ORIENTAL SERIES.

I 4 2 KALI KALI-DASA.
KALt 'The "black. 1
In Yedic days this name was asso-
ciated with Agni (fire), who had seven flickering tongues of
flame for devouring oblations of butter. Of these seven, Kali
was the black or terrific tongue. This meaning of the word is
now lost, but it has developed into the goddess Kali, the fierce
and bloody consort of $iva. See Devi.
KALI-DASA. The greatest poet and dramatist of India.
He was one of " "
the nine gems that adorned the court of King
Yikramaditya at UjjayinL Wilson inclines to the belief that
this was the Yikramaditya whose era begins in 56 B.C., but Dr.
Bhau Dajl argues in favour of Harsha Yikramaditya who lived
in the middle of the sixth century, so the date of Kali-dasa is
unsettled. Williams thinks that Kali-dasa wrote about the
beginning of the third century. Lassen places him half a
century
earlier. Some believe that there was more than one
poet who bore this name as an honorary title. Kali-dasa was
author of the dramas $akuntala and Yikramorvasi, and a third
drama Malavikagnimitra is attributed to him. $akuntala was
translated by Sir W. Jones, and first brought Sanskrit literature
to the notice of Europe. Wilson has translated Yikramorvasi,
and given a sketch of Malavikagnimitra. The following poems
are ascribed to Kali-dasa : Kaghu-vansa, Kumara-sambhava,
Megha-duta, .ffitu-sanhara, Kalodaya, but his authorship of all
these, especially of the last, may well be doubted. He was also
author of the $ruta-bodha, a work on prosody. The merits of
Kali-dasa as a poet are well attested by his great popularity
in India, as well as by the great favour with which $akuntala
was received in Europe, and the praise it elicited from Goethe :
" WUlst du die Bluthe des friihen, die Eruchte dea spateren Jabres,
Willst du, was reizt und entziickt, willst du, was sattigt und nahrt,
Willst du den Himmel, die Erde, rait einem Namen begreifen,
Nenn' ich akuntala clich, und so ist AUes gesagt."
" Wouldst thou the young year's blossoms and the fruits of its decline,
And all by which the soul is charmed, enraptured, feasted, fed 1
Wonldst thou the earth and heaven itself in one sole name combine ?
I name thee, >Sakuntala ! and all at once is said."
Lassen in his Indische Alterthumshmde says, " Kali-dasa may
be considered as the brightest star in the firmament of Hindu
artificial poetry. He deserves this praise on account of the