• But this argument may seem weak: " A passage in the-Raghuvamsa XIV. 40 has been erroneously adduced in support of the astronomical argument, as implying that eclipses of the moon are due to the shadow of the earth ;•; it really refers only to the spots in the moon as causedt in, accordance with the doctrine of the Puranas, by a reflection*
of the earth."
jf . • • ...
- His religion :—From the fact* that Kalidasa invariably-invokes Siva at the beginning of his works, it would be wrong to infer he was a strict Saivite. His veneration for Vishnu appears to have been even greater than that of Siva. For his works abound in passages extolling the attributes of Vishnu,, whom he seems to consider the head of the Hindu pantheon. In,language used by Vaishnava "works, he describes Vishnu as tjie deity of whom all the other Gods including Siva are but so many different manifestations (Ragbu X. 16—17). On the other hand Kumara-Sambhava II assigns to Brahma the same high attributes as those assigned to Vishnu which would show Kalidasa to be no more a Saiva than a Vaishnava or a Bramo, In one place he says all are one.
" The mythological notions of the author, as inferable from the benedictory stanzas opening the three plays, are rather adverse to a remote antiquity, as the worship of any individual deity as a Supreme being and with Bhakthi or Faith appears to bean innovation in Hindu ritual and theology of a comparatively modern period. At the same time, the worship of Saiva undoubtedly prevailed in the Dekhan at the commencement of the Christian era and Vikramaditya, the patron-of Kalidasa, is traditionally represented as devoted to Siva and' his Consort.—H. H. Wilson.ata.' |^ ^ 499) because he displays a knowledge of scientific astronomy borrowed from the Greeks.cter, whose approach is unannounced, J£ considered to be.