Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c21.s1.52

c21.s1.52

² Rājaśekhara in his *Kāvyamīmāṁsā* and Bhoja, in his *Śṛiṅgāra Prakāśikā*, mention that Kālidāsa was sent on an embassy to a Kuntala king by Vikramāditya. "Kṣemendra, in the *Aucitya Vicāra Carcā*, refers to Kālidāsa's *Kunteśvara Dautya*" (*Proceedings of the Third Oriental Conference*, 1924, p. 6). That the Guptas actually established contact with Kuntala appears clear from the Tālagund Inscription which states that a Kadamba ruler of the Kanarese country gave his daughters in marriage to the Gupta and other kings. An important indication of Gupta influence in the South Western Deccan is possibly afforded by the coins of Kumāra Gupta I found in the Satara District (Allan, p. cxxx.) The rôle assigned to Kālidāsa by Rājaśekhara, Bhoja and Kshemendra is not unworthy of credence as tradition points to a date for him in the early Gupta Age. For traditions about his synchronism with Mahārājādhirāja Vikramāditya (Śakārāti) and Dinnāga and with king Pravarasena who is held to be the author of the poem *Setubandha* written in Mahārāshṭrī Prākṛita and is, therefore, presumably identical with one of the kings bearing the same name in the Vākāṭaka family, (recorded in Abhinanda's *Rāmacharita*, ch. 32, Hāla, *Gāthāsaptaśatī*, Bhūmikā, p. 8 and other works) *see Proceedings of the Seventh Oriental Conference*, 99 ff. ; Mallinātha's comment on *Meghadūta*, I. 14; *Ind. Ant.*, 1912, 267, JRAS, 1918, 118f. It has recently been pointed out by Mr. Mirashi that the Pattan plates of Pravarasena II (year 27) refer to a Kālidāsa as the writer of the charter, *Ep. Ind.*, xxiii (1935), pp. 81 ff. But the identify of the scribe with the great poet remains doubtful.