Vada in Theory and Practice: Studies in Debates, Dialogues and Discussions in Indian Intellectual Discourses c11.s5.5

c11.s5.5

Kālidāsa reached Goethe via William Jones and Forster. Goethe’s enchantment with *Śakuntalā* remained undiminished throughout his life. Forty years after the composition of his poetic tribute to *Śakuntalā*, when the French scholar Chézy sent him his *Editio Princeps of Śakuntalā* (1830) with translation and notes and bearing the citation of Goethe’s poem also, Goethe thanked Chézy and wrote back to him that “*Śakuntalā* has been a start for him that made night more pleasant than day and it had marked an epoch in his life”. *Abhijñānaśākuntala* became an exemplification of new human values and romanticism in France.