A History of Sanskrit Literature c3.10

c3.10

Kālidāsa has suffered from attempts¹ to defy style by placing him before Açvaghoṣa, and to ignore² the use of his works in Vatsabhaṭṭi by ascribing him to the period 525-75, when no great Empire existed, on the strength of his picture of India in the *Raghuvañça*. Much more ingenious is an effort³ to fix his home in Kashmir, and to trace in his poetry an adumbration of the Pratyabhijñāçāstra of that land, with its doctrine of recognition of the unity of the divine love. Kālidāsa would thus be a master of suggestion, which later was definitely developed in Kashmir as the essence of poetry by the Dhvanikāra, who was doubtless not Ānandavardhana. Use by Kālidāsa of the *Padma Purāṇa* has been suggested but is not plausible. His possible relation to the Vākāṭakas has been investigated, and use has been made of Kṣemendra's ascription to him of a *Kunteçvaradautya*, but all is mere hypothesis.⁴