kālidāsa | कालिदास | kAlidAsa
kāli-dāsa | कालि-दास | m. (fr. kālī | काली |, the goddess Durgā, and dāsa | दास |, a slave, the final of kālī | काली | being shortened; cf. Pāṇ. vi, 3, 63), N. of a celebrated poet (author of the Śakuntalā, Vikramorvaśī, Mālavikāgnimitra, Megha-dūta, and Raghu-vaṃśa; described as one of the nine gems of Vikramāditya's court, and variously placed in the first, second, third, and middle of the sixth century A.D.; the name is, however, applied to several persons, especially to two others who may have written the Nalodaya and Śruta-bodha [hence the N. is used to denote the number, ‘three’], and seems, in some measure, to have been used as an honorary title).