APPENDIX A
THE DATE OF KALTDASA
Much has been written on the date of K/ilidasa and the range of time in which
he is sought to be placed is extensive. He is supposed to have lived in the 2nd
century B. C. on the one hand and in the yth century A. D, and even later on
the other. And the epochs marked out for him between these two ends arc indeed
many. \Ve shall not discuss here the merits or demerits of the arguments put
forth in favour of one extreme or in that of the other; as a matter of fact, most
of the various theories will not even repay the labour of scrutiny. It is proposed
to briefly examine here just a few of the theories and then to furnish the data which
may fix the poet's date as accurately as possible. An attempt will be made, there-
fore, to bring the two lines closer and thus to indicate the utmost possible narrow
range wherein the poet may have flourished.
The two limits of the poet's date are easily determined. The earlier limit
is settled by the fact that the 'hlalavlkagnhmira depicts the court life of Agnimitra
the son of Pusyamitra, the founder of the Sunga family, whose rule ended about
148 B. C. The lower limit is fixed by the Aihole inscription of 634 A. D. which
names the poet.
The 2nd century B. C. theory has no serious defenders. We must remem-
ber, besides, that Kalidasa cannot be accepted as a contemporary of Patanjali
for he shows a thorough acquaintance with the terminology used by the latter
in his YogastltraL Panatafijali, we know, was a contemporary of Pusyamitra.
Then the tradition makes the poet contemporary with Vikramaditya, which was
never a Sunga royal epithet and who cannot be placed earlier that the ist century
B.C.
Likewise, there is a number of unsurmountable difficulties in accepting the
ist century B. C. theory. This theory depends much for its strength on the fact
that the Vikrama era was founded in 56 B. C, by a king named Vikramaditya who
was also the patron of the poet, But we do not know of any Vikramaditya in
the ist centuty B. C. likely to have been so strong as to oust the Sakas and assume
the epithet of Sakdrl and to found an era. It is even doubtful if the era was at
all founded in the ist century B. C. The first use of this era (in the name of Vik-
rama)^1 was made about a thousand years after the time when it is said to have been
founded ! The theory, however, has had two brilliant champions, namely Rao
Bahadur C. V. Vaidya and Professor K. C. Chattopadhyaya. Vaidya's arguments,
set forth in the Annals of the Bhetndarkar Institute*, have been thoroughly met by
K. G. Sankar in the next issue of the same publication^3. The endeavours of Prof.
^1	This era was in use under a different name, m^. Krta,
^2	July 1920, pp. 63-68.
^3	Pp. 189 ff.