The Kumarasambhava of Kalidasa- Critical Edition (An Old and Rare Book)

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The very popularity of Kalidasa's works in India for over fifteen hundred years, if not longer, has exposed the original texts to constant risk of interpolations, with the result that it has become a major problem of scholarship to sift the authentic from the spurious.

One of the first projects undertaken by the Sahitya Akademi was to set up an Editorial Board of eminent Sanskrit scholars to supervise the preparation of a critical edition of Kalidasa's works, with Dr. S. Radhakrishnan as the Chairman of the Board and Dr. V. Raghavan its Convener. Under the general direction of this Board, the critical edition went under preparation, each work having been assigned to a distinguished authority in the field. These volumes are being published separately in uniform edition. Five volumes in the series, namely, Meghaduta edited by Dr. S.K. De, Vikramorvasiya edited by Prof. H.D. Velankar, Kumarasam- bhava edited by Dr. Suryakanta, Malavikagnimitra edited by Prof. K.A.S. Iyer and Abhijnana Sakuntalam edited by Dr. Gourinath Shastri have been published. Of these Meghaduta, Vikramorvasiya and Kumarasambhava have been reprinted.

The bare text of Abhijnana Sakuntalam as collated by the late Dr. S.K. Belvalkar was also published separately outside the series.

Each volume contains the selected text, along with the Editor's Introduction and copious Notes establishing the authenticity of the text. There is also a General Introduction on Kalidasa by Dr. S Radhakrishnan.

Great classics of literature spring from profound depths in human experience. They come to us who live centuries later in vastly ferent conditions as the voice of our own experience. They release echoes within ourselves of what we never suspected was there. The deeper one goes into one's own experience facing destiny, fighting fate, or enjoying love, the more does one's experience have in common with the experiences of others in other dimes and ages. The most unique is the most universal. The Dialogues of the Buddha or of Plato, the dramas of Sophocles, the plays of Shakespeare are both national and universal. The more profoundly they are rooted in historical traditions, the more uniquely do they know themselves and elicit powerful responses from others. There is a timeless and space less quality about great classics.

Kalidisa is the great representative of India's spirit, grace and genius. The Indian national consciousness is the base from which his works grow. Kalidasa has absorbed India's cultural heritage, made it his own, enriched it, given it universal scope and significance. Its spiritual direction, its intellectual amplitude, its artistic expressions, its political forms and economic arrangements, all find utterance in fresh, vital, shining phrases. We find in his works at their best a simple dignity of language, a precision of phrase, a classical taste, a cultivated judgment, an intense poetic sensibility and a fusion of t thought and feeling. In his dramas, we find pathos, power, beauty, and great skill in the construction of plots and delineation of characters. He is at home in royal courts and on mountain tops, in happy homes and forest hermitages. He has a balanced outlook which enables him to deal sympathetically with men of high and low degree, fishermen, courtezans, servanta. These great qualities make his works belong to the literature of the world. Humanity recognizes itself in them though they deal with Indian themes. In India Kālidăsa is recognized as the greatest poet and dramatist in Sanskrit literature. While once the poets were being counted, Kalidasa as being the first occupied the last finger. But the ring-finger remained true to its name, anamika, the nameless, since the second to Kalidasa has not yet been found.