PREFACE. It is a disgrace to Indians in general, and to lovers of Sanskrit language in particular, that the study of the works of Kalidasa-the greatest master- mind in Sanskrit Poetry and drama-has been so narrow that no book by an Indian Sanskrit scholar exists which in any worthy manner deals with the -great Poet as a whole and traces the rise and growth of his genius from the romanticism of his early plays to the magnificence, the splendour, the divine intention which mark his best works. European scholars such as Goethe, Schlegel, Hum- boldt, Sir Williams Jones, Sir Monier Williams & others being struck by his poetic genius, have be- stowed unstinted praise on him and have described him as the Indian Shakespeare. What is said about Shakespeare that"no age nor nation could easily in any branch of knowledge, exhibit another man in whom the riches of genius, natural endowments, -original talents, and versatility of power were so -great as in him", would equally apply to Kalidasa. Oriental scholars, like Dr. Bhau Daji, Vishnu Shastri Chiplunkar, S. P. Pandit, K. T. Telang, Pathak, Dr. Dhruv & others, no doubt, made a special study of some of his works and exhibited to the world his excellence as a great poet and dramatist. But the attention paid by our Indian scholars to Kalidasa is very scanty as compared with that paid by European scholars to Shakes- .
