By London swaminthan

Seven Books—40,000 words—93 commentaries for three of his works—he beat Shakespeare in writing poetry+ dramas+ Epics+  stotras (Shyamaladandakam) and usage of similes. He covered the history of 29 kings in Raghuvamsam. He used 1250 similes! He gives a description of a vast geographical area from Iran to Indonesia! He called the Himalayas “the measuring rod of earth” even before George Everest told the world the height of Everest Peak!!! An amazing poet the world has ever produced. Read the incredible statistics below.

“ Kalidasa’s achievements in poetry and drama are great. Not only was Kalidasa a supreme delineator of the play of human character and motive but he was an expert in the creation of dramatic situations. Above all, he was an unrivalled exponent in Sanskrit of every type of poetic rhythm and melody ranging in subject from simple and crystal clear historical narrative to the elaborate description of natural phenomena and the moods of the human spirit. His Meghasandesa is perhaps the most perfect example, in all literature, of verbal felicity”—C P Ramaswami Aiyar

“ The occasional echoes in Gatha Sapta Sati of ideas in Kalidasa’s poems and dramas e.g. GSS 14, 44, 47, 232, 251 etc. would lead to the conclusion that Kalidasa belonged to the 1^st century BCE and enjoyed the patronage of Vikramaditya  who started  Vikrama Era 56 years before the Christian era. Vikramaditya was referred to in the GSS sloka 465.

–Gathakosa translated by M V Patwardhan, 1988

“ One is bound to remain in bewildering wonderment when one thinks of marvellous art of Kalidasa, the supreme poet of senses, of aesthetic beauty, of sensuous emotion, the consummate artist profound in conception and wonderful in expression. The vision, the majestic and vigorous style, the warm humanism, the wealth of striking similes, the vividness of thought and fancy, the expressive and happy descriptions, all these and very many more easily and undoubtedly mark out his poems as perfect patterns of exquisite poetic grace and charm.—V.S.Venkata Ragavacharya in his  Foreword to Raghuvamsam.

Picture: Scene from Shakuntalam, Indian Postage Stamp

Greater than Shakespeare

“ It is not often that a great dramatist is also a supreme lyrical poet. Shakespeare is, of course,  the most celebrated instance of such a combination. It is rarer still to find, along with the gift of lyrical poetry, the capacity to produce epics or narrative poems of authentic excellence. Kalidasa has, however triumphantly achieved this triune greatness”.

“ In the Rithusamhara, he has given us a marvellous descriptions of the Indian seasons and his Meghasandesa is, in my view,  the finest example of descriptive poetry interwoven with one of the greatest love poems of the world”.

“His work as a dramatist has evoked worldwide admiration and the name of Goethe  is enrolled among his devotees.

In Kumarasambhava and Raghuvamsa, he has essayed a most comprehensive task and the latter is the memorable example of a historical narrative containing descriptive and poetic passages of transcendent merit.

It is not as well known as it should be that Kalidasa was one of those who dreamt centuries ago of a unified and powerful India”.

— Sir C P Ramaswamy Aiyar

Picture: Scene from Meghaduta

Kumara Sambhavam

17 Sargas—1000 slokas

20 commentaries

Ragu Vamsam

19 Sargams—1569 slokas

29 kings

33 commentaries

Rtu Samharam

6 divisions —144 stanzas

Megadhutam

121 stanzas

40 commentaries

How many words did Shakespeare know?

In his collected writings, Shakespeare used 31,534 different words. 14,376 words appeared only once and 846 were used more than 100 times..

This means that in addition the 31,534 words that Shakespeare used, there were approximately 35,000 words that he knew but didn’t use. Thus, we can estimate that Shakespeare knew approximately 66,534 words.

According to one estimate the average speaker of English knows between 10,000-20,000 words. (This is taken from a website)

How many words did Kalidasa Know?

Now it is my guess. Kalidasa composed a total of 2570 slokas +245 longer stanzas.

At the rate of ten words per sloka he would have used 25700 words for Kumarasambhavam and Raghuvamsam. For Ruthusamharam and Meghadutam, he would have used 20 words per stanza and in total he would have used 144+121X20=5300 words. This makes a total of 31,000 words for four books.

If we give his three dramas another 9000 words (3000 each), it will make a grand total of 40000 words.

If Kalidasa used 40,000 words for seven books he would have used 211,429 words for 37 books if he has followed Shakespeare. But still we may not know how many new words who would have used. We need to work like English people to get better statistics!

I have already posted seven articles proving that Kalidasa lived before Sangam Tamil period, i.e in the first century BCE. More to come.

Please read Kalidasa. Anyone who wants to know about Indian literature and culture must study Kalidasa. I recommend Chandra Rajan’s translation of Kalidasa.

For more of the same, contact swami_48@yahoo.com or Swaminathan.santanam@gmail.com

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