• dramatic literature

  / Drama in Eastern cultures
• Indo-Aryan languages

  / Texts
• South Asian arts

  / Classical theatre
• India

  / Society and culture
• South Asian arts

  / The mahākāvya
• South Asian arts

  / The theatre

• Abhijnanashakuntala
• Shakuntala
• Kumarasambhava
• Malavikagnimitra
• Meghaduta
• Raghuvamsha
• Vikramorvashi

General works.

Satya Pal Narang, Kālidāsa Bibliography (1976), lists printed editions and secondary sources. S.N. Dasgupta and S.K. De, A History of Sanskrit Literature, Classical Period, 2nd ed., vol. 1 (1962), the two authors differ on Kālidāsa’s date, the former preferring 1st or 2nd century bc (pp. 728–739) and De defending the time of Candra Gupta II.

Special studies.

W. Ruben, Kalidasa: Die menschliche Bedeutung seiner Werke (1956; Kalidasa: The Human Meaning of His Works, 1957); Aurobindo Ghose, Kalidasa, 2nd ed. (1950).

See also the introductions to the various critical editions of Kālidāsa’s works published under the auspices of the Sāhitya Akademi, Delhi; and Rabindranath Tagore, Shipwreck (1906).

Plays.

Abhijñānaśakuntala, major critical edition by S.K. Belvalkar (1965; Eng. trans. by M.B. Emeneau, 1962); Vikramorvaśī, ed. by H.D. Velankar (1961; Eng. trans. by E.B. Cowell, 1851); Mālavikāgnimitra, ed. by F. Bollensen (1879; Eng. trans. by E. Gerow, 1972).

Poems.

Raghuvaṃśa, ed. by S.P. Pandit (1869–74; French trans. by L. Renou, 1928); Kumārasambhava, ed. by Ganapati Sastri (1913–14; Eng. trans. by R.T.H. Griffith, 2nd ed., 1878); “Meghadūta,” ed. by E. Hultzsch (1911; Eng. trans. by F. and E. Edgerton, 1964; and by Leonard Nathan, 1976); “Ṛtusaṃhāra,” ed. by A. Scharpé (1958; Eng. trans. by G.R. Mathiers, 1929).

All the works of Kālidāsa (including the “Ṛtusaṃhāra”) have been edited by A. Scharpé and were published in four volumes of Rijksuniversiteit te Gent: Werken uitgegeven door de Faculteit van de Wijsbegeerten Letteren (vol. 117, 120, 122, and 134). For the “Ṛtusaṃhāra,” this constitutes the only modern critical edition. All the works are available in excellent but not critical (by Western standards) editions, published by the Nirnayasagara Press, Bombay.