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Period of Life and Literary Activity
Chandra Gupta II ruled from 380 to 413 A. D. Thus, the fourth century and the beginning of the fifth appears to be the period of Kalidāsa's life and literary activity.
Evidence for earlier date :
Tradition connects Kalidāsa with Vikramaditya : there are many scholars who are inclinded to accept an early date for Kālidása, synchronising with Vikram Samvat 57 B. C., that is, the first century B. C.
(i) The difficulty in commending this view was that history was not aware of any Vikramāditya' or of the commencement of some Samvat or Śaka in the first century preceding Christian era. But it appears from Vatsabhatti's Mandasor inscription that one 'Mālavagana' was in vogue in this period of time. 16 It is, therefore, possible to say that the allusion to 'Malavagana-sthiti' in the inscription is not connected with a ruling gaña or tribe but with a particular system of calculatiog calender years. It is also possible that the Mālavagana, suffering a defeat from the Greek soldiers in their confrontation with Alexander, may have moved down to Malwa and Rajputana where they tried to consolidate their hold. The leader of this gana was one Vikraināditya; he had repulsed the Greek advance in the first century B. C., earning the title 'Sakari', and had started his own era or Samvat; but considering that a gana or tribe is greater than an individual, the era was not started with the name Vikrama-samvat but with the tribe's name Mālavagaņa.17
A royal family called Gardabhilla was ruling at Ujjayini in the first century B. C. Vikramaditya, son of Gardabhilla, had repulsed and driven out the sakas from Ujjayini and promulgated his own era, in about 56 B. C. This is recorded by a Jain writer Merutunga 18 It is also a suggestive fact that the personal name of this Vikramāditya's father was Mahendrāditya : Kālidasa has used the names or words *Mahendra' and 'Vikrama' with some deep meaning in his Vikramorvasiya, and the literary allusion is interesting.
If this evidence were acceptable, the problem of the existence of a Vikramaditya and Samvat era in the first century B. C. gets solved and Kālidāsa's connection with this period of time also becomes a reasonable assumption.
(ii) The poetic works of the Buddhist poet Aśvaghoșa and those of Kalidāsa show a remarkable similarity in thought and style. About the mutual influence of the two poets scholarly opinion is divided. Mirashi and others who assign Kālidāsa to the fourth century A. D. naturally think that Kālidāsa has imitated Aśvaghosa. On the contrary Sharadaranjan Ray, Nandargikar, Karmarkar etc. are of the opinion that Aśvaghosa was influenced by Kālidāsa's writing. 19 Any way, the evidence suggests that the two poets may not have been far removed from each other in time; Ašvaghosa is supposed to belong to the first century A. D.
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