A History of Sanskrit Literature c11.s3.4

c11.s3.4

Nonetheless it is difficult to dissociate Kālidāsa from the great moments of the Gupta power. He was later than Açvaghoṣa and than the dramatist Bhāsa; he knew Greek terms, as his use of *jāmitra* proves, the Prākrit of his dramas is decidedly later than Açvaghoṣa's and Bhāsa's, and he cannot be put before the Gupta age. His complete acceptance of the Brahmanical system, the sense of sharing in a world of prosperity and power, the mention of the horse sacrifice in the *Mālavikāgnimitra*, Raghu's conquests in the *Raghuvaṁça*, seem best explicable as the outcome of the enjoyment of the protection of a great Gupta ruler, and we must remember that Candragupta II had the style of Vikramāditya, with whose name tradition consistently connects Kālidāsa. Nor is it absurd to see in the title *Kumārasambhava* a hint at the young Kumāragupta, the heir apparent, or even in *Vikramorvaçī* an allusion to the title Vikramāditya. It has been attempted to refer Kālidāsa to the sixth century by making the Vikramāditya of tradition the Yaçodharman² who defeated the Huns, but this theory is no longer in repute. More favour¹ has been shown to the view that Kālidāsa lived under Kumāragupta and Skandagupta, mainly on the score that Mallinātha and Dakṣiṇāvartanātha ascribe to him in v. 14 of the *Meghadūta* a *double entendre* referring to Dinnāga, the Buddhist logician, as a hostile critic, and that his own reference to the Hūṇas and the river Vaṅkṣū in the *Raghuvaṁça* alludes to the time when these warriors were still in the Oxus valley just before their defeat by Skandagupta. The first argument is invalidated by the grave improbability of the tasteless reference in the *Meghadūta* and by the fact that, even if it were real, Dinnāga's date need not be later than 400. The second imputes to Kālidāsa a desire to achieve historic realism quite out of keeping with his poetic aim, and irreconcilable with his mention of the Greeks as on the north-west frontier as well as the Pārasīkas, Kāmbojas and Hūṇas.² That Kālidāsa lived to see the Hūṇa victories is most implausible, while his evident affection for Ujjayinī suggests that he spent much of his time there under Candragupta's favour.