KALIDASA THE GREAT POET IN SANSKRIT

 

            The classical Sanskrit literature begins more or less with Kalidasa. It is an irony that practically very little is known about the life and date of the greatest of Sanskrit poets namely Kalidasa. Numerous theories have been presented on his date based on certain internal and external evidences. But there are so many contradictory details that many of these theories prove to be unconvincing.

1.   The Korur theory:

Alberuni of 11^th century A.D. records in his travelogue a battle at Korur where one ‘ivaËmaaid%ya’ (Vikramaditya) defeated the ‘mlaocC’ s – Mlecchas (foreigners). The tradition says that Kalidasa lived in the court of King ‘ivaËmaaid%ya’ (Vikramaditya). This battle took place in 544 A.D. and to commemorate it an era called ‘ivaËmaSakabd’ (Vikrama Sakabda) was founded by Vikramaditya and dated back by 600 years. Hence the Vikrama starts from 56 B.C. The theory says that Kalidasa might have lived in the court of Vikramaditya. According to this theory, Kalidasa could have lived about 544 A.D. This theory has been propounded by Prof.Fergusson. But it has been disproved by the discovery of the Mandasor inscription dated as early as 484 A.D. which clearly mentions the era in question.

2.   Nine gems theory:

This was propounded by Scholar named Dr.Kern on the basis of the traditional association of Kalidasa with a King called Vikramaditya. There is a traditional verse which talks about the nine poets who ornamented the court of Vikramaditya.

'Qanvantir xapNak AmarisaMh SaMku vaotalaBa+ GaTkp-r kailadasaa:.

    #yaatao varahimaihrao naRpto: saBaayaaM r%naaina vaO varÉicana-va ivaËmasya..’

This verse refers to the fact that Dhanvantari, Kshhapanaka etc. were the nine gems in the court of King Vikramaditya. A Buddhist shrine at Bodhgaya was constructed by one 'Amardova:’ (Amaradeva). This is not referred to by Fahein, the Chinese traveller, who was in India in 414 A.D. But another Chinese traveller by name Huien Tsang who came to India in 642 A.D. makes clear reference to this temple. The author of this theory had identified the builder of this temple 'Amardova’ with 'AmarisaMh’ (Amarasimha) and with the help of traditional contemporaneity of 'AmarisaMh’ with Kaidasa, he places Kalidasa somewhere in the 6^th century A.D. and to prove this, he also calculated an astronomical grounds the death of 'varahimaihr:’ (Varahamihira), the astronomer, to have occurred in 587 A.D. This theory gets exploded because of the poor identification 'Amardova’ with 'AmarisaMh’ the lexicographer.

      

3.   Renaissance theory:

Prof.Maxmuller is the author of this theory. He holds that the Vedic age and the first phase of Sanskrit literature ended with the 1^st century B.C. Then as a result of frequent foreign invasions, there was a long interval of literary inactivity. The first five centuries of the Christian era formed a dark age in the history of Sanskrit literature. Then there was a revival in all branches of learning in the reign of King ‘ivaËmaaid%ya’ (Vikramaditya) of the 6^th century A.D. which can be considered as the golden age of court poetry. Kalidasa was the leader of this renaissance and so he must have lived in the 6^th century A.D. This theory is not feasible for the Gupta age is considered as the golden age in the Indian history and no one can assume any literary inactivity during that period.

 

 

4.     Traditional theory:

            The theory which is consistent with the Indian tradition and which is upheld by most of the Indian scholars and by Sir William Jones among those of the western scholars is the one which assigns Kalidasa to the 1^st century B.C. The patron of Kalidasa is identified with Vikramaditya in whose commemoration the famous Vikrama Era was started in 56 B.C. He is the actual King Vikramaditya who bore the name, whereas many other kings of later age only bore such a title. The argument for dismissing the fame of Vikramaditya of 1^st B.C. as a purely legendary figure is not convincing. The prescription of death penalty for the crime of theft and the denial of the right of inheriting the husband’s property to the widow which are in the drama ‘AiBa&anaSaakuntlama\’ clearly points to an age before the beginning of the Christian era when the ‘smaRit’s (Smrtis) supporting those customs were in vogue.

            The similarity in style and thought between Asvaghsha - ‘ASvaGaaoYa’, who is a Buddhist and a philosopher in main and a poet by the way, and Kalidasa who was solely a poet and a dramatist of established fame only led to this conclusion that Asvaghosha followed Kalidasa as a model and not vice versa.

            Still others have assigned Kalidasa to the 2^nd Century B.C. and have argued that he must have been a contemporary of King Agnimitra of the Shunga dynasty whom the poet has immortalised in the play ‘maalaivakaignaima~ma\’ (Malavikagnimitram). There are other theories built on very slender or fictitious grounds. The author of a work called Bhojaprabandha makes Kalidasa a court poet of King Bhoja of Dhara. This theory is absurd on the face of it. First  because it brings Kalidasa down to 11^th C.A.D. a date too improbable in the light of earlier reference to the poet and second because it groups under the patronage of the same king authors of different periods like Kalidasa, Bhavabhuti, Dandin etc.

            A theory that has been generally accepted by the western scholars of research is the one that holds Kalidasa to have lived in the glorious age of imperial Guptas. Dr.A.B.Keith places him in the age of Chandragupta the Second of Ujjain who ruled upto 413A.D. and bore the title of Vikramaditya. In support of this theory it is said that the play called ‘ivaËmaaova-SaIyama\’ (Vikramorvasiyam) was so named in honour of the patron who was known as Vikramaditya. Samudragupta, the father of Chandragupta the Second performed a horse sacrifice. As it was a memorable incident witnessed after a long interval, it has been alluded to by Kalidasa in his drama Malavikagnimitram. Kumarasambhavam was so named in order to commemorate the birth of prince Kumaragupta. It was Chandragupta the Second that brought Ujjain under the Gupta rule and this accounts for the poet’s rapturous references to this city in his poems. Therefore the period of the poet must be somewhere in the beginning of the 5^th A.D. for, Chandragupta the Second ruled fron 380 A.D. to 413 A.D.