Posts

Showing posts with the label Kalidasa India dramatist

Kalidasa: India’s Foremost Classical Dramatist and Poet

Image
Shakuntala stops to look back at Dushyanta, Raja Ravi Varma (1848-1906). Kalidasa, the greatest of India’s dramatists and poets, has been given the title of Indian Shakespeare by his first English translator, Sir William Jones , the first president of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, founded in 1784. His Abhijnanasakuntala (Recognition of Sakuntala) won unqualified praise from Goethe . Not much is known of Kalidasa‘s life, but there is sufficient evidence to conclude that he lived at the court of Chandragupta II (c 376-415) of the Gupta dynasty. Chandragupta II was a great patron of the arts. Kalidasa wrote three dramas namely Malvikagnimitra , a comedy of harem love and intrigue ending in the marriage of Shunga king Agnimitra and princess Malvika ; Vikramorvasi (Urvasi won by valour), narrating the ancient story of love, separation and final union of the king Puruavas and the nymph Urvasi, and Abhijnanasakuntala . He was the author of two long poems Kumarasambhava (Birth