Painting by Raja Ravi Varma
“Shakuntalaa pretending to remove a thorn from her foot, while actually looking for her lover, Dushyanta”

The first day of the month of Aashaadh is observed as Mahaakawi-Kaalidaasa-dinam Kalidas-day) and tribute to this great Sanskrit poet is paid by Sanskrit lovers all over the world through various literary and theater activities. This year, Kalidas-day occurs on 2nd July 2011.

 

No undisputed information about the exact time of Kalidas’s existence is available, since this great poet has left no trace of himself in any of his works. Nor have any other contemporary scholars recorded anything about him in their works. Most speculations about his period of existence are drawn after studying his literary works and drawing parallels between the characters depicted by him and real life kings/princes that are known to have ruled India during historical times.

Thus, what can be inferred from most of the historical research about Kalidas is that he lived in India not before 152 BC (because one of the kings, who happens to be a hero of a play written by him, assumed throne in that year) and not after 634 AD (because a stone isncription mentioning Kalidas’s name, the oldest of this kind, is believed to belong to this date).

Whatever the date of Kalidas’s birth and death may be, there is no doubt that he is one of the best and most celebrated poets of Sanskrit and consequently, world literature. He enjoys the same position in Sanskrit as is enjoyed by Shakespeare in English.

Legend has that Kalidas was a shepherd and quite dumb a person upto young age. He also stammered while speaking. He lived in a kingdom which had a scholarly and beautiful princess named Vidyottamaa . She refused to marry the son of one of her ministers on the grounds that he wasn’t intellectually compatible with her. The minister, in a verge to revenge this insult, tricked her into marrying Kalidas who was disguised as a philosopher. Upon discovering the conspiracy, Vidyottamaa banished Kalidas away from home, challenging him to acquire scholarship & fame, if he desired to maintain their relationship. An insulted Kalidas performed penance upon Goddess Kaliconsequently acquiring knowledge and poetical wisdom. Upon his return to home, Vidyottamaa asked him a question ? (meaning: have you learned to talk sensibly?). It is believed that he composed three individual long poems, each beginning with the one of these words,  asti kashchit and waagarthaH , respectively.

Seven of Kalidas’s works are available today :

Three Sanskrit plays : Abhijnaanashaakuntalam  , Maalawikaagnimitram , Wikramorwashiiyam

Two lyric poems : Meghaduutam , Ritusamhaaram

Two epic poems : Raghuwamsham , Kumaarasmabhawam

Kalidas’s poetic style did change according the subject matter of his work, and poeticians and critics do find a gradual evolution and progress in his renderings. His latter works like Meghaduutam and Raghuwamsham display more maturity in ideas and expression.
However there are certain core elements which are common in all of his works and can be considered as indicative of his authorship of those works.

His detailed description of nature – rivers, moutains, landscapes, flora & fauna – is a marked feature found in all his works, so is his explicit description of romance and conjugal bliss often enjoyed by married couples. His explicit and detailed descriptions of female bodies lead to a speculation that he would have been a handsome man with too many muses during his youth. Nonetheless, he is also considered to have portrayed righteous Hindu philosophy through the behaviours of most of the lead characters in his works.

The most remarkable feature of Kalidas’s poetry is his striking and incomparable ‘Similes’. Kalidas uses similes in almost every third verse of his poetry and every fifth of the dialogues in his plays. Hence the saying (meaning: Simile belongs to Kalidas).

Kalidas seems to have been a worshipper of beauty and hence most of his renderings are about the good things in life. He has spared no effort in glorifying the brighter side of human life, which exactly is a point of criticism for most of his critics. They say that Kalidas seems to have consciously neglected the darker side of human life, not all men can afford to live a life that heroes or heroines of Kalidas’s works seem to live. Not every person can afford to appreciate nature, the way he seems to do in his works. Not every man or lady is unified with the person he or she loves. Kalidas seems to paint, they say, a very flowery picture of human life, which only exceptional men or women in this world can lead.

Some say that probably Kalidas himself led a really hard, harsh and difficult life. He was not as fortunate to live a life as he depicted in his works and creating an extremely beautiful, sweet and flowery picture of life in poetry was probably his way of reconciling and putting up with the realities of his own life.

Whatever the case may be, Kalidas seems to be a single point of discussion at some or the other time for all critics of Sanskrit poetry and literature, which reiterates the fact that he is one of the greatest poets this land has ever produced.

The following verse from an anonymous author, exactly discribes his position as an unparalleled poet of Sanskrit literature. Although an exaggeration, it states that there is no poet in Sanskrit who can be compared to Kalidas.

In Sanskrit, the little finger is called kanishthikaa and the ring finger, anaamikaa . The word ‘anaamikaa’ literally means ‘nameless’.

Counting on fingers generally starts with the little one. So, when it was decided to list all great poets of Sanskrit, people obviously started with Kalidas as the first one, counting him on the little finger. But they could not think of any other poet who was worthy to be counted after him and as such, the ring-finger did not have any poet. Hence its name anaamikaa (the nameless one) was found to be indeed befitting.