332 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [June, 1908. 
veaat ka has not yet been traced. This is rather slippery 
und to base a theory upon. 
ith the existence of more than one Vikramaditya, 1 attempts 
to determine the age of Kalidasa through him must be more or 
less unsatisfactory. But independent evidence of his age from 
the writings of the poet is not altogether unobtainable. I note a 
few below 
EvIpENCE oF THE Perstan Navy. 
We may take it that descriptions of people and countries con- 
form to belief current at the poet’s time. In Raghu, Canto IV. 
we read :— = = 
WRetaieat Fa a Waar | 
afearentaa frags aaa i 
From the west coast of India it was easy to cross over to Persia 
by sea. Yet Raghu _preferr e troublesome land route. 
Mallinatha explains ia preference, saying that sea-voyage was 
prohibited in the Sast: This could not be the reason, 
the prohibition is fo ‘the Kali Yuga only. The reason has to be 
sought in the simile. 
There are two ways in which people try to conquer the 
senses. The first is by satiety (Wraata ), the second by aware 
). The first is pleasant to practise, but it is not easy 
to obtain the desired result by means of it. The second, though 
troublesome to follow, is move likely to bring success. The land 
route is compared to ¥t#ata and implies the comparison of the sea- 
route to Wiwata. Hence the verse suggests: As the senses cannot 
be conquered by #ta, so the Persians cannot be conquered by the 
sea-route. The belief in the side rntape of the Persians at sea 
was therefore current at the time of the poet. We know sheet the 
Persian Navy was pees in the 5th century B.C. at the 
battle of Salamis. Considering the difficulty of cousin in 
those days, and the paces of the place of pare ne: it is possible 
that the news of this disaster took a very very lon e to reach 
India. But it is hard to believe that if our poet lived las Christ, 
he would still speak of the Persian Navy with awe. 
EvIDENCE OF STYLE. 
Kalidasa’s prose, as we have it in his dramas, is oe 
simple. Yet it is remarkably terse and vigorous. Absence of 



1 From the Kathasaritsagara we Jonrn that the Brihatkatha, which is 
supposed to have been written in the or 2nd century A.D., mentions a 
Vikramaditya of Pataliputra and poe one of Ujjayin’. The latter was a 
r e exterminator of the Mlechchhas (see ee 7th 
Lambaka, 4th Taranga, and the whole of the — Lambaka). e Raja- 
laldigier, refers to a Vikramaditya in the 2nd T: 

