कालिदासः
Enter the world of
Kālidāsa.
A cloud carrying a message across India. A ring lost in a river. A mountain that is a god. This is a reader for the greatest poet of classical Sanskrit — where the original stays on the page and everything else is built around it.
Verse of the day · Abhijñānaśākuntalam
यास्यत्यद्य शकुन्तलेति हृदयं संस्पृष्टमुत्कण्ठया
कण्ठः स्तम्भितबाष्पवृत्तिकलुषश्चिन्ताजडं दर्शनम्।
वैक्लव्यं मम तावदीदृशमिदं स्नेहादरण्यौकसः
पीड्यन्ते गृहिणः कथं नु तनयाविश्लेषदुःखैर्नवैः॥
She goes today. The heart hears it and tightens; the throat thickens on tears refused; the eyes go blank with thinking. And I am a forest man, loving her only as a guest is loved. How then do fathers bear it?
Open this verse word by wordThe four works
मेघदूतम्
Meghadūta
The Cloud Messenger
An exiled yakṣa asks a passing monsoon cloud to carry a message of longing to his wife in the far city of Alakā.
अभिज्ञानशाकुन्तलम्
Abhijñānaśākuntalam
The Recognition of Śakuntalā
King Duṣyanta loves and forgets the forest-raised Śakuntalā; a lost ring and a curse stand between memory and recognition.
कुमारसम्भवम्
Kumārasambhava
The Birth of the War-God
Pārvatī wins Śiva through devotion and austerity, so that the son who will lead the gods may be born.
ऋतुसंहारम्
Ṛtusaṃhāra
The Gathering of the Seasons
Six seasons of the Indian year, each seen through the eyes of lovers — heat, rain, autumn, frost, winter and spring.
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Three translations
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