कुमारसम्भवम् (महाकवि कालिदास - संस्कृत मूल एवं हिन्दी अनुवाद)

( 2 ) following couplet of Rajashekhar, who knew at least three of them — ‘ एकोऽपि जीयते हन्त कालिदासो न केनचित् । शृङ्गारे ललितोद्गारे कालिदासत्रयी किमु ॥ ’ In all this heap of fiction and legends only one thing is certain, viz., that he was a contemporary of King Vikramâditya. But to identify this Vikramaditya is by no means an easy task. More than one king bore this name and several others used it as a title. There was one Vikramaditya who founded the Vikrama Era in 57 B. C., while Chandragupta II (413 A. D.) and Samudragupta (480 A. D.) of the Gupta dynasty had adopted the word as an epithet. Now which of these Vikramadityas was our poet's patron is a puzzle, which still remains unsolved. To come to the second source of information, namely, the evidence gathered from the references contained in his works, we may hold it to be more reliable, though not infallible. On the authority of these references it can be said that he was a Brâhmana by caste and a devotee of Shiva by faith. His vivid and exact description of Ujjayinî, Kashmere, the Himalaya and some cities as well as parts of Northern India, lead the reader to infer that he had been personally to all these places. He was fully familiar with the life at royal courts and seems to have lived, unlike Bhavabhûti and Mâgha a prosperous, happy and popular life. Though fond of pleasures he was not licentious. He had a great regard for the fair sex and a noble idea of its chastity. This is warranted by the text of the Shâkuntala. He was an all-round scholar, possessed of a sound knowledge of the Vedic principles, Upanishadic philosophy, Paurânika mythology, various Darshanika systems, grammatical and prosodical rules, medical science and astronomy.