This Is Amazing.

This is amazing.

As Requested: The Legend of Kalidasa (some of you know this but wait till the end)

Here's a story my father(who's also my sanskrit teacher) told me.

Long ago, in a Kingdom near Ujjain in India, a king had a beautiful princess- her name was Vidyottama. From a young age she displayed extraordinary talent and intelligence.

When she came of age, she made a demand that she would only marry a man who could out do her in vedic knowledge.

So the princes came and she set them impossible questions, and the rejected princes decided to trick her into marrying someone stupid.

So they came across an illiterate goatherd who was cutting the branch he was sitting on. They took him to the palace dressed as a prince.

When the princess started the debate, they defended him saying he was taking a vow of silence, and misinterpreted all his confused gestures to his benefit.

Vidyottama fell for it, and married him.

At night, he climbed off the bed and slept on the floor as he wasn't used to the bed. He started making his goat-calls to calm himself down. At this point Vidyottama realized who he was. She was mortified, but she thought, 'he is my wedded lord. I must help him'.

And she advised to to go to the temple of the goddess Kali and beg her for knowledge.

He went at midnight and sat inside the temple and closed the door. When the goddess returned at dawn, she asked, 'who's inside?' And he said, 'who's outside?' She told him that she was the goddess, and repeated her question. He told her, 'I am Dasa (servant), and I want knowledge' so she told him to thrust his tongue through the keyhole and drew a line on it, thus giving him knowledge.

From then on he was known as Kalidasa. He went back to Vidyottama and hailed her. She said to him, 'Asti kaschit vagvilasa?' Which is Sanskrit for 'It seems you've gotten literacy?' And he thanked her and walked east and started writing great epics, like the Abijnana Shakuntalam and Meghadootam and such.

HERE'S THE THING:

HE USED HER WORDS TO START OFF HIS EPICS.

In kumarasambhavam- ASTI uttarasyam disi devatatma..

In Meghadootam- KASCHIT yaksho..

Raghuvamsam- VAGARTHA eva samprukthau...

From Vidyottama's words 'Asti Kaschit Vagvilasa?'

I found this awesome.

@recapturingsky @ze-thoughts-are-stupid @mascara-massacres @asoulfulbeing @nerdyfuntheorist @thebountyhunterthatfellinlove