The Delhi University Publications No. 1 The Birth-Place of Kalidasa with Notes References and Appendices etc.

The whole of the KumarSambhava half of the.Meghaduta the first and the fourth acts of the Vikramorvashi the seventh act of the Sakuntala a portion of the first the second and the fourth cantos of the Raghuvansa almost all his works are full of descriptions of the Himalayas not on the eastern side but towards the north in or about Kashmir itself. [...] And we are glad to note that in the works of Kalidasa the location of the birch trees the 9:My& DAru.' trees and the musk -deer on the higher altitudes of the Kashmirian mountains is so exact and true; 27 and the domestication of the musk-deer the use of the bircbark as the writing material ; lakes tarns glades and forest—all are described with such accuracy's that they cannot be the re [...] The frequent use of the same name for the river in the drama also brings nato the same conclusionea The Mtilini of 'the Himalayas or the Kashmirian Marini with the adjoining /mama of Kanva who belongs to the family of Kasb.yapa—the founder of Kashmir is for :dramatic purposes located by Kalidasa on the tropical plains below within the range of Dushyanta's huntinground. [...] The Raghuvansa II 38 brings on the scene in the forest of the Vasishtha-Asrama of Kashmir the brute Kumbha who is the friend of Nikumbha in order to punish the elephants in other sense the Nagas who had won the wrath of Siva by doing harm to the fictitious tree. [...] In this connection the fiction of scratching the Deva-Darn trees that are so abundant in the forests of Kashmir might have been suggested to the mind of Kalidasaby the association of the term Ncigas denoting the inhabitants of Kashmir with the meaning : elephants or the Dvipas.