Poetry Codex

Indian

Kalidasa

fl. c. 4th–5th century AD

Kalidasa is generally ranked the greatest poet and dramatist in Sanskrit. Almost nothing is known of his life: he is placed, on tradition and internal evidence, around the 4th or 5th century AD, probably under the Gupta kings.

He is credited with the play Shakuntala, the epics The Dynasty of Raghu and The Birth of the War-God, and the lyric Cloud-Messenger, in which an exiled Yaksha asks a passing cloud to carry word to his wife. The Seasons is also attributed to him, though its authorship has been doubted. Here he appears in the English verse of Ralph T. H. Griffith and Arthur W. Ryder.

Major Works (3)

  1. The Birth of the War-God — translated by Ralph T. H. Griffith (1879)
  2. The Cloud-Messenger — translated by Arthur W. Ryder (1912)
  3. The Raghuvamsa (The Story of Raghu's Line) — translated by P. de Lacy Johnstone (1902)

Poems (6)

  1. The Seasons: Summer
  2. The Seasons: The Rains
  3. The Seasons: Autumn
  4. The Seasons: Winter
  5. The Seasons: Early Spring
  6. The Seasons: Spring

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