Studies in Indian Art c13.s1.41

c13.s1.41

The works of Kālidāsa provide a rich literary documentation of the art and iconography of the period in which the great poet flourished. This untapped evidence throws some clear light on the vital problem of his date. That the poet lived in the early Gupta period is now the majority view. Most likely the tradition of Kālidāsa being placed in the court of Vikramāditya to be identified with Chandragupta II of the Gupta dynasty rests on true foundation, although archaeological evidence for the same is still lacking and perhaps may never come. In the absence of the same, dating within the prescribed limits of a particular king's reign could not be warranted by positive evidence, still the intrinsic testimony of the poet's own works points eloquently and unmistakably to the Gupta period (4th-5th century) as the age when he lived.