पृष्ठम्:Sanskrit Literature.djvu/११३

KĀLIDĀSA'S LIFE 81 Huns, but this theory is no longer in repute. More favour ¹ has been shown to the view that Kalidasa lived under Kumāragupta and Skandagupta, mainly on the score that Mallinātha and Dakṣiṇāvartanātha ascribe to him in v. 14 of the Meghaduta a double entendre referring to Dignāga, the Buddhist logician, as a hostile critic, and that his own reference to the Hūnas and the river Vankṣū in the Raghuvança alludes to the time when these warriors were still in the Oxus valley just before their defeat by Skandagupta. The first argument is invalidated by the grave improbability of the tasteless reference in the Meghaduta and by the fact that, even if it were real, Dignāga's date need not be later than 400. The second imputes to Kalidasa a desire to achieve historic realism quite out of keeping with his poetic aim, and irreconcilable with his mention of the Greeks as on the north-west frontier as well as the Pärasīkas, Kambojas and Hūnas. That Kālidāsa lived to see the Hūņa victories is most implausible, while his evident affection for Ujjayini suggests that he spent much of his time there under Candragupta's favour. This conclusion is strongly supported by evidence culled from Vatsabhaṭṭi. Two of his verses run: calatpatākāny abalasanathany: atyarthaçuklany adhikonna- tāni tadillatăcitrasitabhrakūṭa-: tulyopamānāni grhāni yatra. Kailasatungaçikharapratimāni cānyāny: ābhānti dirghava- labhini savedikāni gandharvaçabdamukharāṇi niviṣṭacitra-: karmani lolakada- līvanaçobhitāni. 'The houses there, dazzling white and towering high, with their waving banners and tender maidens, are rivals of the cloud- pinnacles, snow-white, but stained by the lightning-creeper. Yet others match Kailasa's lofty peaks, with their long balconies and seats of stone, as they resound with music, are decked with pictures, and are adorned with groves of waving plantains.' 1 Gawroński, The Digvijaya of Raghu, pp. 1 ff.; Smith, EHI. p. 321, n. I. The term found in the epic was perhaps first used of the Hiung-nu of the 2nd cent. B. C. 3149 G