TIME OF KALIDASA

By

Anand M. Sharan

Professor

Faculty of Engineering

Memorial University of Newfoundland

St. John’s, Canada

E-Mail: asharan@engr.mun.ca

Key Words: Greek Astronomy , Vedanga Jyotisa , Siddhantic Astronomy , Kalidasa , Vikram Era , King Vikramaditya

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ABSTRACT

The present work deals with the determination of the time of Kalidasa which has

been one of the unsolved problems of Ancient India . This research looks at the works of

Kalidasa , and his knowledge of Greek astronomy . Based on the works of other

historians and astronomers , it is concluded that Kalidasa was in the court of

Chandragupta II Vikramaditya as one of the nine gems . This was in the fourth and fifth

century AD .

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DIFFERING DATES ON THE TIME OF KALIDASA BY VARIOUS

HISTORIANS

India has produced one of the greatest poets and dramatists of the world -

Kalidasa , but it is strange that his time is still unknown . Sethna13 in his book entitled , "

Problems of Ancient India " , lists the time of Kalidasa as one of the 11 unsolved

problems of Ancient India . This has inspired the author to take up this task of finding

out the actual time of the poet Kalidasa . His time has varied , depending upon different

historians , between the first century BC to fifth century AD . His time is intertwined

with the fable of ( a ) Vikramaditya , and ( b ) beginning of the Vikrama era .

Why has there been such a confusion about his time? This , as the author believes

, is due to the fact that Kalidasa wrote information about the Vikramaditya's court in

Ujjayini. The claim pointing to his existence around 1st century BC arises due to his play

on the Shunga king Agnimitra who belonged to that period . Those who believe this,

think that it is very unlikely that he ( Kalidasa ) would have made this obscure king the

hero of his play unless he ( Kalidasa ) belonged to that period. They do not realize that

the later Sungas ruled from Bhilsa in eastern Malwa , and that Kalidasa also lived in

western Malwa . Some other details in this respect are also provided later on in this

work . The Vikrama calendar also begins with 58-57 BC. However, not much is known

about Kalidasa's personal life and background, though there are several legends and tales

about his life.

Three famous plays attributed to Kalidasa are Malavikaagnimitra (Malavikaa and

Agnimitra), Vikramorvashiiya(Pertaining to Vikrama and Urvashi) and

Abhigyaanashaakuntala (The Recognition of Sakuntala). The last work is his most

famous play .

Kalidasa is also known for his famous poems. His two famous epic poems are

Kumaarasambhava and Raghuvamsha (The Clan of Raghu), and two famous lyrical

poems are Meghaduuta (The Cloud Messenger) and Ritusamhaara In this short epic,

there are six chapters each describing one season in India and it starts with the Summer

Season. This would also provide a clue about his time in the discussions later on .

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Sethna13 discusses a book written by R . B. Pandey16 entitled , " Vikramaditya of

Ujjayini " which this author believes as the right source for pursuing this task . It is a

very scholarly work by Pandey in the fifties .

Pandey's reasons to place Kalidasa in the first century along with the king

Vikramaditya , are given in Table 1 . This table also has this author's opinion in the third

column where this author does not think that either Kalidasa or the king Vikramaditya

lived in the first century BC.

Both , Sethna and Pandey agree that Kalidasa was in the court of Vikramaditya ,

as one of the nine gems . Pandey lists the names of nine gems which are given in Table

2 .

Another important author who has dealt with this issue is D. C. Sircar in his

book - " Ancient Malwa and the Vikramaditya Tradition " .

There are several things which should be borne in mind when researching the

problem of the time of Kalidasa . These are :

1. Who was Vikramaditya ?

2. Who started the Vikrama era and when ?

3. Kalidasa's association with the above two .

Pandey writes that Vikramaditya lived in the first century BC, and started the

Vikrama era . Kalidasa was in his court , and so was Varahmihira . Thus , Kalidasa lived

in the first century BC .

Sethna agrees with Pandey's point of view in all these respects and he places the

Imperial Guptas in the third century BC based on the descriptions of the Puranas , much

before Kalidasa . He considers Varahmihira also in the king Vikramaditya's court as one

of the nine gems , just like Kalidasa .

When we come to Sircar18 , he , on the other hand , considers Chandragupta II as

the Vikramaditya, and Kalidasa in his court . His agrees with the well accepted times of

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the historians like Tripathy20 about the Imperial Guptas . These are shown in Table 3 .

These times are much after the beginning of the Vikrama Era in 57 BC . He ( Sircar19

thinks that this era had its beginnings due to a Parthian chief named Vonones ( circa 58 -

10 BC ) who was the governor of East Iran , and who founded an independent kingdom

in the eastern part of the Parthian Empire .

Sircar18 has done an extensive research work between the time of Pradyot ( sixth

century BC ) to fifth century AD, to show that there was no such king as Vikramaditya

in the first century BC . He considers Kalidasa in the time of Chandragupta II

Vikramaditya , and Varahmihira much after him . He writes that the late Sungas ruled

from Bhilsa in Central India after losing their kingdom at Pataliputra . According to

Tripathy20 , these Sungas are believed to be the first brahmin kings in the written history

of India .

The author believes, though it is merely a conjecture , that Kalidasa could have

known closely about these brahmin kings of eastern Malwa as Kalidasa himself was in

the western Malwa . Secondly , it is entirely possible that Kalidasa himself could have

been a brahmin because the brahmins then and even now, have been contributing richly

to Sanskrit literature , as Kalidasa did . This author's proof about Kalidasa's time , which

has been provided later on , is independent of these two points i.e., these two points do

not constitute the proof for this paper.

Thus we see conflicting views on the historical perspective of Ancient India

which includes the time of Golden Era of Indian History - the time of the Imperial

Guptas . The same applies to the time of Kalidasa .

THE TIME OF INCORPORATION OF THE GREEK ASTRONOMY INTO

INDIAN ASTRONOMY

Kaye11 has written that Greek astronomy came to be known to the Hindus after

Ptolemy , a Greek who lived in Egypt , in the years 85 AD to 165 AD . Regarding this ,

there has been wide agreement amongst the Indian astronomers and historians also - that

the major exchange of ideas in this field took place during and after Ptolemy's time

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[ Kaye12 ; Sircar19 , Abhyankar and Sidharth2 ] . Abhyankar2 who has contributed an

article also besides being one of the editors in this reference , writes that Vedanga

Jyotisa , the astronomical system of India began around 12th century BC , and the

present ( siddhantic ) system was started during first to fifth century AD . The older

(Vedanga Jyotisa ) system was called a nirayana system based on 27 asterisms

( nakshatras ) which divide the ecliptic , and are also called the mansions of the moon .

The zero point of the nakshatra system was fixed in the siddhantic period at the vernal

equinox of 410 AD ( the time of Chandragupta II Vikramaditya's ) . But there are two

other prominent schools which place it at the vernal equinox of 285 AD ( chitra paksha )

, and 570 AD ( revati paksha ) . It should be remembered that Chandragupta II was using

Ujjayini as his secondary capital away from his actual capital at Pataliputra . He had

defeated the Sakas by this time ( in 410 AD ) . The school of astronomy had just been

shifted from Pataliputra to Ujjayini [Joseph10 ] . The vernal equinox of 285 AD could

have been fixed by the astronomers belonging to the Pataliputra school .

Why did they choose the equinox as the starting date ? The division of ecliptic

into 12 parts , each part called raashi or zodiac constellation of 30 degrees each , was

introduced into India at a later time , and it was not there at the time of use of Vedanga

Jyotisa [ Burgess5 ; Kaye11 ] . This is the reason that on finds the use of nakshatras in the

Mahabharata and the Valmiki Ramayana . The Romans were using the zodiac system in

the time when the Julian calendar was started in 46 BC. Their year started with the

spring equinox { Kay12] . It was only in the time of Pope Gregory in 15821 that further

refinements in the Julian calendar were introduced and the year started from January first

. In India , the year started with winter solstice ( Uttarayana ) in vedic times [ Burgess5 ] .

Table 4 shows the division of ecliptic into the two independent systems where the first

point of ashwini - mesha is considered as the beginning of the year [ Abhyankar and

Siddharth2 ] . The spacing of the nakshatras is at 13.333 degrees interval whereas for the

zodiac constellations - it is 30 degrees .

ASTRONOMICAL BASIS FOR THE DETRMINATION OF THE TIME OF

KALIDASA

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We also notice that from the siddhantic times until now , the year begins

from spring equinox instead of the winter solstice , as it was during the Vedanga Jyotisa

times .

Secondly , in Ritusamhaara , Kalidasa begins the seasons in Summer which is

after the spring equinox in India . In the western countries , spring arrives after the vernal

equinox but not in India . For example, the Republic Day of India - January 26 , was

selected in 1950 as an auspicious day due to Vasanta Panchami . In Ritusamhaara ,this

beginning could have been based on new year . If Kalidasa had been living in India in the

first century BC then the new year would have been after the Uttarayana ( winter

solstice ) .

All the three historians mentioned above [ Pandey , Sircar , and Sethna ] agree

that Kalidasa had the knowledge of Greek astronomy . On page 117 , Sethna13 mentions

that Kalidasa knew about Jametra which has been identified with Greek term

diametron . This clearly shows that he had to be living after the Greek astronomy was

introduced into India . so, he could not be living in the first century BC .

Next we come to the time of the king Vikramaditya in whose court Kalidasa was

present . There are numerous references which mention about the famous inscriptions

discussed by Fleet8 [ Balasubramanium3,4 , Jain9 , Dass and Willis7 ]. These inscriptions

are in cave 6 at Udayagiri near Bhopal . These inscriptions mention that Chandragupta II

was present when they were being inscribed , and also , they give the tithi and the year of

the Gupta era , when it was done . This tithi ( based on the planetary configurations )

has been ascertained to be on June 26 , 402 AD [ Sharan et. al 15 ] . Thus , the time of

Chandragupta II is established to be in the last part of the fourth century , and the first

part of the fifth century ] by independent astronomical calculations . Various other

historians also place Chandragupta II at this time based on the descriptions of Puranas

and other evidences . This establishes the time of Vikramaditya to be in the fourth and

fifth century AD

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WHY DOES VIKRAM SAMVAT START IN 57 BC ?

The next puzzle to deal with is the beginning date of the Vikrama era in 57 BC

because, now we know from Sircar's research that Vikramaditya's time is in the fourth

century AD , and which has also been confirmed by the astronomical calculations of the

inscriptions in cave 6 at Udayagiri .

When one refers to Sharan14 , one can easily see that the astronomers in

Vikramaditya's court went back in time , and matched their calendar with those of the

Greeks or Romans who were basing the beginning of their year from the spring equinox

, and also the starting time was taken as the transition of the equinox from the zodiac

constellation named Aries to Pisces . Cunningham6 writes that the Vikrama era starts on

the equinox day , but he did not know why the astronomers in Chandragupta

Vikramaditya's court went back to 57 BC . The practice in India before this event was

that the year began after the winter solstice ( Uttarayana ) .

If we look at the Greek or western astrology , even now they consider the equinox

to be in Aries although it is almost in Aquarius due to the precession of the earth's axis .

CONCLUSIONS

In this work , the time of Kalidasa was pin pointed based on astronomical

considerations primarily . This was because it is widely known that the exchange of

concepts in astronomy between the Greeks ( Romans ) , and Indians took place after

Ptolemy's time in the second century AD . The fact that Kalidasa knew about Greek

astronomy was a very helpful clue .

Secondly , his descriptions in his work - Ritusamhaara , he begins his seasons

from summer in India which is after the spring equinox . This further confirmed that he

must have lived in times after the Greek astronomy was in use in India .

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\REFERENCES

1. Abel, G. O., 1975, “Exploration of the Universe “, Holt, Rinehart, and Winston,

Toronto, p.143.

2. Abhyankar , K. D. , and Sidharth, Editors , 1993 , " Treasures of Ancient Indian

Astronomy " , Ajanta Publications Delhi , India , pp 47 - 77

3. Balasubramaniam, R., “Identity of Chandra and Vishnupadagiri of the Delhi Iron

Pillar Inscription: Numismatic, Archaeological and Literary Evidence,” Bull. Metals

Museum, 2000, 32, 42-64.

4. Balasubramaniam, R., Delhi Iron Pillar: New Insights, Indian Institute of Advanced

Study, Shimla, 2002, pp. 8-46.

5. Burgess, E., The Suryasiddhanta: A Textbook of the Hindu Astronomy, Motilal

Banarsidas Private Limited , Delhi. 2000, pages xxxv, 123, 313 and 316.

6. Cunningham , A., Book of Indian Eras with Tables for Calculating Indian Dates " ,

Indological Book House Varanasi, India , 1970 , p 47

7. Dass, M.I., and Willis, M., “The Lion Capital from Udayagiri and the Antiquity of

Sun Worship in Central India,” South Asian Studies, 2002, 18, 25-45.

8. Fleet, J.F., Inscriptions of the Early Gupta Kings and Their Successors, Corpus

Inscriptionum Indicarum, III (1888). Volume 3, pp. 324-327.

9. Jain, K. C., " Madhya Pradesh Through Ages, Part I " , B. R. Publishing Corporation ,

Delhi , India, 1997 , pp 131-305

10. Joseph, G, G., “The Crest of the Peacock: Non - Europeans Roots of Mathematics “,

Princeton, U. S. A , 2000, Chs. 8, and 9.

11. Kaye , G. R. , 1981 , " Hindu Astronomy " , Cosmo Publications , New Delhi,

India , p 39

12. Ibid , p 24

13. Sethna, K. D. , 1997 " Problems of Ancient India " , Aditya Prakashan, New Delhi,

India . pp 79-120 .

14. Sharan, A. M., 2004, “ Understanding of Periodic Motions and Utilization of this

Knowledge in Ancient India ” Advances in Vibration Engineering , Vol 3 , No 2 , pp

177 - 183 ..

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15. Sharan, A.M., Balasubramaniam, R., and Dass, M I. , " Astronomical Significance of

Date of Sanakanika Inscription in Cave 6 at Udayagiri (nee Vishnupadagiri) ,

submitted for publication ,

16. Pandey, R. B. , 1951 , " Vikramaditya of Ujjayini " , Shatadala Prakashana,

Banaras .

17. Sircar , D. C. , 1969 , " Ancient Malwa and Vikramaditya Tradition " , Munshiram

Manoharlal , New Delhi , India , pp 21 - 93

18. Ibid, pp 94 - 128

19. Ibid, pp. 129 - 144

20. Tripathy, R. S. , 1985, " History of Ancient India " Motilal Banarsidas , Delhi , pp.

188 -289

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TABLE 1: POINTS OF VIEWS ON KALIDASA'S TIME IN THE FIRST CENTURY BC

No EVIDENCES PANDEY'S JUSTIFICATIONS / RESONINGS

AUTHOR'S VIEWS / OBJECTIONS

1 Vikram Era The era started in 57 BC survives until today . Weakness - He admits that no evidences have been found about the use of this era until the 8th century . The earlier evidences cite the dates in Krta uptil the time of Chandragupta II Vikramaditya's time , and after that time they have used Malwa and Krta until the 8th century .

The era was not started in 57 BC but has arisen as a result of back calculations done by the astronomers in Chandragupta II Vikramaditya's court [ Sharan14, 2004 ]

2 Popular stories about Vikramaditya

( a ) His capital at Ujjaiyini , ( b ) He founded a kingdom, and ( c ) He was a senior contemporary of Shalivahan kings who founded the Saka Era in 78 AD .

These do not establish a firm date of 57 BC . The difference between 78 AD and 57 BC is 123 years . The earliest date of the Satvahana kings is not well established .

3. Literary Traditions of Hindus and The Evidences of the Puranas

1. Gathasaptasati by Hala Satvahana of late 1st Century AD

This date has been objected to by Bhandarkar , and Weber

4. 2. Brahatkatha by Gunadhya The original is not available but the Sanskrit translation of the original is dated around 8th century .

5. 3. Brahatkatha - Manjari by Kshemendra It was composed in the 11th century AD. The imperial Guptas were there from 4th century onwards .

6. 4. Kathasaritsagara by Somadevbhatta in Kashmir in the Eleventh century

The reason the same as above

7 5. Other literary works mentioning Vikramaditya

Not enough to establish historicity

8 . Bhavishya Purana for example . The dates are controversial . They were composed at much later times than 57 BC

9 The Evidence of Pattavalis ( Jain Tradition )

These were written looking back after many centuries . These can not have accuracy

10 Mention of Huna in Kalidasa's work

Kalidasa mentions this in the world conquest by Raghu . Pandey says that Kalidasa meant that the Hunas were outside India . In the first century BC, these could not have been Hunas

The later Gupta kings faced Hunas . So, Hunas were either fighting or the fighting was imminent in the time of Chandragupta II Vikramaditya's time .

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TABLE 2 : The Years of Some of the Famous Gupta Kings

NUMBER NAME YEARS

1 Samudragupta Vikramadutya 335 - 375

2 Chandragupta II Vikramadutya 375/380 - 414

3 Kumargupta ( Mahendraditya ) 414- 455

4 Skandagupta Vikramaditya 455 - 467

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TABLE 3 : THE NAMES OF NINE GEMS OF VIKRAMADITYA'S COURT

NUMBER NAME PROFESSION / CREATION

1 Dhanvantari Physician

2 Kshapanaka Jain Ascetic

3 Amarsimha Amarkosha - compiled a sanskrit dictionary

and a philosophical treatise

4 Samku -

5 Vetalabhatta Vetala - Panchavimsatika

6 Ghatakharpara ( 1 ) Ghatakharpara - kavya, (2) Nitisara

7 Kalidasa The works to be listed separately

8 Varamihira

Kaye11 writes that he died in

587 AD

Astronomer - two works on astrology and

one on arithmetic

9 Vararuchi ( Katyayana ) ( 1 ) Sasana - Pattika , ( 2 ) Patrakamudi

( a ) Introduced certain improvements in

grammar, ( b ) commented upon the

incantations, and ( c ) wrote a poem in

praise of King Madhava

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TABLE 4: ZODIAC SIGNS AND CORRESPONDING

NAKSHATRAS

ZodiacSign

Abbrev Angle,Zodiac Sign

Angle, Nakshatras(Degrees)

NAKSHATRAS(Asterisms)

Aries Ar 0 13.3333 1. Aswini

(Mesha) 26.6666 2. Bharani

Taurus Ta 30 40 3. Krittika(Vrishaba) 53.3333 4. Rohini

Gemini Ge 60 66.6666 5. Mrigasirsha(Mithuna) 80 6. Ardra

Cancer Ca 90 93.3333 7. Punarvasu(Karkata) 106.666 8. Pushya

Leo Le 120 120 9. Ashlesha(Simha) 133.333 10. Magha

146.666 11. Purva Phalguni

Virgo Vi 150 160 12. Uttara Phalguni(Kanya) 173.333 13. Hasta

Libra Li 180 186.666 14. Chitra(Tula) 200 15. Swathi

Scorpio Sc 210 213.333 16. Vishaka(Vrishchika) 226.666 17. Anuradha

Sagittarius Sa 240 240 18. Jyeshitha(Dhanu) 253.333 19. Moola

266.666 20. Poorvashada

Capricorn Cp 270 280 21. Uttarashada(Makara) 293.333 22. Shravana

Aquarius Aq 300 306.666 23. Dhanishtha(Kumbha) 320 24. Shathabisha

Pisces Pi 330 333.333 25. Poorva Bhadrapada(Meena) 346.666 26. Uttara Bhadrapada

360 27. Revati

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