1879.] G. A. Grierson — Some Farther Notes on Kalidasa. S3 



and introduced him to his daughter, as her future husband. The daughter, in 

 order to test Kalidasa's knowledge, asked him if he was learned in Sanskrit. 

 Kalidasa in his ignorance replied " ^T?T «nfisf ire," meaning, of course, 

 " TTT«f «TTf%." The daughter was highly offended at this ignorant answer 

 and told her parent that he ought to have known better than to bring for- 

 ward such a dolt as her future husband. But her father was not in the least 

 taken aback and replied that, by saying as she had just said, she had 

 shown her inferiority to Kalidasa in Sanskrit learning, in that she was not 

 able to understand the excellence of the idiom with which he spoke, — " For," 

 said he, " ' WT ' means ' knowledge,' '^t' means ' of us,' i. e., ' of me/ 

 ' *rrf%' moans ' there is not' ; * ^' is compounded of %f and ' ?^,' of 

 which e fif means ' Lakshmi,' and ' ^', ' like.' The whole phrase ' «j$T W[ 

 •nf% ^' therefore means * I am not as learned as Lakshmi.' "* On hearing 

 this explanation, the daughter was compelled to confess herself vanquished 

 and agreed to marry Kalidasa. After the performance of the ceremony, 

 Kalidasa hastened to meet his bride in the wedding-chamber ; but she, 

 being strong-minded, refused to allow any familiarities, until she had cate- 

 chised him in the soundness of his knowledge of the Sastras. Of course, 

 poor Kalidasa was utterly confounded and so incensed his wife that she 

 gave him a sound drubbing with a broom-stick. 



He fled from the chamber and passed the rest of the night wandering 

 about in a neighbouring wood, and crying with the pain of the broom-stick. 

 In the morning he resolved to deserve his wife, by at least learning to read 

 and write at a pdth-s'dld in Uchait. 



He attended the paths' aid regularly, but in vain. He was a bye-word 

 amongst the pupils and an example of stupidity continually held up to the 

 other boys by the guru. 



At Uchait, there is a famous Durgasthan situated in the midst of the 

 jangal : and one rainy stormy evening, his school-fellows dared Kalidasa to 

 visit it at midnight. Out of his innate stupidity, Kalidasa was perfectly 

 indifferent in the matter of ghosts and readily undertook to perform the 

 venturesome action. As it was necessary for him to show some token of 

 his visit, he smeared the palm of his hand with ashes, that he might leave 

 the impress of his hand on the image. 



Now, it must be observed, that it is the custom in Mithila, when any 

 one has committed a grievous sin, for the people to smear his face with 

 ashes and to parade him in this state before the town. Therefore it is a 

 " yat paro nasti" insult to cast ashes on the face of an innocent man. 



* I fear this story did not originally apply to Kalidasa, though I have heard it 

 attributed to him. I have met it in the Purusha Pariksha, but no mention of Kalidasa 

 is made in that version. 

 E 



