34 G. A. Grierson — Some Further Notes on Kalidasa. [No. 1, 



Kalidasa arrived at the Durgasthan at midnight, as agreed upon, and 

 prepared to leave the ashy impress of his hand on the face of the image of 

 Durga. No one but a fool would have dared to do this, — but then Kali- 

 dasa was a fool indeed. As he lifted his hand, the awful consequences of 

 the action became evident to Durga, who foresaw that in the morning her 

 own image would become the laughing-stock of all the country round ; she 

 therefore appeared before him in her proper form. Nothing deterred by 

 this, Kalidasa was reaching out his hand towards the face of the image in 

 spite of her entreaties, when to save her reputation she promised him any boon 

 he might ask for, on condition of his abstaining. He consented and asked to 

 be the wisest man in the world. She granted the boon, promising that he 

 should know the contents of every page which he should turn over during that 

 night, and that he should always be victorious in any public disputation in 

 which he might engage. Kalidasa thereupon hurried home and spent the 

 rest of the night in continually turning over all the leaves of all the books 

 in his guru's library. At daybreak he retired to rest, and while he was 

 yet asleep the pupils arrived and sat at the feet of the guru for their daily 

 instruction. No one took any notice of Kalidasa, as he remained asleep in 

 the room, till the guru, while instructing, made a slip in his Sanskrit. 

 Without awaking, Kalidasa instantly corrected it ; and then all, being 

 astonished at this precocity on the part of the fool of the Academy, joined 

 in waking him and in demanding the authority for the correction. Kalidasa, 

 on the spot, quoted the necessary sutra of Panini, a work which, till 

 then, he had never read. The astonishment of all can be imagined, and it 

 was not diminished when he described the miracle which was the source of 

 his knowledge. 



There is a story about Kalidasa current here, which is not unamusing. 

 It runs as follows. There was a king called S'ibay Sinh, the father of Eiip- 

 narayan, who was renowned for his patronage of learned men. As he 

 knew nothing himself, he invented a very simple way of judging the capa- 

 bilities of the crowds attracted to his court, — he valued pandits not \>j their 

 learning, but by their weight. The fatter and more unwieldy a Brahman 

 was, the more he was honoured, and the greater the rewards given him for 

 his learning. Before Kalidasa had made his name, he determined to attend 

 at the king's court. His friends dissuaded him, saying, " You will never 

 succeed there, for you are small and lean," but nevertheless he started, 

 repeating the following verse — 



That is to say, " Whether a king presents gifts or not, when he hears 

 a poet's voice (he will certainly give) ; just as, whether a bride will admit a 



