Abstract

Howsoever overlaid with fantasies or encrusted with a mass of isolated events separated in time and place, a widely circulated literary tradition contains within itself a germ of historical truth and can be set aside on pain of doing serious harm to that truth. Thus it is with king Vikramaditya of Ujjain, the liberal patron of learning and arts, of whom the great poet of Kalidasa was a contemporary. This tradition forms the starting point and the basis of the numerous theories regarding the age of Kalidasa. Of these two rival theories may her be stated as those deserving of consideration. According to one held by most European scholars, the Vikramaditya of the tradition is no other than the Gupta king Candragupta II who assumed the title of Vikramaditya and succeeded his father Samudragupta 375 A.D. and Ujjain his capital.