Raghuvamsha

Raghuvamsa

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

Raghuvamsha traces the dynasty of Raghu, ancestor of Rama, across nineteen cantos from ideal early kings through Rama's own story to a line of increasingly weak and disgraced successors, using dynastic decline itself to meditate on what makes kingship legitimate. Kalidasa's own base at Ujjain is a traditional association with the Gupta court, not independently confirmed.