🇮🇳 Kalidasa

Greatest Sanskrit poet and dramatist; wrote Shakuntala, Meghaduta and Raghuvamsha

India 400 Indian Literature

📖 Key Facts

Greatest classical Sanskrit writer; probably lived during the Gupta Empire (4th–5th century)

Abhijnanasakuntalam (Shakuntala): recognised by Goethe as the ideal of world drama

Meghaduta: 111-verse poem where a yaksha sends a message to his beloved via a cloud messenger

Shakuntala was the first Indian literary work translated into English (1789) by William Jones