Early History of the Dekkan down to the Mahomedan Conquest c10.33

c10.33

Kâlidâsa has not yet been satisfactorily determined, still he is mentioned as a poet of great merit in the first half of the seventh century by Bâṇa in his Harshacharita in the north,²⁴ and in an inscription at Aihole²⁵ dated 556 Śaka in the south A hundred years is not too long a period to allow for the spread of his fame throughout the country, perhaps it is too short Kâlidâsa may therefore be referred to that period of Sanskrit literature in which the nine gems flourished, and which has been placed by Dr Kern in the first half of the sixth century ²⁶ The Mahârâshṭrî dialect, therefore, in which Kâlidâsa wrote the Setubandha and the Prâkṛit verses in his plays, must have undergone a course of cultivation for about two or three centuries earlier and been called by that name, since it has been known by no other in the whole literature Varâhamihira also, who lived in the beginning of the sixth century, speaks of Mahârâshṭra as a southern country, and in the Aihole inscription alluded to above Mahârâshṭra is mentioned as comprising three [13] countries and ninety-nine thousand villages Hwan Thsang, the Chinese traveller, calls the country ruled over by the Châlukyas in the second quarter of the seventh century, Moholocha, which has been properly identified with Mahârâshṭra The occurrence of the name of Mahârâshṭra in the Purâṇas has already been noticed