The Loom of Time: A Selection of His Plays and Poems (Penguin Classics)
by Kālidāsa, Chandra Rajan
Category: Poetry

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 worksýthe play ?akuntal? and the long poem Meghadut?m (The Cloud Messenger). Also included is Rtusamh?ram (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: ýOnce, when poets were counted, K?lid?sa occupied the little finger; the ring finger remains unnamed true to its name; for his second has not been found.ý