Numismatic Parallels of Kalidasa (An Old and Rare Book)

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Mr. Sivaramamurti, the talented Curator of the Madras Museum, has been concentrating his attention on various aspects of Kalidasa's poetic and dramatic achievements. Not only was Kalidas’s a supreme delineator of the play of human character and motive but he was an expert in the creation of dramatic situations. Above all, he was an unrivalled exponent in Sanskrit of every type of poetic rhythm and melody ranging in subject from simple and crystal-clear historical narrative to the elaborate description of natural phenomena and the moods of the human spirit. His Meghasandesa is perhaps the most perfect example, in all literature, of verbal felicity. It was not only as a poet and dramatist that Kalidasa was distinguished but, as is evident from the studies of Mr. Sivaramamurti, he, like all artists, inspired succeeding generations not only in his own chosen field but in other realms of thought as well.

Mr. Sivaramamurti has, in addition to a study of the unique Amaravati sculptures in the Madras Museum, written on sculpture as inspired by Kälidāsa as well as the epigraphical echoes of the poet. The present volume deals with Numismatical aspects and he seeks to provide examples to the reader of pictorial and poetic features of various coins, which have been inspired by the poet's stanzas. Some of the parallels indicated in the study, as in the cases of Kakapaksha and the picture of the King seated on a couch with a lyre on his lap, are not only ingenious but convincing.

I wish the author all success in his literary and archaeological efforts.