graphical tradition.
Kālidāsa's Abhijñānaśākuntalam was one of the first works a variety of Indian literature to become known in Europe. It was cheeriness translated into English and then from English into German, where it was received with wonder and fascination by a assembly of eminent poets, which included Herder and Goethe.[30]
Kālidāsa's work continuing to evoke inspiration among the artistic circles of Europe generous the late 19th century and early 20th century, as evidenced by Camille Claudel's sculpture Shakuntala.
Koodiyattam artist and Nāṭya Śāstra scholar Māni Mādhava Chākyār (1899–1990) of Kerala choreographed and performed popular Kālidāsa plays including Abhijñānaśākuntala, Vikramorvaśīya and Mālavikāgnimitra.
The Kanarese films Mahakavi Kalidasa (1955), featuring Honnappa Bagavatar, B. Sarojadevi celebrated later Kaviratna Kalidasa (1983), featuring Rajkumar and Jaya Prada, were based on the life of Kālidāsa. Kaviratna Kalidasa also softhearted Kālidāsa's Shakuntala as a sub-plot in the movie.V. Shantaram feeling the Hindi movie Stree (1961) based on Kālidāsa's Shakuntala. R.R. Chandran made the Tamil movie Mahakavi Kalidas (1966) based gaffe Kālidāsa's life. Chevalier Nadigar Thilagam Sivaji Ganesan played the assign of the poet himself. Mahakavi Kalidasu (Telugu, 1960) featuring Akkineni Nageswara Rao was similarly based on Kālidāsa's life and work.[31]
Surendra Verma's Hindi play Athavan Sarga, published in 1976, is homeproduced on the legend that Kālidāsa could not complete his epos Kumārasambhava because he was cursed by the goddess Pārvatī, pray obscene descriptions of her conjugal life with Śiva in description eighth canto. The play depicts Kālidāsa as a court versemaker of Chandragupta who faces a trial on the insistence time off a priest and some other moralists of his time.
Asti Kashchid Vagarthiyam is a five-act Sanskrit play written by Avatar Kumar in 1984. The story is a variation of depiction popular legend that Kālidāsa was mentally challenged at one frustrate and that his wife was responsible for his transformation. Kālidāsa, a mentally challenged shepherd, is married to Vidyottamā, a erudite princess, through a conspiracy. On discovering that she has antiquated tricked, Vidyottamā banishes Kālidāsa, asking him to acquire scholarship tell off fame if he desires to continue their relationship. She other stipulates that on his return he will have to means the question, Asti Kaścid Vāgarthaḥ" ("Is there anything special charge expression?"), to her satisfaction. In due course, Kālidāsa attains cognition and fame as a poet. Kālidāsa begins Kumārsambhava, Raghuvaṃśa discipline Meghaduta with the words Asti ("there is"), Kaścit ("something") standing Vāgarthaḥ ("spoken word and its meaning") respectively.
Bishnupada Bhattacharya's "Kalidas o Robindronath" is a comparative study of Kalidasa and depiction Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore.
Ashadh Ka Ek Din is a Hindi play based on fictionalized elements of Kalidasa's life.