Mahakavi Kalidas Biography

Mahakavi Kalidas Biography

Mahakavi Kalidas was a famous classical poet in Sanskrit. He was renowned as Mahakavi and made a glorious contribution to Sanskrit literature. Kalidas Poems brought a unique quality to the literary works. His writings are heart-touching and an intellectual treat to the thinkers and the familiar readers.

Sanskrit Writer Kalidas’s stories:

Mahakavi Kalidas was born before the 6th century CE in India. There are some doubts about the exact time of the birth. However, he worked in the court of Emperor Vikramaditya, ruler of Ujjain. Kalidas had a lot of knowledge about Bharat by travelling all over India in those days. For instance, in the poem ‘Meghaduta’, his descriptions of mountains, rivers, cities and villages are narrated in complete picture form. The narration about the Himalayas’ beauty gives the reader a lot of impressions. In another Kalidasa poem, ‘Raghuvamsha’, he discussed the place, the people and their lifestyle, habits, professions, and trades. The narration placed every part of Bharath in his Magnum opuses.

We have known very little about the personal life of the Sanskrit poet. Mahakavi Kalidas was one of the nine gems at the court of Vikramaditya of Ujjain. But in Indian history, there were several known Vikramaditya. However, the nine gems could not have been contemporaries. Some believe the writer was the courtier of the second Shunga king who lived in the 2nd century BCE. But most scholars accepted that Kalidasu should be associated with Chandra Gupta II.

The Indian tradition and the Sanskrit language support the cultural density judge poet Kalidasa’s works. In Ritusamhara, his excellent work of him described the beauty of seasons. It has written in his youth. The work Abhijnanashakuntala, this book discusses the seduction between the nymph Shakuntala and King Dushyant. Later his rejection of Shakuntala and the child Bharata, finally, their journey to heaven makes the reader fly around the story. He chose this story because the name Bharatavarsha came from the name Bharatha.

A story behind Mahakavi Kalidas Marriage:

Mahakavi Kalidas was born into a family of Brahmin; the Sanskrit Poet’s parents died when he was six months old. A cowherd brought him up and led him into his profession so that the boy became illiteracy. In the meantime, Bheemashukla ruled Kashi. He has a daughter called Vasanti, and the King wants her to marry Vararuchi, a great scholar in the court. But she refused her father’s proposal and wanted to marry a man who was more scholarly than her. When Vararuchi got furious with Vasanta and tried to teach her a lesson. One day Vararuchi brought the cowherd boy to the capital and instructed the boy not to say anything except ‘Om swastika to any question asked by anyone in the Palace. The boy agreed and followed him to the Royal Palace.

The boy impressed Vasanti and believed him a great scholar. Vasanti married him and only later came to know the truth. Then she fell into a deep struggle and worshipped the goddess Kali and taught her husband to worship the goddess Kali. He started praying to Kali, but the goddess could not be satisfied and did not bless him. Then the herdsman vowed to the goddess to sacrifice himself before goddess Kali. Then the appeased goddess appeared before him, wrote letters on his tongue, and blessed him. With this story, the cowherd boy became Kalidasa, a devotee of Kali. This story is a prevalent legend about the Sanskrit writer Kalidas.

Kalidas Magnum opuses:

1. Kumarasambhava

2. Raghuvamsha

3. Malavikagnimitra

4. Vikramorvashiya

5. Abhijnana Shakuntala

6. Meghaduta

7. Ritusamhara