84 G. A. Grierson—Some Further Notes on Kélidésa. [No. 1, 
Kalidasa arrived at the Durgasthdn 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 foolindeed. As he lifted his hand, the awful consequences of 
the action became evident to Durgé, 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, Kaliddsa 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 Pdnini, 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 Siih, the father of Rip- 
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 by 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 Kaliddsa 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— 
ay gata a a ar aca ate aw afawcdt wurfa | 
tia aia at a a water aie Aeheesealayia i 
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 
a a 
