The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Birth of the War-God, by Kalidasa

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Title: The Birth of the War-God
A Poem by Kalidasa

Author: Kalidasa

Translator: Ralph T. H. Griffith

Release Date: April 12, 2010 [EBook #31968]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE
BIRTH OF THE WAR-GOD.

_A POEM BY KALIDASA._

Translated from the Sanskrit into English Verse

BY

RALPH T. H. GRIFFITH, M.A.
PRINCIPAL OF BENARES COLLEGE.

Second Edition.

LONDON:
TRUeBNER & CO., LUDGATE HILL.
1879.
[_All rights reserved._]

TRUeBNER'S
ORIENTAL SERIES.
V.

PREFACE.

Of the history of KALIDASA, to whom by general assent the KUMARA
SAMBHAVA, or BIRTH OF THE WAR-GOD, is attributed, we know but little
with any certainty; we can only gather from a memorial-verse which
enumerates their names, that he was one of the 'Nine Precious Stones'
that shone at the Court of VIKRAMADITYA, King of OUJEIN, in the half
century immediately preceding the Christian era.[A] As the examination
of arguments for and against the correctness of this date is not
likely to interest general readers, I must request them to rest
satisfied with the belief that about the time when VIRGIL and HORACE
were shedding an undying lustre upon the reign of AUGUSTUS, our poet
KALIDASA lived, loved, and sang, giving and taking honour, at the
polished court of the no less munificent patron of Sanskrit
literature, at the period of its highest perfection.

[A] [This date is much too ea