Talk:Kalidasa

Unsourced

• "Nirasha Tarubara Purata Bhaage!"

[There was a complaint by other scholars, why Chandragupta treats Kalidasa so differently. So once, the king asked the scholars to describe a piece of dry wood lying in front of them. All of them said "Sushkam Kasthyam Tishthati Agre". When Kalidasa came, he said "Nirasha Tarubara Purata Bhaage!" The poetic interpretation and the sweet sounding words made everybody realize the speciality of Kalidasa.]

Quotes without Sanskrit

• We have watered the trees that blossom in the summer-time. Now let's sprinkle those whose flowering-time is past. That will be a better deed, because we shall not be working for a reward.
  • Shakuntala, Act I; translation of Arthur W. Ryder

• Be brave, and check the rising tears
  That dim your lovely eyes.
  • Shakuntala; translation of Arthur W. Ryder

• The tear drop that once stood
  trembling on your lower lip
  -and I watched uncaring, lost in delusion-
  while it still clings to your gently-curving lashes,
  I shall now wipe away, my beloved,
  to free myself of remorse.
  • Shakuntala

Unconfirmed

Quotations found here [1] whose accuracy I have been unable to confirm.

• सर्वस्तरतु दुर्गाणि सर्वे भद्राणि पश्यतु।
  सर्वः कामानवाप्नोतु सर्वः सर्वत्र नन्दतु ॥
  • May all cross their difficulties. May all see good and auspicious things. May all get their wishes fulfilled. May everyone everywhere be happy.
    • Vikramōrvaśīyam
      • Cf. सर्वस्तरतु दुर्गाणि सर्वे भद्राणि पश्यतु। सर्व कामनावाप्रोतु सर्व सर्वत्र नन्‍्दतु / "May all cross their difficulties. May all see good and auspicious things. May all get their wishes fulfilled; and may everyone everywhere be happy. That is our philosophy." Quoted as a "shloka" but without attribution in the Journal of Parliamentary Information, vol. 62, no. 4 (Mew Delhi: Lok Sabha Secretariat, Dec. 2016) p. 521

• यदेवोपनतं दु:खात् सुखं तद्रसवत्तरं।
  निर्वाणाय तरुच्छाया तप्तस्य हि विशेषतः ॥
  • The happiness one gets after a period of grief is all the more enjoyable. One who is afflicted by the intense heat of the Sun better enjoys the shade given by a tree than one who is not exposed to the Sun’s rays.
    • Vikramōrvaśīyam

• हेम्नः संलक्ष्यते ह्यग्नौ विशुद्धि: श्यामिकाऽपि वा ।
  • The purity or otherwise of gold can be tested only when it is put through the fire.
    • Raghuvaṃśa

• प्रायः प्रत्ययमादत्ते स्वगुणेषूत्तमादरः
  • Respect or recognition by men of noble character instills into one a belief in one’s own good qualities.
    • Kumārasambhava

• आपन्नार्तिप्रशमनफलाः सम्पदो ह्युत्तमानाम्
  • Noble souls use their wealth for the purpose of wiping out the misery and suffering of those overcome by misfortune.
    • Kumārasambhava

• कस्यात्यन्तं सुखमुपनतं दु:खमेकान्ततो वा
  नीचैर्गच्छत्युपरि च दशा चक्रनेमिक्रमेण
  • There is none who is always happy and comfortable and none who is always unhappy and miserable. Happiness and sorrow alternate like the rim of a wheel which goes up and down.
    • Kumārasambhava

• भवन्ति नम्रास्तरव फलोद्गमैः
  नवांबुभिर्भूमिविलंबिनो घनाः
  अनुद्धताः सत्पुरुषा समृद्धिभिः
  स्वभाव एवैष परोपकारिणाम्
  • Trees laden with fruits bend down so that people may pluck and enjoy the fruits. Clouds laden with water come down in the form of rain cooling the earth and watering plants and trees.
    In the same way noble men do not become conceited when fortune embraces them but use their wealth to help others. This is the nature of persons who are always eager to be of help to fellow humans.
    • Abhijñānaśākuntalam

IOHANNVSVERVS (talk) 01:00, 27 July 2016 (UTC)

More

• स्रजमपि शिरस्यन्धः क्षिप्तं धुनोत्यहिशंकया
  • One who is blind throws away even a garland of flower placed on his head, thinking it is a snake.
    • Abhijñānaśākuntalam (The Sign of Shakuntala) -- Ficaia (talk) 18:14, 31 August 2025 (UTC)

Exhortation to the Dawn

• Listen to the Exhortation of the Dawn!
  Look to this Day!
  For it is Life, the very Life of Life.
  In its brief Course lie all the
  Varieties and Realities of your Existence:
  The Bliss of Growth,
  The Glory of Action,
  The Splendour of Beauty;
  For Yesterday is but a Dream
  And Tomorrow is only a Vision;
  But Today well lived makes
  Every Yesterday a Dream of Happiness,
  And every Tomorrow a Vision of Hope.
  Look well therefore to this Day!
  Such is the Salutation of the Dawn!

Attributed to Kalidasa some places; seems dubious. IOHANNVSVERVS (talk) 01:04, 27 July 2016 (UTC)

Unquotable

• A factor of uncertainty in precessional chronology is that the equinox moves very slowly (1° in nearly 71 years), so that any inexactness in the Vedic indications and anyambiguity in the constellations’ boundaries makes a difference of centuries. This occasional inexactness might, for example, be enough to neutralize the shift of ca. five centuries in Kalidâsa’s date, who could be dated to ca. 100 BC on narrowly interpreted astronomical grounds, rather than the conventional date of ca. AD 400... The great playwright and poet wrote that the monsoon rains started at the beginning of the sidereal month of Asâdha, which was most accurate in the last centuries BC: “We can, therefore, say that about 2000 years have elapsed since the period of Kâlidâsa”, according to P. V. Holay. This implicit astronomy-based chronology of Kalidasa could be enlisted as evidence for a higher chronology of the imperial Guptas, at whose court he supposedly worked. That unconventional chronology has been proposed by K.D. Sethna... However, shifting Kâlidâsa to ca. 100 BC would not necessarily have such drastic implications, as philologists had already questioned his synchronism with the Guptas on other grounds, arguing that he fits better in the Shunga or immediately post-Shunga age, which happens to be just around 100 BC. So, either way, the playwright’s birth date can be accommodated into the prevailing chronological paradigm.
  • P. V. Holay, as quoted in Koenraad Elst, Asterisk in Bharopiyasthan (2007) -- Not memorable, and seems to contradict the Wikipedia article. Most of the quote is not by Holay anyway. Ficaia (talk) 18:14, 31 August 2025 (UTC)