Appointment with Kalidasa

Author(s): G K Bhatt
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 17

Appointment with Kalidasa
had assumed the title Vikramāditya. The evidence of the inscriptions and of coins has shown that Chandra Gupta II destroyed the Saka-Ksatrapas of Kathiawar; this fits with the epithet Sakāri. It is also koown that Chandra Gupta had made Ujjayini as his capital. His generosity and patronage to learned men and poets are equally well known. The evidence is regarded, therefore, as strongly supporting Kālidāsa's connection with Chandra Gupta II.
Other considerations which support this date are as follows :
(i) Buhler, Keilhorn, Keith and other scholars have shown that the paneygric composed by the poet Vatsabhattī, recorded in the inscription of the Sun-temple at Mandsor (473 A.D.) emulates to a considerable extent the poetic style of Kālidāsa. This suggests the influence of Kālidāsa and the fact that he must have preceded Vatsabhatti.
(ii) The verse, 'suśrūşasva gurūn...' in Sakuntala,12 in which Kanva's advice to his daughter and to the newly married girl is contained, shows a striking similarity of thought and diction with those in the Kamasutra of Vātsyāyana. Kālidāsa's deep study of the Kāmasūtra is evident from his writings. The probable date of Vātsyāyana is 250 A.D. Kālidāsa obviously appears to have succeeded him.
(iii) The envoy mentioned in the poem Kuntaleśvara-dautya is probably Kālidāsa himself. The Kuntalesa is the grand-son of Chandra Gupta Vikramāditya, the Vakātaka king Pravarsena II. 13 The daughter of Chandra Gupta, Prabhāvatiguptā, was married to Vākāțaka Rudrasena (395 A. D.); Pravarasena is her son. He was a child at this time; so Prabhāvarīguptā was looking after the administration of the kingdom under the guidance and direction of her father Chandra Gupta. This political happening is corroborated by the description in Kuntaleśvara-dautya, 'The over-lord of Kuntala has placed the burden (of political administration) on you'. The particular verse is supposed to have been said by Kālidāsa bimself according to the Srngäraprakāśa of Bhoja;14 this suggests the possibility that the envoy or the messenger must have been Kalidasa himself. The literary reference and history, thus, indicate fourth century A. D. as the date of Kālidāsa.
(iv) The Prakrit epic Setubandha or Rāvanavaho to which Bāņa alludes is supposed to have been composed by Pravarasena, and belongs to a period earlier than the seventh century A. D. Pravarasena is Kuntalesa mentioned above. It is likely that Pravarasena wrote this poem and Kālidāsa corrected and improved it; or Kālidāsa himself may have composed it for Pravarasena.15
(v) The Gupta Age is known as the golden age in ancient Indian history. It was an age of the revival of Sanskrit learning and arts which received an afflatus from royal interest; it was also the age which bestowed new glory on the BrahmaDical religion. It is reasonable to associate Kālidāsa with an age of prosperity and glory; his literature bears the stamp of this age.