The Book of Lost Books (12 page)

{
c. mid-fourth–c. early fifth century
}

K
LID
SA TELLS US almost nothing of himself. He is traditionally associated with the court of Vikram
ditya, the “Sun of Valor”; however, this title was adopted by King Chandra Gupta II in the fourth century C.E., as well as referring to a semimythical king who defeated the
aka, or Scythians, in the first century C.E. The earlier Vikram
ditya had his court at Ujjayin
a, a city praised by K
lid
sa in his lyrical poem
The
Cloud Messenger
(
Meghadu
tam
). Conversely, it has been suggested that the poem was written for K
lid
sa's wife, during a separation when he was advising the widow of Chandra Gupta II. Dates from the fifth century B.C.E. to the seventh century C.E. have been advanced for K
lid
sa, and evidence from Greek astronomical terms to Chinese manuscript acquisition has been proposed and countered. All that is certain is that he is the most highly regarded of all Sanskrit poets, the
Kavi-kula-guru
or Master of Poets, as a later writer was to call him.