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Appointment with Kalidasa
29 Uttara-Megha, 25 cd :
पृच्छन्ती वा मधुरवचनां सारिकां पञ्जरस्थां ।
कच्चिद् भर्तुः स्मरसि रसिके त्वं हि तस्य प्रियेति ॥ 30 Cr. Raghuvamsa, XIII. 11:
मातङ्गनकैः सहसात्पतद्भिभिन्नान् द्विधा पश्य समुद्रफेनान् ।
कपोलसंस्पर्शितया य एषां व्रजन्ति कर्णक्षणचामरत्वम् ॥ 31 The quotation is from the poem 'sekala': see the Sahitya Akademi publication, Ekottarasats,
1961, p. 226. The substance of Tagore's lines is : Alas, that age of Kalidasa is long past ! Learned men are now furiously debating about his precise date. One doesn't know where those years are lost is the limbo of Time. For, History holds complete silence in that connection. But if the age is gone, well and good; the worry is over! Why this futile uproar for determining the poet's date?
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