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1893.] H. M. Vidyabhushan — Study of Sanskrit in Geijlon. 
ful poetic genius of Kumaradasa, undertook a long and tedious journey 
from Central India to meet the royal bard in his native land. 
“ Kumaradasa who was a profound Sanskrit scholar and poet reigned 
nine years, and ended his life by throwing himself into the funeral 
pile of his friend Kalidasa.” The following lines from the Singhalese 
work called “ Perakumbasirita ” fully corroborate the above statement 
and further record the very high merits of the king as a poet : — 
Ejara Kiviyara pinin J 'analci-haranae mahalcavbendi, 
Kwmaradas rada Kdlidas nnm Kivindu Hata Siya dioipidi. 
i. e., “ The king Kumaradasa who with immortal poetic felicity 
composed the Janaki-harana and other great epics, sacrificed his life for 
the great Kalidasa.” 
An episode so interesting for the light it throws on the lives of 
Kumaradasa and Kalidasa demands our attention. The Singhalese story 
in brief is this : — 
The king was in the habit of frequenting the house of a woman 
to whom he was attached. On one of these visits he wrote on the wall 
the two lines — 
Padmdt padmam samudbhutam 
S'riiyate na cha drisyate. 
i. e., “ It is heard, but not seen, that a lotus flower is produced from 
another lotus flower.” 
Under them he wrote a line offering a reward to the person who 
shonld complete the verse. Kalidasa, then on a visit to the great royal 
bard whose poem he had seen in India, took lodgings that evening, as 
chance would have it, in the same house, and happening to see the lines 
on the wall, completed the verse by adding, — 
Bale tava muTchdmbhojdt 
Tvannetrendivaradvayam. 
i. e., “ 0 Maiden ! from the lotus of thy face have sprung up the 
two blue lilies of thine eyes.” 
The woman to whom perhaps the poet meant the lines as a com- 
pliment, influenced by the hope of obtaining the promised reward, mur- 
dered Kalidasa that night and hid his body. 
When the king visited her the following morning, she demanded 
the reward as the writer of the couplet. But Kumaradasa, detecting in 
them the genius of a ttue poet, would not believe her, but insisted on her 
disclosing the real author. On being threatened, the murderess confessed 
her crime. When the corpse of Kalidasa was brought out, the king’s 
