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the mastery with which he wielded the language, and the fine sentiment with which he imparts to it a simpler or more artificial form according to the subjects of which he treats without falling into the later hairsplitting and overstepping of the boundaries of good taste; on account of the multifariousness of his creations, his ingenious invention and happy choice of subjects; on account of the complete fulfilment of his poetical intentions; and on account of the beauty of his representations, the tenderness of his feeling, and the richness of his imagination. This praise is mostly deserved by his two Dramas, the S'akuntala and the Vikrama Urvas'i. In the composition of these pieces he had only listened to the inspirations of his highly-gifted and conscious spirit, and he shows himself entirely independent of the influence of the school from which Bhavabhútí, who lived about A. D. 710, could not withdraw himself.'

About seventy-five years ago, Sir William Jones introduced Kálidása to the notice of the European literary public, by his elegant translation of the drama S'akuntalá. Professor H. H. Wilson gave a charming translation of the Vikrama Urvas'í, the "Hero and Nymph," the twinplay of S'akuntalá, in his well-known and esteemed work, the "Hindu Theatre," in 1837. The Sanskrit text, with a Latin translation, &c., was published at Berlin by R. Lenz, in 1833. Hirzel published a German translation also in 1833; F. Bollensen at Petersburg in 1846, The Sanskrit text, edited by M. Williams, was published at Hertford in 1848, and a prose translation by E. B. Cowell in 1857. The Sanskrit text of the Megha Duta, or "Cloud-Messenger," with an admirable metrical translation into English, interspersed with many learned notes, was also published in 1832, by the late Professor H. H. Wilson, who combined with profound knowledge of every branch of Sanskrit literature, poetical talent of no ordinary character. This episode has also been edited by Professor Johnson in England, by Mr. J. Gildermeister with the Sringára Tilaka at Bonn in 1841, and by Dr. Max Muller at Konigsberg. An edition, with Mallinátha's Commentary, has been published at Benares, and the text forms a part of Hœberlin's Sanskrit Anthology, which also contains Kálidásá's S'ritabodha and Ritu Sanhára. The Ritu Sanhára has been edited and translated by Bohlen, at Leipzic, in 1840; and the Sritabodha by M. E. Lancereau, at Paris, in 1855.

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The " Raghuvans'a,' a heroic poem, was translated into Latin by Adolphus Fredericus Stenzler, and published in Paris in 1832. A translation into modern Greek was published by Mr. Typaldo, at Athens, in 1849. A metrical translation of the first book, by the Rev. * Lassen's Alterthumskunde, Band. ii. p. 1158.

J. M. Mitchell, appears in our Journal for 1843, and an analysis of the whole work by the Rev. J. Long, in the Journal Beng. A. Society for 1852. A. F. Stenzler published in 1838, in Sanskrit and Latin, the first seven Cantos of the Kumára Sambhava, or "Birth of the WarGod," which has also been rendered into English verse by Mr. Ralph T. H. Griffith, and published under the patronage of the "Oriental Translation Committee" in London, 1853. Of this beautiful poem, Mr. Griffith observes that, "The Birth of the War-God was either left unfinished by its author or time has robbed us of the conclusion. The latter is the more probable supposition, tradition informing us that the poem originally consisted of twenty-two cantos." In our search throughout Gujarat and the Deccan for ancient manuscripts, we have been fortunate enough to get three venerable copies of the entire poem, and a fourth one of the 8th, 10th, and 11th chapters, and we intend to take an early opportunity of publishing the complete work in Sanskrit, with another poem of Kálidása in Mágadhí, (the Setu Kávya), which has never been brought to the notice of the learned world.

The S'akuntala, considered the gem of oriental literature, has been excellently translated into English prose by Professor Monier Williams, and published in a superb form in 1853 by Mr. Stephen Austin, who, "with an almost lavish liberality, has done everything to make the vehicle worthy of its contents."

Another edition (1853) with the Devanagari recension, literal English translation, and critical and explanatory notes, is still more valuable to the student of Sanskrit.

In 1842, Otto Böhtlingk edited the Devanágarí recension of this play at Bonn. A German version of Sir William Jones's English translation was published by Forster in 1791; and versions of the English have appeared in Danish and Italian. This play, which inspired Goëthe with rapture, led Chezy to learn Sanskrit. Chezy put it into French; Hirzel, Bahtlingk, Ernst, Meier, and Lobedanz, succeeded one another in rendering it into German prose or verse. Sanskrit editions of the play in Bengali and in Devanagarí characters have been published in Calcutta, the last (Gaudiya recension prepared by Prema Chundra Tarka vàgísha Bhattàchàrya and edited by E. B. Cowell) only a few months ago.

The first volume of a translation of the complete works of Kálidása, by M. Hippolyte Fauche, appeared last year (1859), and besides the second volume, the author promises an "Etude" on the life and works of the Indian Bard.

The Poona Sanskrit College

published some

years ago an

indifferent edition of the S'akuntalá, a few loose cantos of the Raghuvans'a, and a single one of the Kumára Sambhava. The Sanskrit text of the Málavikágnimitra by O. F. Fullbery, and of the Nalodaya by F. Benary, two works attributed to Kálidása, were published at Bonn (1840) and Berlin respectively; also a German translation of the former by A. Weber, at Berlin, in 1856.

What, then, is the personal history of the poet, whose works are regarded as so classical, and command the esteem of the learned of all nations, and whose productions have been the subject of so much critical acumen and learned elucidation?

Even the most accomplished of his native commentators, who is undoubtedly Mallinátha,* preserves a painful silence as to the personal history of the poet; and the most eminent orientalists have been compelled to admit, with regret, that not only no connected history of the life of Kálidása, and, indeed, of any of the other Sanskrit dramatie poets, can be furnished, but that there is considerable difficulty also in ascertaining the precise time at which the great poet lived.

The title of the Indian Shakspeare has been assigned to Kálidása on the authority of that prince of critics, Sir W. Jones. In the case of both Kálidása and Shakspeare, it may justly be observed that "their lives remain almost a blank, and their very name a subject of contention."

All that is generally known of Kálidása may be stated in a few words. He lived in Ujjayiní or Oujein, and was the noblest of the nine men of genius who graced the court of Vikramaditya. A memorial verse gives the names of these nine "Gems" as follows:

"Dhanwantari, Ksápanaka, Amara Sinha, S'anku, Vetálabhatta, Ghatakharpara, Kálidása, the renowned Varáha Mihira, and Vararuchi, are the nine gems of Vikrama."

Of these the most celebrated are said to have been the physician Dhanwantari; Amara Sinha, the lexicographer; Varáha Mihira, the astronomer; Vararuchi, the poet and linguist; and Kálidása, the poet and dramatist, the brightest of them of all.

The word Vikramaditya signifies "Sun of Valour," and was assumed by many kings of Ujjayiní and of other kingdoms of India.

The Vikramaditya, at whose court the great Kálidása flourished, is generally believed to be the king who, after defeating the Sakas or Scythians, established the Samvat Era, which commences fifty-seven years before Christ.

*The age of Mallinátha himself is not clearly established. Mallinátha states that he wrote his Commentary after consulting those of Dakshinávarnátha and others. He lived some time after the 14th century.

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Sir William Jones, conceiving the Vikrama mentioned in the " memorial verse to be the same as the founder of the Samvat Era, places Kálidása in the century preceding the Christian Era. Many eminent Orientalists have followed him in this opinion. He has thus come to be regarded as the contemporary of Horace and Virgil,—the reign of Vikramaditya at Ujjayiní rivalling in brilliancy that of Augustus at Rome.

Mr. Bentley, on the authority of the Bhoja Prabandha* and the Ayeen Akbari, supposed the patron of learning to be the same as

Rájá Vikrama, successor to Rájáh Bhoja," in the eleventh century of the Christian Era. Col. Wilford and Mr. James Prinsep place Kálidása in the 5th century, and Mountstuart Elphinstone adopts this date in his admirable History of India. In Gujarat, Malwa, and the Deccan, Kálidása is believed, chiefly on the authority of the Bhoja Prabandha, to have flourished at the court of Bhoja, the nephew of Munja, at Ujjayiní, in the 11th century of the Christian Era. There have been several Bhojas as well as Vikramas or Vikramadityas at Ujjayiní, the last Bhoja having flourished in the 11th century of the Christian Era; and to reconcile the two suppositions, it is necessary to suppose that the Vikrama or Vikramaditya, at whose court the "nine" learned men flourished, was also styled "Bhoja."

Professor Lassen assumes Kálidása to have flourished in the second half of the 2nd century after Christ, at the court of Samudragupta, chiefly on account of the designation, "friend of poets," applied to that king in inscriptions.

Mons. Hippolyte Fauche, who, it appears from the "Saturday Review" of January 1860, has published a French translation of the complete works of Kálidása, supposes the poet to have lived at the time of the posthumous child, who is said, at the end of the last canto of the Raghuvans'a, to have succeeded to the throne.

This would place Kálidása, at the latest, in the eighth century before Christ. Mons. Fauche thinks there is nothing so perfect in the elegiac literature of Europe as the "Megha Duta" of Kálidása.

Professor Wilson avoids giving any decided opinion regarding the exact age of Kálidása, but it is clear that he had grave doubts respect*M. Thedore Pavie has published the Bhoja Prabandha with a French translation and occasional comments, in the Jour. Asiatique, t. iv, sér. 3e, p. 210 et seq. This work is entirely untrustworthy, and has contributed much to mislead the early inquirers into Indian Antiquities. It is now scarcely necessary to point out all the errors of a book the compiler of which, ignorant alike of history and the true character of his heroes, was only bent on producing a light work to suit a modern, degenerated taste.-Author.

ing the contemporaneous existence of the poet with the Vikrama of the Samvat Era.

Colonel Tod, in "the Annals of Rajasthan," vol. i. p. 92, observes, "While Hindoo literature survives, the name of Bhoja Pramára and the nine gems of his court cannot perish; though it is difficult to say which of the three princes of his name is particularly alluded to, as they all appear to have been patrons of science." In a note, the learned Colonel gives, Samvat 631 (A. D. 575), Samvat 721* (A. D. 665), and Samvat 1100 (A. D. 1044), for the first, second, and third Bhojas respectively.

There are good reasons for accepting the above dates as correct. A Vriddha or older Bhoja is described in several Jain works as having had for his spiritual adviser, Mánatunga Súri, about the second or third century of the Christian Era, calculating from the lists of Jain hierarchs ; but there is evidently some mistake here. Mánatunga was, according to some Jain authorities, a contemporary of the poets Bána and Mayúra, but these two last undoubtedly lived at the beginning of the seventh century, as Báņa, in one of his rare productions in Sánskrit, called the "Harsha-charita," describes his visit to Harsha-Vardhana, king of S'rikantha. There is abundant evidence to prove that this king, HarshaVardhana Siláditya, is identical with the Siláditya of Kanoge, who honoured the celebrated Chinese Buddhist traveller Hiouen-Thsang. Indeed, the Indian poet and the Chinese traveller relate the history of the king with so much similarity, that one would be disposed to believe that Bána wrote the Harsha-charita after reading the historical notes of the Chinese traveller; and there is a singular passage in the work which would give a colouring to this supposition, in which Báņa speaks of the Yavana-prayukta-purána.

In looking carefully over the various legends regarding Vikrama, as given in the Vikrama-charita; in the Sinhásana dwátrinsáti ; in the Vetála panchavins'ati, an essay on Vikrama and Kálidása by Merutunga; in the Prabandha Chintamani ;† as well as in another called Chaturvins'ati-prabandh'a, by Rájas'ekhar'a, it appears tolerably clear that the Vikramaditya, who founded the Samvat Era, or from whom it has its origin, was a just, brave, liberal and ambitious prince; but

* We possess a list of remarkable events, compiled by a Jain priest, in which a Bhoja is said to have "peopled" Ujjayiní in Samvat 723.

† As it is desirable to place before the public the fullest information procurable regarding all authors who assumed the name of Kálidása, we have added translations of this and the following essay and of other stories, as appendices,--on account of their great length.

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