Kumarasambhava

Kumarasambhava

Kalidasa · c. AD 400-450 (the mainstream Gupta-era dating; Kalidasa's precise dates are contested across a span of several centuries) · Ujjain (India) · poetry

Kumarasambhava narrates the courtship of Shiva and Parvati and the birth of their son Kartikeya, needed to defeat a demon no god can kill, combining an extended, sensuous description of desire and asceticism with a cosmic rationale for the marriage of the ascetic and the erotic. Kalidasa's own base at Ujjain is a traditional association with the Gupta court, not independently confirmed.