C.D. Warner, et al., comp.
The Library of the World’s Best Literature. An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.

Kālidāsa (c. 4th Century)

Kālidāsa (kä-li-dä’sä). A celebrated Hindu poet; his date is about the middle of the fifth century A.D. He was called one of the “nine pearls,” i.e., one of the nine poets adorning the court of King Vikramaditya. His most famous work, and the one most attractive to modern readers, and greatly admired by Goethe, is the drama ‘Çakuntalā.’ It portrays a love affair that, after surmounting manifold impediments, ends at last happily, and brings home to us in a wonderful way the essential unity of human nature in all ages. It was translated into English by Sir William Jones in 1789, and by Monier-Williams in 1885, by A. W. Ryder in 1912, and has been adapted to the German stage. Kālidāsa wrote dramatic, epic, and lyric poetry. (See Critical and Biographical Introduction).

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