The Loom of Time by Kalidasa

Kalidasa is the greatest poet and playwright in classical Sanskrit literature and one of the greatest in world literature. Kalidasa is said to have lived and composed his work at the close of the first millennium BC through his dates have not been conclusively established. In all, seven of his works have survived: three plays, three long poems and an incomplete epic. Of these, this volume offers, in a brilliant new translation, his two most famous works the play Sakuntala, a beautiful blend of romance and fairy tale with elements of comedy; and Meghadutam (The Cloud Messenger), the many-layered poem of longing and separation. Also included is Rtusamharam (The Gathering of the Seasons), a much-neglected poem that celebrates the fulfilment of love and deserves to be known better. Taken together, these works provide a window to the remarkable world and work of a poet of whom it was said: Once, when poets were counted, Kalidasa occupied the little finger; the ring finger remains unnamed true to its name; for his second has not been found.

About the Author :-

Little is known about the greatest poet in classical Sanskrit literature and one of the greatest in world literature. A most self-effacing writer, he has chosen to reveal little of himself in his work. Kālidāsa probably lived and wrote at the close of the first millennium BC, though a date later by some five centuries has been assigned to him by some scholars. It is highly probable too that he lived and wrote in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh—splendid capital of empires, a centre of culture and India’s great emporium for a thousand years. Kālidāsa is a dramatist, a writer of epic and a lyric poet of extraordinary scope. In all, seven of his works have survived, though tradition has ascribed to him many a spurious work authored by later writers who assumed his style. The two works best known outside the country are the play, Śakuntalā and the lyric monody, Meghadūtam. Kālidāsa is a courtly poet; but at the same time he is a very learned poet who wears his learning lightly and with grace. It has been suggested that Kālidāsa was a high court official who was sent on embassies by the Emperor Chandra Gupta II to other royal courts; and that Meghadūtam was written during a long spell of separation from his wife when he was residing at the Vākataka capital of Nandhivardhana, near the ‘Rāma’s hill’ of the poem, as adviser to the widowed Queen Prabhāvati Gupta, daughter of the emperor, who was ruling the kingdom as regent for her infant son. Kālidāsa’s work is instinct with Śiva’s presence. The blend of the erotic and spiritual that characterizes Śiva-mythology is reflected in the poet’s work. A mystic feeling for the transcendental combines with a sensuous feeling for beauty in Woman and Nature."