Towns in Kalidāsa’s Kāvyas and the Thesis of Urban Decay

Abstract

This essay tries to look at the way in which Kālidāsa approaches towns in his three kāvyas: Meghadūta, Kumārasaṁbhava and Raghuvaṁśa. Most of the descriptions are stereotypical, using stock phrases and formulaic expressions, some of them straight from texts like the Arthaśāstra. However, there is one city that is described somewhat realistically—Ayodhya, which was deserted following Rāma’s departure. Both these—the stereotypes of prosperous towns and the realism of a decayed town—fit into the pattern of ‘urban decay’ presented by historians on the basis of archaeological evidence, a landmark in Indian historiography.