Kalidasa in China

The author reassesses Louis Finot’s claim that the Sanskrit poet Kalidasa was known in China. Finot based his argument on an unnumbered palm‑leaf page found in a Buddhist monastery in Zhejiang province which contains a story about Kalidasa and the opening stanza of his three kavyas. The present article argues that no firm inference can be drawn from this single leaf: the page was written in Bengal in the thirteenth century and accidentally inserted into a Chinese manuscript. It therefore indicates Bengali knowledge of Kalidasa, not Chinese reception. The author summarises the story, which recounts how Vararuci tricked a princess into marrying a cowherd who later became the poet Kalidasa after receiving a divine pill. Versions of this tale appear in Taranatha’s history and the Prabandhacintamani and are set in the courts of Bhimagukla or Bhojadeva. The article argues that the palm‑leaf version mentioning Bhojadeva is more original. It concludes that although Kalidasa’s legends were widespread in India, there is no evidence that they were known in China; the leaf merely shows that an itinerant Bengali manuscript ended up in a Chinese collection.

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