Book review
Kalidasa is the greatest poet and playwright in classical Sanskrit literature and one of the greatest in world literature.

Kalidasa probably lived and wrote at the close of the 1st millennium BC though 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 and the long poem Meghadutam (The Cloud Messenger). Also included is Rtusamharam (The Gathering of the Seasons) a much-neglected poem that 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.’

Penguin India
| 344 pages |